VALLEY VISTA HIGH SCHOOL:

Christina Tran

High school wasn’t always a smooth road for Christina Tran. But for the last four years, it was the steadiest part of her life.

The 17-year-old spent her high school career bouncing from one foster home to another, stopping in between at Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange, while taking classes at the Huntington Beach Union High School District’s alternative campus. She came to Valley Vista, she said, after being kicked out of another school due to absences, and when she started at her new campus, things didn’t look much more promising.

“I actually was really unmotivated throughout my freshman and sophomore years due to a lot of family issues,” Christina said. “I would ditch school a lot and never go. But when I did go, I did well.”

Enter Valley Vista Principal Kerry Clitheroe, who had the struggling teen sign a contract promising to apply herself. By her junior year, she was attending class every day. Now, Christina is working a part-time job and planning to attend Santiago Canyon College in the fall to study psychology.

— Michael Miller