Violeta’s Story
Violeta is a junior at Orangewood’s charter high school, The Academy. She is smart, athletic, involved and popular. Upon first meeting her, you might assume she has always been this way, but that isn’t the case.
Violeta’s parents got divorced when she was young, and her mother moved Violeta and her siblings out of state. As the children grew up, Violeta’s mother bounced around jobs in different cities and different states. Violeta attended over 15 schools elementary and middle schools. Although she was always smart, Violeta never put much effort into her schooling. “I was a ghost student,” she explains. “I went to school and then I went home, and I didn’t do anything else.” She had never had any interest in participating in clubs, sport, or student government. She never imagined she could have a bright future ahead of her. “I used to think that because I’m Hispanic and I come from a low-income family, my future was set for me: I would finish high school and then go to work in a fast food restaurant.”
After only Violeta’s first month at The Academy, everything changed. “I fell in love with everything about this school,” she explains. “The teachers, the students, the environment, it was all just great.” She began not only to apply herself to her classes, but also to get involved with school outside of class. She joined sports teams, started a community service club, and started tutoring her peers in math. She went on a fieldtrip to Chapman University, and for the first time began to consider going to college.
Today, Violeta is the top student in her class, with a 4.37 GPA. She is taking four AP classes this year. She is Student Body President and President of the “Helping Hands” community service club. She is the captain of the girls’ volleyball and soccer teams, and she also plays on the girls’ softball team. She wants to go to college to study biomedical engineering, and her first choice school is Stanford. “The Academy shined a light on a future I never knew I could have,” Violeta says. “I’m doing all these things now that I never saw myself doing. Thanks to The Academy, I’m creating my own future now. I couldn’t be more proud to call The Academy my school.”