Program founder and event facilitator Karena Zermeno also represents one of the sponsors, Altura Credit Union. Backpacks filled with gifts, a Student of the Month award, certificates of recognition and much more were donated by the program’s sponsors to the award recipients. Each student was invited to the podium to share their personal story, past challenges and future goals with a room full of supporters that included principals, teachers, peers, family members and community and school district dignitaries.

March’s students of the month from Hemet Unified School District schools are Priscila Aguilar, Caiden Bonney, Halley Jade Pareja, Katelyn Sonnier and Jamie Urtiz. San Jacinto Unified honorees for March are Raider Nunez and Soleil Sandoval.

Hemet Unified School District

Priscila Aguilar from West Valley High School has had French as an elective with teacher Sarah Chapman all four years and will be taking her International Baccalaureate exam in French this year. Chapman said she was pleased to nominate her student to honor her character. Priscila has taken almost every AP and IB class offered at her school and has been active in ASB and tennis. Her goal is to major in microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at UCLA. “Never lose sight of your dreams; everything will become possible with determination,” Priscila said.

Western Center Academy’s Caiden Bonney lives in Menifee and has been a student at Hemet’s WCA since seventh grade. His teacher, Logan Wolny, said he is an outstanding student who is supportive of everyone and is always doing things for the betterment of the school, staff and fellow students. Caiden said, “Five years ago, my entire family’s life changed forever.” His mother was struck by a truck as she walked home from her daughter’s school. She was in a coma and on a ventilator and required full-time care for more than a year. She had multiple skull fractures and brain bleeds and resultant seizures. His father’s job as a firefighter meant much of the household responsibilities fell on Caiden. But he didn’t let that stand in the way of his academics or his pursuit of activities outside of school, such as teaching martial arts to young children.

“I learned so many life lessons during that time,” Caiden said. “You have to treasure every moment you have in this world with the people you love. You have to work hard no matter what challenges you might face.” He has taken inspiration from his mother’s road to recovery and plans to take that to college where he will major in engineering. “I am very lucky to have someone set such an amazing example for me to follow. Life can change in an instant so don’t let one day pass you by,” Caiden said.

Halley Jade Pareja is Tahquitz High School’s choice for March. In her spare time, she practices musical instruments and paints commissioned portraits for people. She is her school’s drum major and is part of the JrROTC program where she initiated a “Coats for Kids” coat drive for needy students. She was nominated by her math teacher, Jeff Prickett. “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% of how you respond and react to it,” he said. “All the students here today have learned that lesson.”

Halley Jade said, “I lived my whole life in an unsupportive and lonesome home, always being put down, neglected and only receiving acceptance through my own academic performance. My father left the country. I’d completely given up on school, my friends and myself at this point, eventually leading to my own hospitalization.” That experience gave her the opportunity to realize her life didn’t need to be like it was and she started getting involved in school. To ensure inclusion and unification within her school, she became a mental health peer guide. She plans to attend college for music and jazz performance.

“The biggest life lesson I will be taking with me is that it is better to wish something would have worked instead of regretting the absence of trying,” Halley Jade said.

Hemet High School singled out Katelyn Sonnier to be recognized this month. A four-year ASB member serving two years as class president, she is currently the Commissioner of Pep. She is an accomplished varsity volleyball player all four years, serving as captain for a second time. She’s also an amazing student according to Lauren Lloyd, her college and career counselor. She said Katelyn is an all-around great student but she wanted to focus on something that can’t be seen on her transcripts, her big goals.

Katelyn entered Hemet High after having attended Idyllwild School, also within the HUSD, which serves grades K-8 and has less than 50 students per grade level. Being on her school’s volleyball team and also playing travel ball has led to many sacrifices as she spends 15-20 hours a week for practice and tournament play for the sport she loves. “Juggling all this can be difficult at times,” she said. “My parents have devoted so much time in supporting me and my two younger brothers.”

She plans to major in kinesiology to become a physical therapist or teacher while attending San Francisco State University, a Division 2 college where she will also continue playing volleyball. The lessons she will take with her are hard work, perseverance and determination. In 2018, she was impacted by the death of friend Lilah Whitney, 15, whose car accident she came upon while in the mountain community of Idyllwild. It made her realize not to take anything for granted and to live life to the fullest and “be the best version of myself.”

Hamilton High’s Jamie Urtiz is a journalism student who treats everyone as an equal. Her teacher, Julie Cope, said she sees the best in everyone. She lifts up her friends constantly and maintains nearly straight-As while working at her family’s local Mexican restaurant and being involved in extracurricular activities.

Born in Escondido, Jamie plans to move in with her cousin in National City to attend college. She said during her happy childhood she often looked up at the moon with dreams typical of most young girls. As she grew up, she began to worry about what others thought of her and that shut out her own voice.

“The one thing that was the start of changing me was my first day of coming to Hamilton in middle school,” Jamie said, adding that she was not judged and felt welcomed. “I have come to love myself for who I am, who I was and who I hope to become. You can find yourself by being true to yourself.”

San Jacinto Unified School District

Raider Nunez from San Jacinto High School started to excel when he got involved with sports. His PE teacher and coach, Jeremiah Budnovich, said there are core values in the football program that he tries to instill in young athletes. “The most difficult to achieve is integrity,” he said. “The way we define integrity in our program is ‘doing the right thing even when no one is around.’ Two traits that help identify the capabilities of an individual are effort and intelligence. We demand quite a bit of both, physically and mentally. The effort I have seen Raider go through is remarkable.”

Raider said he didn’t used to have many future plans but now has decided he wants to start his own business. He and his siblings were being raised by their father and he said things started to fall apart when his mother tried to come back into his life when he was 13. Up until then he said he was happy and involved with church and other positive activities. After his mother left again, it caused Raider to react negatively by getting involved with alcohol and crime and exhibiting violent behavior. After he got into a fight at school in his freshman year, he said he looked himself in the mirror and took a couple of weeks to release all the pent-up emotions he had. When he returned to campus, he met with his PE teacher who told him he could see his potential and that opened his eyes. “God took me by the hand and gave me strength. No matter what situation you’re going through, God is there for you,” Raider said.

Mountain View High School chose Soleil Sandoval as its outstanding student for March. Her math teacher, Karin Lee, said she has an “energy and spirit that uplifts and inspires others; she truly wants to learn.” She is involved with yearbook, helps maintain the school’s sustainable garden and is an active member of the Mental Health Matters club. Soleil said she is not the same person she was a year ago. “I want to thank Miss Lee, the teacher who taught from her heart and never from a book. I would like to personally thank you for taking my hand and opening my mind and for truly just being a kind human being.”

“I’m a good person with a huge heart,” Soleil said. “I might be young, but I have big dreams to try and make this world a better place. The future I envision for myself is bright and happy. A year ago I told myself I would be nothing, a high school dropout. My life was hectic and I was in a very dark place. I had to find a purpose to want to try and to say goodbye to all the gray days.”

She made the decision to change completely for the better for the people around her but most importantly for herself. “The most important thing I’ve learned at such a young age is that life isn’t about how much you can take until you break, it’s about how much you can break, take and keep moving forward.”

Closing remarks

HUSD Superintendent Christi Barrett said her takeaway from the morning was that almost every speaker learned that life is not a dress rehearsal and that every day is new.

SJUSD superintendent Dave Pyle said no matter what chapter of your life you are entering, you need to define your passion. He said if you find something that you can laugh and cry about within 10 seconds of each other, you’ve found your passion.

Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Edwin Gomez told the students he was impressed by their tenacity and their profound lessons. “Hope never gets old; mercies and blessings are new every day,” he said. “Thank you to leadership for having faith and belief in our students.”

For more information, www.studentofthemonth.net.

Diane A. Rhodes | Contributed

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Gamma Theta, our local Hemet/San Jacinto Chapter of the International Society of Delta Kappa Gamma (DKG), an organization that promotes professional and personal growth of women educators, proudly announces their 2021-2022 awards.

Melinda West-Melrose received the Outstanding Service to Chapter award. She joined Gamma Theta in 2009, became involved with the hospitality committee and for the last two years served as Vice President. During these two years, she scheduled speakers and catered for meetings, hosted Board meetings at her house, and submitted news items to the local newspaper.

Melinda taught in the Hemet Unified Schools from 1986 to 2003. She began as a substitute teacher and then was hired as a full-time teacher. She taught in first grade and kindergarten. During her time with Hemet Unified, she was a bilingual representative; was active in the School Site Council at two schools; a California State University student’s mentor teacher, and an HTA representative. In addition, she was a Fruitvale Elementary Outstanding Teacher of the Year. During her career, she strived to have her students learn and be successful and integrated academics with fun, memorable experiences. Her outside interests include cooking and entertaining at home, eclectic book reading, gardening, traveling and loves riding extreme roller coasters.

Gayle Mattson received their Professional Service Award for her 38 years of active involvement in our community’s educational services.

She has been both a teacher and administrator in Hemet Unified Schools. She taught at Hemet Elementary, Acacia Middle School, West Valley High School and was a leader in the Hemet Teachers Association. She opened Dartmouth Middle School as Vice Principal, was Vice Principal at Acacia Middle School and was their Principal. Gayle was also the Coordinator for Child Welfare and Attendance at the District Office.

During her 13 years in DKG, she served four years as Treasurer, five years as the Ed Law/Policy Chair and has been a DKG bill evaluator for three years. This March will also be her fourth year speaking to Gamma Theta about famous women during Women’s History Month.

Gayle has been Division 33 President in the California Retired Teachers Association for eight years and will retire after this next two-year term. She also serves in Area IX as a Government Relations Representative in CalRTA, working with legislative advocates and meeting with legislators.

In higher education, Gayle taught in the master’s program at Azusa Pacific University in the English as a Second Language education program at MSJC and currently supervises student teachers from Cal State University, San Bernardino. In her spare time this year, she added being a weekly group leader for Bible Study Fellowship International. Our valley has benefited greatly from her dedicated service in education.

Linda Rogers received this year’s award for Outstanding Public Service in our community. She has recently retired from serving as Executive Director of Valley Restart Shelter for 18 years.

The Shelter is a structured emergency shelter (90-day program) for families with dependents. The transition from homelessness to greater self-sufficiency and independence has been successful for more than 80% of its nearly 200 participants annually. With Linda’s leadership, and a high level of accountability and transparency, Valley Restart was able to network and garner increasing community, faith-based, and county support to offer “a hand up, not a handout.” Their program provides emergency shelter, evening community meals, street outreach and navigation to the most vulnerable. Linda credits her success from wise mentoring she received over the years.

Prior to serving as Executive Director of Valley Restart, she worked over a 24-year span serving people in substance abuse prevention and mental health programs. Before that career, Linda was a primary grade school teacher in New York City during the late sixties and early seventies. The San Jacinto Valley has been well served by her energy and experiences!

Melinda West-Melrose | Contributed

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