He momentarily stops arranging the paperwork on the counter of the Westmont High School Bank. "And then one day, he's just gone," he says.

It's a situation he wishes upon no one. But it's a situation that he's experienced himself.

Last year, his grandfather, whom he'd been living with in Campbell, was diagnosed with mesothelioma—a rare form of cancer affecting the lining of the chest or abdomen—and died a few months later. As his grandfather's condition deteriorated, Christopher's work and school life came to be nonexistent. When his grandfather died in September 2003, Christopher was emotionally and academically devastated, and the chances of him graduating and going to college began to fade.

Christopher came to California to live with his grandparents in 2001. He and his twin brother left their mother in Mississippi to get away from their stepfather, who Chris says beat them often.

"I don't know why he did it," Christopher says. "Maybe it was because we weren't his own kids."

When they moved here, Chris says everything worked out for him, but his brother decided to move back to Mississippi, where he now lives with his aunt.

Although Chris says he was occasionally harassed by a few students who learned that he was gay, he was making new friends in school and his grandparents were very supportive.

But he still needed to make some adjustments. He transferred in with a GPA of about 3.7, but over the next few semesters, his grades started to slip, first to 3.2, then to 2.2.

"I was still getting used to the school," he explains casually.

He settled in, however, and posted GPAs of about 3.0 for the next three semesters. He says he committed himself to keeping that average, but his life would once more take a turn for the worst.

It all started in March 2003, he says. His grandfather had bouts of pneumonia and bronchitis one right after the other. But nobody in the family knew how serious his condition was until he accompanied Christopher on a visit to the hospital.

Christopher needed to have doctors look at his stomach because he was experiencing abdominal pain, but the attention soon turned to the grandfather.

"The doctor took one look at my grandpa and told him that he really needed to come to the hospital again soon," Christopher says, explaining that the doctor noticed a strange color to his grandfather's face. "Twenty-four hours later, they performed exploratory surgery on him and diagnosed him with mesothelioma."

The diagnosis hit Christopher hard, but he found over the next few months that it would bring the family closer.

"Before he got sick, I saw my grandparents as trusted guardians," he says. "But everything changed at that moment." Suddenly he saw that he could lose someone he dearly loved.

Although Christopher took on a summer job at Paramount's Great America, as his grandfather's condition deteriorated, he found he couldn't concentrate on his duties as an amusement-park employee. He took a lot of time off to help his grandmother care for his grandfather.

"I was the worst employee. I almost never showed up for work," he says.

His bedridden grandfather was 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighed more than 300 pounds, he says. At only 4 feet 11 inches, his grandmother found it very difficult to help him take care of everyday needs.

"You can picture the contrast," Christopher says. "We had had to change his clothes and to bathe him."

So Christopher, who stands about 6 feet 2 inches, took on many of the nursing duties.

Closer contact with his grandparents strengthened his relationship with them, Christopher says, even as the strength of the grandfather waned.

But his responsibilities did not last long. By the beginning of the 2003­04 school year, his grandfather had died.

"He was the first real person that I ever lost from dying," Christopher says. "And I didn't know how to handle it well."

His recollection of those first few days aren't too clear, he says, but his family told him he went crazy and that he had to be sedated for a while.

For the first six weeks of the new school year, classmates and teachers hardly saw Christopher. He missed 30 days of school that semester—including a 10-day stretch when he didn't show up at all. His erratic attendance significantly impacted his grades. At one point he was carrying all F's, he says. And he ended the semester with a GPA of between 1.5 and 2.0.

Yet somehow before his last semester he came to grips with his loss and picked himself up, finding strength and support from his grandmother, teachers and counselors.

"They were always pushing," he says.

The combination of them pushing and Christopher realizing that he still wanted to go to college reignited his will to succeed. And this awakening came just in time.

"I consider it a milestone that I'd be able to graduate," he says. "This year, I've just been playing catch-up."

And now, with the help of the Kiwanis Club of Campbell, he's looking at not only getting a college education, but also having some of it funded by a scholarship.

Christopher is one of nine students from Westmont and Boynton high schools who have won the $1,000 Turnaround Scholarships from the Kiwanis Club of Campbell this year.

The Kiwanis Club has been awarding these scholarships for the past four years to students in the Campbell Union High School District, says Marilyn West, chairwoman of the committee that runs the scholarship program. The scholarships are meant to recognize the efforts of students who wish to attend college but have had to overcome significant personal obstacles that once threatened to bring their college aspirations to an end.

Some of these teens have had to deal with the shock of living in a new culture with a new language. Others had to wrestle with family problems at home. And still others had to endure a whole series of life-altering experiences.

Regardless of their unique situations, they all have in common the fact that they've turned themselves around and managed to get the grades to go to college, West says. And the Kiwanis Club will help them pay for their studies.

"Whatever sparked their attitudinal change toward academics, most of them would never have been given academic scholarships," she says.

Westmont High School senior Ashley Vierra was another prime candidate for the award.

Like the other recipients, Ashley found it difficult to adjust to a new environment after a move. After differences between her and her mother became too much for either of them to handle, she left her home in Brentwood, Calif., and moved to Campbell to live with her father.

But living in a new home and going to school so far from her friends was a little too much for her at first. Her grades started to suffer. Normally carrying a GPA above 3.0, that year she earned a 2.0 in her first semester and a 1.6 in her second.

But, she says, the problem was more one of choice than of circumstance.

"I guess I was rebelling," she says. "I just didn't want to be here."

She eventually brought herself out of the rut, however, because she knew that low grades would have kept her from participating in volleyball, track and basketball. Moreover, she began to adjust to the Westmont environment with the help of a supportive father.

In the first semester this year, she posted a GPA of 3.6. Though she isn't sure what her grades are for the last semester, she expects them to be similar. She will be going to West Valley College next school year, hoping eventually to become an elementary school teacher.

Strong support from the family plays a big part in any student's scholastic success, Ashley says. "It's very important to have a stable home life. It's always nice to come home to someone who loves you."

Christopher agrees. But, when the perfect home situation isn't available, it also takes a strong will to succeed.

Despite all he's endured, he's determined not to let past tribulations keep him from becoming a nurse.

"Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger," he says.