When Canyons School District was established in 2009, many of the graduating class of 2026 were just one year old. They’ve grown with the District and their peers — and as they ponder and embrace the future, inspiration for what comes next can be found in the examples set by CSD’s growing ranks of alumni.
Today, Canyons alumni are helping guide missions aboard the International Space Station, appearing on Netflix, publishing books, leading businesses, serving their communities, and pursuing dreams once imagined in kindergarten classrooms.
“Think bigger, fail smarter, work harder,” says Canyons alumnus TJ Neyman of the motto he lives by.
“It’s something we say at NASA,” says the ISS Operations Controller. “Think big, we come up with these amazing ideas, but we’re only human. We know we’re going to fail at some point. When it does happen, we can learn from it and move forward, then continue to work harder, do everything you can and put your best foot forward.”
Neyman, who graduated from Corner Canyon High as Valedictorian in 2018, says he owes his career to his time in Canyons and the teachers who encouraged him to go after his dreams.
“Yes, I worked hard, I’m giving it my all, but it would not be possible without my kindergarten teacher, my math and science teachers. It’s definitely come full circle. We’re all in this together and we can all do great things because of the people around us,” says Neyman, who is currently continuing his studies in mechanical and aerospace engineering and music at Brigham Young University while working on the Space Launch System. “I learned how to love learning. Once you graduate, you’re not done learning. You may be done with classes, but you’re never done learning, I learn every single day here.”
He stressed the importance of training both sides of the brain and encouraged students to find hobbies and study art and music as well as the critical fields, such as science and math. “The first person to land on Mars, or live on Mars, or build a rocket to get us to Mars, could be in this classroom right now,” he said during a recent Career Day presentation that his own sister, Ellie was able to attend.
Brighton High alum Emma Miller has her sights on a Hollywood brand of stars, and is well on her way to the Walk of Fame, having just made her debut on the award-winning Netflix show, “Love on the Spectrum.”
The show often gives audiences a glimpse of young adults on the autism spectrum who enter the dating pool with some hesitation. But Emma says her journey toward confidence began years earlier, while attending middle school in Canyons.
“I did talent shows, performed, … faced some heartbreak, but in a way, it made me stronger,” she said on a recent episode of the Connect Canyons podcast.
Her confidence grew at Brighton, where she acted in school plays and was Homecoming royalty in 2020. While the first days may have been full of worry about being able to find a group of friends, she said she quickly connected with her peers.
“She felt like she was really a part of things at Brighton,” says Emma’s mom, Liz Miller. “She had a lot of opportunities and a lot of teachers that really saw her talents and her abilities.”
This year’s graduating class of high school seniors have equally ambitious goals.
Brighton senior, Mary Ann Jensen, has had literary aspirations since she was 11 years old, which is also when she published the first of seven books she’s written.
“I think realizing when I was so young that it doesn’t matter how old I am, I can achieve my dreams if I put my mind to something, then I can achieve it,” Jensen says. “That’s really helped to drive me through the rest of my life in all of my accomplishments and everything that I’m involved with.”
Jensen made a point of taking full advantage of every opportunity at school that piqued her interest, from serving as Speech Captain leading to her being named one of six finalists for National Student of the Year in the National Speech and Debate Association to being on the national Honor Roll, a Sterling Scholar, and achieving a Seal of Biliteracy. If that weren’t enough, she’s competing in the Miss Utah scholarship program in June, all because she met fellow Brighton alum and the reigning Miss Utah, Paris Matthews, who told her she should compete.
“Because she had that belief in me, she helped inspire me,” she says. “So it’s kind of cool that Canyons School District brought us together in the first place.”
After the competition, Jensen will attend Brigham Young University in the fall where she will study English in hopes of moving from self-publishing to being published with a publishing agency.
For today’s graduates, the advice from Neyman, Miller, and Jensen is simple: Work hard, have fun, and believe in yourself.
I would encourage everyone to keep working, to keep pushing, to work harder, and then to give back,” says Neyman. “When you do accomplish, when you do become something, not to forget the people and the programs and everything that supported you, and to do what you can to give back to them. That’s been arguably the most fulfilling part of my short career already at NASA.”
Says Miller: “You never know what’s out there. You never know where you can end up.”
