Kuran, Raymundo, Sasseen, and Tomas honored as Students of the Month

The January awards breakfast for the Students of the Month featured inspiring stories of young women and men overcoming adversity and self doubt to achieve success in high school and position themselves for more triumphs in the future.

The Students of the Month for January – Maria Tomas of Ivy High School, and Kirk Kuran, Steve Raymundo and Alicia Sasseen of Fallbrook Union High School – were honored Jan. 5 at the Fallbrook Community Center.

Greg Coppock – in his usual upbeat and energetic style – emceed the ceremony, which began with the honorees receiving Lamp of Knowledge medals presented to them by active duty military representatives Cpl Jasmin L. Sever, LCpl Casey E. Reynolds and LCpl Matt R. Wunderlich.

Ivy High School teacher Kelly Walker nominated Tomas and informed the audience about how her candidate ran away from home ­– and subsequently school – for a few months in the fall of 2015 but rebounded to rejoin her family and ­– with encouragement from Ivy's Melissa Marovich – eventually her school.

"Maria is a wonderful example of perseverance and resilience and overcoming odds," said Walker. "Maria was not intending to come back to school but she stopped by one day to return books, because that's what responsible people do. Miss Marovich was on campus and pulled her into the office and convinced her to re-enroll, and she left with a schedule and showed up the next day. And I'm really proud of her."

"I'm so, so proud of her and the young woman that she's become," said Marovich of Tomas.

Tomas, who will graduate in February, plans to attend college and has goals of becoming a wildlife biologist or a zoologist.

"Ivy High School has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me," said Tomas. "Beginning high school I had a lot of negativity, a lot of doubts, but now, being at Ivy has helped me a lot, helped me succeed, help me understand how life is. When I was a freshman I never thought of going to college. Now, I'm excited to start this August. Thank you to all my family for all the support, and also to Ivy High School for pushing me through to be here today to reach my goal."

Fallbrook High School teacher Estay Paulsen and Hopena Kahakui, youth pastor at North Coast Church Fallbrook, nominated Kuran. Paulsen was unable to attend the breakfast but did write down some comments about Kuran that were read to the audience by Fallbrook High School principal Larry Boone.

Paulsen wrote of Kuran: "I nominated Kirk for student of the month because he has one of the best work ethics I've ever seen. He has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and is very detail-oriented. He has a wonderful attitude about life and excels at everything he attempts. We need more people like Kirk in this world."

Kuran was lauded by his parents for his generosity towards others and his stick-to-itiveness, and Kahakui echoed those statements.

"I have had the honor and privilege of having Kirk in my small group at church," said Kahakui. "I got to watch him not only grow as a man of God, but grow as man in confidence in how he interacts with other people. He was always encouraging his fellow students and always trying to find information in how to help them. He's always been so willing to do everything for his companions and friends. He's just an amazing student and an amazing young man."

Kuran, who plans to attend the United States Naval Academy, drew a few laughs with the phrasing of his opening line.

"To start, I'd love to thank my parents – they've been with me since the beginning," said Kuran. "They have never stopped pushing me. It's not just my drive, it's their drive too. If I start something, mom won't let me quit. I'd like to thank my teachers, and all my guides in my life – Hopena, you're like an older brother to me. I love you. I'd like to thank Miss Paulsen and all the members of the community for being here to celebrate our achievements together and how well we represent Fallbrook and what that means."

Kuran said he plans to "major in physics or engineering and become either a nuclear engineer or pilot or wherever it's going to take me."

Raymundo was nominated by Fallbrook High teacher Connie Fellios, who credited her nominee with overcoming a fear of public speaking and occasional ridicule from peers to become "a splendid example of a model AVID student" and a "very strong, open-minded and respected individual who hopes to be a positive influence in serving others throughout his life."

"Life has not been easy for Steve in a sense that he was painfully shy when he was younger, and he has had to learn to cope sometimes with ridicule of his strong morals and background as he grew up," said Fellios. "However, during his latter years of high school, he has grown stronger with the love and support of a fabulous family, and realized as he wrote in one of his college personal statements: 'I believe we were brought here for a reason and that God has given us obstacles which we can withstand and overcome.'"

Fellios added that Raymundo is a former KEY Club member who continues to volunteer to help others in the community as well as at school, where he successfully served as a peer mediator and "helped students in conflict learn to be more tolerant and kind to each other."

Raymundo congratulated his fellow students as well as their parents "for creating these students" before thanking his parents and family and singling out Fellios for her support.

"I never thought I'd be in front of people because I thought I was just an average student with average grades," said Raymundo. "I'd like to thank Miss Fellios, because without her motivation and her recommending me to so many clubs, I wouldn't be here talking in front of people. I'd be freaking out."

Raymundo said he plans to attend California State University San Marcos and study either international communication or education and become either an interpreter or high school teacher.

Fallbrook High teacher Heather Smith nominated Sasseen, who, according to Smith, continued to excel in school despite having "her world turned upside down" last spring.

"A position that no one – no student – should be put in, is to not know where you're going to live and who's going to support you and how you're going to continue," said Smith. "That was really hard to see as a teacher who knows her really well. Alicia's strength and resilience was to say, 'these are things that I cannot change, and what can I work on, what can I do.' And so she focused on school and focused on the things that she had control over, and maintained almost straight A's."

Smith noted that Sasseen has been in choir for four years, is active in ASB, has been on the golf team, and is on the worship team at her church, where she also volunteers.

"The first word that comes to mind for Alicia for me is resilience, followed by strength," said Smith. "She's just been wonderful. I know she's going to do amazingly well when we finish here (high school). I'm so grateful to have had her in my class."

Sasseen attended the breakfast with her new guardians and new extended family.

"A special thanks to my teacher (Smith) for nominating me," said Sasseen. "She has been one of the greatest role models of my life. She has supported me in more ways than she might ever know. I also want to thank my new guardians, Sally and Danny, and the family that I have gotten with them. They have been the best support system that I've ever had in my whole life, and I am so appreciative and grateful for every opportunity that I have because they've allowed it and they've given it to me."

Sasseen said school and studying have been her salvation.

"School has always been my outlet for me," said Sasseen. "I couldn't control any of my home circumstances but the only thing I could control was how much work I put in and the reward that I would get out of it, and that has always been important to me. I'm going to try out for girls varsity lacrosse this year. I'm excited for that."

Sasseen has applied to four colleges – San Diego State University, California State University San Marcos, California State University Channel Islands and Chico State – and plans to major in liberal studies for child development to be an elementary school teacher.