Washington Voices

When Ariel Perkins graduates from Havermale High School, she’s not exactly going to have time to stop and smell the roses. Not with a 3-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter waiting for her attention. Perkins is a fifth-year senior at Havermale who will receive her diploma as a result of her own tenacity, but also because of the overwhelming amount of support she has received at the school where she’s been enrolled for the past three years.

When Yasmeen Perez arrived for her first day of third grade at Linwood Elementary, she did not speak a word of English, even though she had been born in Seattle. “I lived in Mexico for eight years,” she said. “Spanish was my first language.”

Class of 2009 Samantha Janelle Adams

Recent high school graduate Alexandria Besaw has been living in a foreign country for the past four years. She was 14 years old when she packed her bags and headed for an adventure in the United States. “I am a Canadian citizen from Calgary, Alberta. Choosing to come to school in the United States was the biggest decision I ever made,” she said. “I thought the idea of going to boarding school would be exciting; an adventure that I would never forget. Sure, it’s really hard living away from home, but you get a great satisfaction from the fact that you are sort of independent.”

Ever since the eighth grade, Liberty High School senior Sarah Suksdorf has been sent reeling by one hard hit after another. First her mother died in a house fire. The next year her father died. The year after that, one of her friends was killed in a car accident. It’s enough to send most people running for cover, but Suksdorf, 18, pulled herself together. “I found out that no matter how much you don’t think you should still be alive, it’s pretty much impossible to give up on living,” she said.

Kristopher Schubach has always been curious. When he was a young boy, that curiosity resulted in many dismantled toaster ovens, scattered parts of old phones and just about anything he was allowed to take apart in the house without having to put it back together again.

Class of 2009 Kendell Abbey

Edina Bell knows loss. But she also knows joy, and she focuses on the latter. Bell is graduating this spring from Rogers High School, a school she is very proud of, after a year that could have easily derailed a young woman. Actually, she’s had several years like that in her 17 years of life.

Hannah Stevens wants to change the world. After graduating from Three Springs High School, Stevens, 17, plans to move on to a life of missionary work and become a pastor, sharing her faith with people around the world.

Mirissa Toner may not have taken her first steps until age 3, but she’s been making great strides ever since. When she was born at 24 weeks gestation, she weighed only 1 1/2 pounds, and her mother, Christy Toner, received a grim prognosis. “They didn’t think she’d live,” she recalled. But her tiny daughter held on and beat the odds. After a four-month hospital stay, Mirissa Toner came home. However, more challenges lay ahead. She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and suffered hearing loss, among other medical issues.

Class of 2009 Christopher John Adams

Moving to a new state for your senior year of high school can’t be easy. Tessa Cranston, 18, came to Medical Lake High School last year from Sanger, Texas, a small town just outside of Dallas/Fort Worth.