At a gala fundraising dinner Oct. 30 hosted by the district, Kristen Potter from Lynbrook High, Ellen Liu from Monta Vista, Jennifer Flagg from Cupertino High, Daniel Steel from the district's New Start program, Brian Givens from Homestead High and Randall Polgar from Fremont High will each receive a certificate that recognizes them as model students who have risen beyond normal teenage circumstances.

Every year the district selects students who are not necessarily the most popular on campus; rather, they are the unsung heroes who have faced extraordinary circumstances and given these circumstances a positive twist.

These students have walked the extra mile to change things around them.

"Given the criteria for selection, the school principals nominate these exceptional students for the awards," explains Sandie Zander, executive director of the foundation that puts together the awards ceremony. Interestingly, the students nominated this year also reflect the ethnic diversity of Silicon Valley. San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, an alumnus of Sunnyvale High School, which closed down in the 1980s, will be the chief guest on awards night.

Daniel Steel—
Profile in Courage

The story of Daniel Steel is one that epitomizes the struggle of gay students in the United States. Steel says he was just 10 when he realized he was gay. Since then, accepting his sexuality and being accepted for who he was became an all-consuming struggle within him.

"No matter where I was—at home or at school—the only thing I could think about was telling these people the truth. I could handle the fact that I was gay. But the problem was I was hiding it from people. It was eating me inside everyday—going to school and lying to people. I just couldn't think about my studies." Steel's scores began to fall and every year he struggled to just make it to the next grade.

Coming out in the open with his sexuality would mean throwing himself out in the open for all the harassment and discrimination that's against homosexual students on campus.

"I was going to school every day, fearing for my life and the verbal harassment that would be in store for me if they knew. Students would say, 'that's so gay' or call me a 'fag.' I was terrified of what would happen if I came clean. It completely ruined my life."

But there was only so much the teenager could handle himself. Last year, just after he turned 16, he finally confessed to his parents. "I'm so fortunate to have very liberal parents. They were totally behind me. But they didn't want me to tell them at school. They were worried about what would happen to me," recalls Steel.

But six years of suppressed emotions were ultimately too much to carry. "In November of last year I became suicidal. At that point I was more than capable of taking my own life," says Steel, who was then a junior at Homestead High School.

Steel was hospitalized for 12 days and received psychiatric help. But after returning home from the hospital, going back to school was not even an option for him. "At that point it would have been too much for me," he says.

That's when Homestead and the district administration rallied behind him to create a curriculum that would suit his situation. In January this year, they started him in the New Start program and tailored his school work to fit his pace. Steel could work from home and go the school campus once a week to receive and submit his assignments. "With the New Start program, my life has completely changed," he says.

Ever since he got into the program, Steel's grades and confidence have surged ahead. He now has a 4.0 grade point average and is a gay rights activist on school campuses and president of the Gay Straight Alliance at Homestead High School

"In our culture homosexuality is still taboo. Our society wants to accept it but at the same time doesn't want to accept it. It's still in a transition phase and the climate is still hostile to gay youth. That's the reason I got involved with the Alliance, so I can work for the rights of gay students," says Steel. Currently Steel is working on a petition for the school district that requires mandatory training of staff and students regarding harassment of and discrimination against homosexual students.

"Earlier I would think of my future and I would get depressed. But now I look ahead and I'm full of hope," he says.

Jennifer Flagg—Conquering Dyslexia

Jennifer Flagg is the quintessential bubbly teenager, who loves to dance and hang out with her friends. But what sets her apart is her grit and determination to conquer her learning disorder.

Flagg was in second grade when her parents found out she had dyslexia. "I was taking 3 hours to do my homework that my friends were taking just 10 minutes to do. I used to switch all my letters and I would mess up everything. It was so hard," she says.

Since her diagnosis, she's been learning methods to compensate for her disorder. "I've been working really hard for a long time to fix this, and I've been learning different ways to tackle this problem."

Flagg, who is now a senior at Cupertino High School, continues to be dyslexic with both her reading and writing. But she's extremely grateful to her learning skills teacher, Charity Purse, who helps her with her schoolwork.

"She sits down when I do my homework. She reads it and fixes it. Even now I'll read and write a word wrong. When I read something my mind switches it. I don't know how, but I still understand what's going on," she says.

The school offers several accommodations to Flagg to circumvent her problems. During regular class she can receive her teacher's lecture notes and gets extended time while taking her tests. "During tests I can talk to myself and get someone to read my answers to make sure I've not made mistakes."

Every year this effervescent teenager pushes herself to do better and better at academics. "In my freshman year I had a really tough teacher. So even though I got just a C in her class, I understood a lot more. The next year I did a lot better and got a B. I was really excited. I want good grades. So I'll work for it and when I see I can get it, I'll work even harder. It just makes me happy to have good grades. I like proving to myself that I can do it." So far, Flagg has a 3.5 overall grade point average.

Flagg says that her dyslexia made her very shy while growing up. But these days she doesn't let her learning disorder get in the way of forging new relationships at school. "Now I really don't care what people think any more because why bother about what other people think. I might as well try it and get the best out of any situation," she says with confidence.

Flagg says her parents are her strength. "Whenever I get frustrated, they'll notice it and help me whenever I need them."

Another proud achievement for Flagg is making it onto the school's drill team. "I've been dancing since I was five and it is a therapy for me. While dancing I don't have to deal with anyone and I forget all my problems." After finishing school, Flagg plans to go to De Anza.

Brian Givens—Achieving Against Odds

This African American junior from Homestead High cannot sit still. Even as he talks, his face lights up with excitement and energy. His hands gesticulate and his eyes sparkle with untold dreams. In short, Brian Givens is an achiever.

He is the vice president of the student body and a member of his school's drama club. He was recently inducted into the International Thespian Society, which he says is a huge honor in theater circles. He does a lot of community service and works part time at an ice cream store.

For Givens, going to college is not a goal. It's merely a step toward achieving his dreams. Givens' determination and his burning desire to succeed and his cheerful outlook may be the result of having to wrestle with a couple of soul-searching realizations.

He found out he was adopted when he was little. "My mom told me when I was five, so I dealt with the issue as a 5-year-old. So it's not a big deal to me right now. I'm not preoccupied with thinking about my birth parents. My mom who adopted me is my mother. There is no other way about it. My math test is a bigger deal than the thought that I was adopted," explains Givens.

Givens is most particular about not falling into stereotypes. "As a teenager, I see people acting like each other. They are not individuals and I don't want to be like that."

This is a lesson he learned the hard way.

When he was in eighth grade, Givens realized he was gay. "I didn't say anything to anybody. Then comes high school and things get around."

He says, "It was really hard in the beginning because people will try to distance themselves or I get a lot of the 'oh look at the fag over there' from other students."

Added to this, Givens is not a part of the regular African American clique at school. He says he would receive the worst harassment from them. "They tell me that I don't act black and I tell them that I don't act stereotypical. Just to fit in, I will not act like a 'gangster,'" he says.

Givens says he began to ignore all snide remarks at school and soon people began to see that he really did not care what they said. "But it's not always easy and I'm not always this carefree. Sometimes I twinge and I can deal with only so much. My family is where I can go and lash out. Without my mom and my positive attitude, I know I probably would not be alive now," he says.

But Givens has made his dreams larger than his circumstances. "I want to write. I want to act. I want to have my own clothing company." His biggest desire is to be known for something. "I'm not interested in fame. But years later I want people to talk about me. I want them to talk about the Givens name," he says.

Kristen Potter—
Better Communities

There is a maturity about Kristen Potter that's hard to find among teenagers. She speaks with a calmness and understanding that is almost healing. Potter is a senior at Lynbrook High and comes from a religious family. Her father is a pastor and her mother worked as a missionary long ago. Most of her extended family is involved in charity, and so it comes as no surprise that community service is right at the top of this teenager's to-do list.

She's probably one of the few teenagers around who can claim building houses for poverty-stricken people in Tijuana, Mexico, as the greatest accomplishment in her life.

Over the last couple of spring breaks, Potter has traveled, through her church, to shantytowns near Tijuana, where she was part of a team that constructed decent houses for people who were living under extremely poor conditions. "I value the bonds that I built with the people there and my teammates. I cherish the Spanish culture, their heritage and would love to work for some nonprofit organization in South America after my studies."

But Potter is already laying the foundation to accomplishing her life's dream. She works with several nonprofit agencies in the valley. She's the communications manager of the Cooking to Help Everyone be Fed club that cooks for the homeless. And for the past four years, Potter's been working as a counselor at Camp May Mac for low-income children from the third to the sixth grade.

She is the secretary of the student body at her school this year, has been with the choir for three years and works as a lifeguard at the Saratoga Swim Club. Potter has a 3.7 grade point average but believes that there is more to life than good grades. "I believe that relationships and a good balance in life are more important than anything else. My learning is more important than my scores," she says.

Potter wants to attend school in Oregon or Washington, where she says lifestyles are more "laid back." She wants to take up international studies.

Ellen Liu—Tutoring to Make a Difference

Ellen Liu is one of Monta Vista's best. She has a 4.0 grade point average and is a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist. She speaks Mandarin and Spanish, is the president of the mock-trial club at her school and edits a section of the yearbook. She plays the piano and volunteers at a convalescent home, where she spends time talking to and helping senior citizens. All these are accomplishments that Liu accepts with a modest shrug.

But there is something that this senior is most proud of—tutoring her Spanish-speaking classmate in English. Liu has always been a part of the Study Buddy Society at her school. But last year she faced a huge challenge.

"Jose was from Mexico. He was joining our school and could speak only Spanish. I had to teach him the basics of English and speak to him in Spanish too to make him understand so many things. This project was unlike anything else I had done," says Liu.

But once she got started, Liu says she began to understand the Spanish culture. "It was interesting to learn about the Mexican way of things, and I found that schooling there is far more relaxed than what we have here."

Liu says it's satisfying to see Jose's grasp of English improve over the months. "It's nothing miraculous, but it feels good to see him understand and speak with more confidence," she says.

Liu plans to apply to all Ivy League colleges this fall and is thinking of majoring in biology so she can pursue a career in pediatrics.

Randall Polgar—Spreading Goodwill

There is more to Randall Polgar than just being the president of the Fremont High School student body and an accomplished varsity basketball and volleyball player and cross-country runner. Polgar, a senior at Fremont High School, has made spreading cheer and smiles the mantra of his life.

"I'm a happy person and I like to see people happy. So I try to make them feel good. I give them compliments. It's psychological. If you are happy, you are healthy," he says.

Polgar says his deep-rooted belief comes from the spiritual values instilled by his mother. "My mom is a spiritual kind of person and reads a lot of spiritual books and I take a lot of strength from them."

Polgar is a half-Iraqi Jew and takes great pride in his community. "Iraqi Jews are very rare," he says and considers his bar mitzvah (the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony for boys) one of his greatest accomplishments.

But it is his community involvement that he says has shaped his outlook towards life. "I was involved in a project called Green Circle, where we go to different elementary schools and teach them core values like not embarrassing people of different ages, races and disabilities. This program really influenced me."

Polgar also revived the Captain Fremont tradition at his school. "In the 1980s, there was this guy with a baseball cap, a mask over his eyes and a cape, who called himself Captain Fremont. He would go around telling everybody to keep things clean around them and not to throw trash everywhere," says Polgar.

So during school parades and big events, Polgar slips into his superhero costume and becomes Captain Fremont. "Everyone knows who it is and it's a great way to get the message across," he adds.

At this time Polgar's professional plans are simple.

"As of now, I think about what would make me happy, and I realize that being a teacher and being close to children is what would give me the most satisfaction."