The Star-Bulletin is proud to honor these six high school seniors for outstanding achievement under extraordinary circumstances. The annual awards, founded in 1987, recognize public high school students who overcome major obstacles to graduate with excellent records. Also considered are grade-point average, extracurricular activities and community service. Each winner receives $1,000.
Eveline Uli
Willing to get help as well as give it
By Lori Tighe
Star-BulletinEveline Uli comes from a family of six struggling to make it.
Her mother has an elementary school education, and her father delivers newspapers.
And she's going to college.
The key to Uli's success: She asks for help.
"There are resources. You just have to find what's out there for you and do whatever you can to go higher," she said.
Uli, an 18-year-old senior at Farrington High School, had no idea how she could scrape the money together for college. But she applied anyway to the University of Hawaii to become a social worker, said Alison Colby, Farrington Teen Center adviser.
"She decided, 'I'm going to try anyway.' She's not shy about getting help and applying for scholarships," Colby said. "She got a good financial package. We're so proud of her, and her parents are so proud of her, too."
Born in Oceanside, Calif., to a Samoan family of six, Uli relocated with them to Hawaii, settling in Kalihi Valley Homes public housing. Her mom works as a security guard at night, then takes care of Uli's grandmother during the day.
"I think of my parents and what they've done for me and my younger brothers and sisters. We don't have much, but we make the best of what we have," she said, noting they inspire her to do her best.
Although not a straight-A student, Uli's list of community service is long. She has been a peer mediator and active in the teen centers at her school and housing project.
She starts on the girls basketball team and has played softball, volleyball, basketball and track since elementary school. She is in the Samoan Club, the Film Club and has participated in Focus on Learning school accreditation groups.
Three things have helped Uli the most to thrive, she said: the Lord, the Farrington Teen Center and her housing project youth center.
"I go to church by myself. It was hard at first, but it's what I truly believe in and have faith in," Uli said.
The Teen Center's door remains open, and teens wander in freely for help, she said. Uli has taken peacemaking classes there and help with rewriting English essays.
She has also received help with homework at the Kalihi Valley Homes Hall, a youth services center where she lives.
The social workers at both centers inspired Uli to become a social worker, too.
Uli has been known all her life as a second mother because she likes to help others, she said.
"I like knowing I make a difference in people's lives. I'd rather see somebody happy than walk away and do nothing. Even just to make them laugh -- you could be saving their life."
Carrie Betts
Strong will, confidence pay off
By Pat Omandam
Star-BulletinCarrie Betts enrolled as a junior at Radford High School in September 1997 with an steadfast eye toward a brighter future.
A victim of sexual abuse for most of her life, Betts -- along with her mother Vivian, older sister Cathy and younger brother Eddie -- moved from Kaimuki to Salt Lake to start anew.
The 18-year-old recalled she was comfortable and optimistic about the change, but felt overwhelmed by the state services involved because of her abuse. Social workers thought she needed intense counseling, but Betts just wanted closure.
In confiding to Radford counselor Amelia Hew Sang, she said: "They made me feel like I was incapable of doing anything without their help, so I told myself that I was capable.
"Whenever they said that I couldn't do something without their help, I pressed on and tried even harder to do just that -- without the help of the social workers."
Hew Sang, impressed with Betts' self-determination, nominated her for the Star-Bulletin award. "I was happy that she felt I overcame something," Betts said.
Betts maintained a 3.33 grade point average in her junior year but faced another problem when she and brother Eddie were placed in foster homes in December 1998 after their mother got sick.
The separation was very hard, she said.
"It was like they were saying I couldn't take care of myself or my brother. And I've been taking care of my brother since I was 13 years old," she said.
Last March 28, Betts turned 18 and moved back with her mother. Since then, her life has been on an upswing. She's maintained a 3.4 GPA in her senior year, discovered a talent for drawing and painting and is involved in the Word of Life youth group.
"I say, 'God makes everything happen for reason, and that there's always somebody out there who is worse off than you are so you should be grateful,' " she said.
"But there are things that could can do to show everybody that you are better -- you get good grades, get scholarships, whatever. Show your talents."
Betts also finds time to hold down a part-time job at Darkroom Productions, where she is a model and photographer at luaus held at the Hale Koa Hotel.
Hew Sang said Betts, who plans to attend Leeward Community College this fall, easily could have become a victim of terrible circumstances. Instead, she "has become a survivor, utilizing her strong will to excel and her understanding to help."
Nicole Pavo
Kalaheo grad sets example for siblings
By Alisa LaVelle
Star-BulletinUnlike other high school seniors, Nicole Pavo has to worry about how to support herself and her brother.
Because she has turned 18 and is graduating, her Social Security benefits will be reduced next week and she will be dependent on her part-time job in a dentist's office. Pavo got custody of her 16-year-old brother after her father died last year.
Child Protective Services persuaded a judge to award custody of her brother, Anthony, to Nicole. They live in a separate house from her mother and two younger sisters, who are in the second and sixth grade at Keolu Elementary School.
Pavo spends weekends with her sisters and is determined to give them better lives. She hopes that they will dream big and "stay on track."
Their mother struggles with alcoholism. CPS sent her brother to their father's home on Maui and Nicole to her grandparents when Nicole was 11 because of her mother's drug addiction.
"You have to be responsible, take care of things because you can't run from them," Pavo said. "Life's a challenge, but we're here to find out where we go and deal with what comes our way."
Pavo graduates from Kalaheo High School today with honors. She plans to be a dental hygienist, then a psychologist and is enrolled at Kapiolani Community College this fall.
The $1,000 scholarship from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin Outstanding Achievement Award will enable her to pay for college, Pavo said.
Arlene Young, a Kalaheo High School college counselor, nominated Pavo.
"Nicole is very focused on her career and goals," Young said. "She's always positive even with her crazy situation. She gets frustrated sometimes, but not angry. I find that amazing."
Even though she cannot take full-time care of them, Pavo is also determined to help her little sisters.
"If they ever need something, even scoldings, I will give it to them," Nicole said.
Reflecting on the reasons why she pushes herself, Nicole spoke without hesitation.
"Without family and no one to love," she said, "life is not worth living."
Arlene Caler
Daughter is young mom's incentive
By Leila Fujimori
Star-BulletinArlene Caler says she doesn't want her child to struggle like she has.
"Why I'm striving so hard to do so well is my daughter. She is my fire," the 18-year-old says.
Caler's mother died when she was about 3 and Caler has been in and out of foster homes.
She has also been the victim of sexual abuse.
At 13, Caler got mixed up with gang members and drug users and was pregnant at 15.
Two months after she gave birth, her baby's father was imprisoned for first-degree assault.
Despite all she's gone through, Caler will graduate Sunday from Waipahu High School with a 3.0 grade point average and a long list of accomplishments.
Caler raised her grades from D's to A's and B's. She's involved in community activities and started a Big Brothers-Big Sisters tutoring program at her school, recruiting 25 teens in the first year.
Science teacher Steven Nakano ranked Caler as the best student he has ever taught in his 27-year career. She loves science and wants to earn a medical degree and specialize in pediatrics.
School counselor Lillian Yonamine said Caler puts in a lot of time to maintain her grades and gets involved in challenging courses.
When she has problems, Caler often turns to Toni Brown, a counselor and court-appointed volunteer guardian.
"I'm really close to her (Brown) and can call her any time," Caler said.
Brown said the 18-year-old is mature in many ways, but still a teen-ager and needs help in making decisions. She will continue to help Caler under a mentoring program to make the transition into adulthood.
"For a person who has gone through as much as she has, she's resilient, goal-oriented and not afraid to dig in her heels and work," Brown noted.
Caler will soon move out on her own with her 3-year-old and live on $550 a month from the state as long as she attends college. She has received enough scholarship funds to pay for her first year at Chaminade University.
"She's done a good job for herself," Yonamine said. "She's a survivor."
Natalie Barrett
Disability brings on courage
By Mary Adamski
Star-BulletinWhen Natalie Barrett collects her diploma at the Kaimuki High School commencement tomorrow, she won't see much of the planned pageantry.
But her classmates will watch the quiet but self-assured girl maneuver her way on the Waikiki Shell stage with a white cane.
Many of them had their eyes opened earlier this year to the struggles of a blind student when Barrett initiated a "disability awareness" assembly. More than 700 students heard guest speaker Stephen Frias describe his life as a blind person.
"I was frustrated and angry at people who didn't ask me but made assumptions," she said, recalling would-be friends who drifted away discomforted by her disability. "I felt really good about it. I've seen considerable improvement in students' attitude toward me because I did that."
Her activism in promoting the assembly was a glimpse of the metamorphosis of a shy, somewhat sad teen-ager into an assertive and confident young woman, said teacher/counselor Iris Ahue.
Barrett has known since first grade that she has the same progressively deteriorating eye condition that blinded her mother. Ahue said that in her junior year, Barrett "was struggling with many issues ... the thought of not being able to see, the unfairness of it all and the feeling of being so alone was overwhelming. Natalie faced the struggles of accepting her life with a severe visual impairment."
She got involved in the Peer Education Program, a class that wrote and performed skits about people with challenges or differences.
"Natalie's participation was real and dramatic," Ahue said.
When budget cuts put the program in jeopardy, Barrett joined other Kaimuki students in testifying before a legislative committee. The program was continued and it was another affirmation for the budding activist.
Barrett is self-taught on the computer and wants to continue with computer classes when she enters Kapiolani Community College in the fall. Also, "I want to learn Japanese fluently and work with something in that field," she said.
Barrett lives with her mother and three siblings. She also helps care for an ailing grandmother.
"My family has pushed me," she said. "They say, 'Don't rely on us, go do it yourself.' I think that is why I am the way I am today, because they pushed."
Ahue said, in her nomination letter, "Thank you, Natalie, for showing me what courage is all about."
Tyrone C. Manegdeg
Struggling student aims high
By Gary T. Kubota
Maui correspondentWAILUKU -- Despite being thrown out of a grade school in the Philippines and held back two grades after immigrating to Hawaii, Tyrone C. Manegdeg is graduating from Maui's Baldwin High School as a class valedictorian.
He's also been accepted into the officers' training program at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
"The journey I went through was painful indeed, but has completely turned my life around," said Manegdeg, 19.
Manegdeg, who wants to work for the U.S. space program, credits his mother, Teresita, with helping to change his attitude.
"She didn't give up on me," he said. "She had me realize I had to change."
His father, Catalino, immigrated to the United States and began working as a medical aide at Maui Memorial Medical Center in 1981.
Meanwhile, Manegdeg was raised in Quezon City by his mother.
Manegdeg recalls a teacher describing him as a bad influence on other students and failing to learn from his mistakes.
He failed the second grade, then was held back a second time in the sixth grade, resulting in his expulsion from a Catholic school.
He remembers his mother having difficulty finding a school that would accept him. He eventually enrolled at a high school under the University of the East.
"I wasn't afraid to fail anymore," Manegdeg said.
Just when he had caught up in studies and was beginning his junior year in school, he and the rest of his family moved to Maui in 1996.
Manegdeg said the state school system would not accept many of his credits and he was pushed back two grades to the freshman level at Baldwin High School.
Although he felt depressed, Manegdeg decided to take more courses than usual and focus on his studies.
In his second quarter, he received a grade point average of 4.0.
"I surprised myself," he said. "It hit me that I could do this thing."
He's achieved other distinctions as well.
He's an officer in the Army's junior ROTC program at Baldwin and was elected senior class secretary.
Manegdeg is also a volunteer at a meals program to feed the homeless and disabled in south Maui -- a service he says helps to strengthen his humility and gratitude.
Until recently, he worked about 10 to 20 hours a week at Maui Memorial as a file clerk.
Manegdeg said he studied to pass courses in his early years. Now, he studies to learn.
"That's a whole different thing," he said.
