Washington Voices

In the Mt. Spokane senior class of 335 students, Zoya Hartman ranks academically at a solid 54. What makes this placement amazing is that she’s managed to excel in rigorous classes despite attending four different high schools in four years. Hartman left her mom and friends in Hawaii at the age of 16 to live with her sister in Tacoma. Just one year later she left Tacoma to move in with another sister in Spokane.

Class of 2014 Expected to graduate are:

One million people take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test every year to determine if they are eligible for military service and what roles in the military they qualify for. When North Central High School’s Elijah Hiler, 18, took the exam, he placed in the top 6 percent in the nation, an exceptional accomplishment.

Adi and Ani Purohith are grateful for many things. The twin brothers are grateful for each other and consider themselves best friends. They are grateful for their parents, who sacrificed a lot to move the family from India to the United States when the twins were 2 so they could have a better education. They are grateful for their high school, where they have been able to grow in their faith and academics and form bonds with other students and teachers. And, they are grateful for God, who, as Ani Purohith said, is a main reason for everything they do.

Class of 2014 Expected to graduate are:

They say that leaders are born, not made, but sometimes they need a little push to get there. Ask anyone at On Track Academy, a high school designed for students who want real-world experience and who may be behind in credits.

If anyone ever wondered where Gabriel Soileau’s heart lies – clearly, it’s in music. It has been all around the Lewis and Clark High School senior his entire life. He recalls his earliest memory at about age 4 listening to the Chinese, Cajun, Celtic and African songs his parents played in the car as the family drove from their home in Fairbanks to settle in the Lower 48. His parents Xiao Ping Li, an acupuncturist, and John Soileau, a naturopathic physician, met in Alaska but decided to raise their only child in Spokane, surrounded by the music they love. And young Soileau has thrived and excelled in all things musical.

Class of 2014 Riverside Achievement

Class of 2014 Expected to graduate are:

Ask Jareth Heilman to describe himself and he’ll say he’s the class clown, the sweetheart, the funny guy. “People think I can’t be serious and they are shocked when they find out what I’ve been through,” Heilman said. “Humor is how I deal with a lot of stuff.”

Class of 2014 Expected to graduate are:

Class of 2014 Expected to graduate are:

The adjustment from high school to college is an enormous challenge for almost every high school senior, but for Shadle Park’s Mason Hawk, it will only be his second most difficult academic transition. He remembers very well the beginning of his freshman year at Shadle, which he attended after graduating from St. Thomas More School, a parochial school with about 200 students.

Tristan Armitage had already studied abroad far more than the average college graduate when his family began looking for a private school for his freshman year of high school. “My mother is in the Air Force, and she was stationed in Japan,” the St. George’s School senior said. “I spent six years in the Japanese school system through elementary school. While I was there I came to enjoy learning about other cultures and other languages as well.”