This year Taft High seems to be losing a lot of things, and one of which will be Jacob White (Jake),  who has been working for Taft High since he was a sophomore in high school (1995). Jake has been with Taft high for so long he feels like he is “moving out of his parent’s basement.” He will be transferring to Bakersfield in order to be a programmer for a health company. Jake has a lot of memories here at Taft High; he remembers when “all servers crashed and he had to fix it at 2 a.m. before the 1st day of summer school.”

Jake has been a very important part of Taft High ever since he first attended the school. At 15 years old, he set up the first Gmail and web server, which made Taft High one of the first high schools to have them at the time. Jake has contributed so much to the school and has made such a huge, positive impact on the students and faculty. Taft High was his first real job, and it became his full-time job in 2005. The amount of times Jake has saved the ‘technological’ day is countless. The school would not be where it’s at to this day without Jake’s computer skills.

It is a sad thing that Taft High will be losing such an important person. He will be missed by so many co-worker (turned friends) and students who have had the opportunity to get to know him. Jake is “a great dude; easily one of my best friends. I’ve learned a lot from him. It is bittersweet because he is going to do something he loves, but he will be missed.” said Joe Pittman (from I.T.). It was very noticeable that Jake always, “…went of his way to fix our problems and genuinely cared about his job.” reflected Mr. Greer. Taft High definitely will not be the same without Jake around to help out with his computer skills, but everyone supports his decision to move on and do the job that he loves, and one he does so well.