Photograph by George Sakkestad
Saratoga High School seniors (from left) Anil Raj, Donald Prolo and Chad Usher each won a $1,000 Turnaround Scholarship award from the Kiwanis Club of Los Gatos for 'turning around' their high school academic performance.
Students start slow, but turn lives around
Kiwanis Club honors 'turnaround' students with scholarships
By Rebecca Ray
During his freshman year, Chad Usher of Saratoga High School was friends with a few seniors who liked to party and didn't get good grades. He thought they were cool.
But when he still saw them at high school parties after they had graduated, Usher thought they seemed to be caught up in their high school days and weren't willing to move on and improve their lives. Usher didn't want to get stuck living, as he put it, "the high school dream."
So Usher, a C student, began to do his homework after school instead of watching TV. Usher, who had to use an athletic waiver his sophomore year to compete on the wrestling team because of his 1.7 grade point average, maintained a 3.0 the next season.
Now Usher, a senior, will attend a community college next year. He says he hopes to transfer to Loyola Marymount University and is looking at studying business and psychology.
Usher is one of three Saratoga High students--and one of nine students in the district--to whom the Kiwanis Club of Los Gatos gave a $1,000 Turnaround Scholarship this year. Since 1998, the Kiwanis Club of Los Gatos has awarded seniors in the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District $1,000 scholarships for making "turnarounds" in their academic work.
The Kiwanis Club, an international organization, acknowledges these students because Kiwanis members feel that the students' poor starts in high school may prevent them from receiving certain scholarships and awards.
"It's definitely a good feeling," says Saratoga High Turnaround Scholarship winner Anil Raj. "It's uplifting. It's kind of nice to be recognized for something like that." When his academic advisor told him he'd won, it was "very welcoming," he says.
During his sophomore year, Anil says, he didn't really care about school. He cut class and didn't pay attention.
But last year, Anil decided that doing well in school was something he had to do to succeed in life and that he needed to start looking at his long-term future. He attended tutorials and did his homework. During his senior year, he took more difficult classes to challenge himself.
After the first semester of his senior year, Anil had "a very good report card," says his father, Prithvi.
Prithvi has noticed other changes in his son. When Anil started high school, he'd come home after he said he would and didn't seem to regret it. He procrastinated on his homework.
Now Anil comes home when he says he will. Prithvi also no longer tells Anil when or how to study because Anil studies on his own. He even looked at colleges and applied to them without being told to do so.
Although Anil hardly ever did chores toward the beginning of high school, Prithvi says, he now writes the grocery list and shows concern for his family members. Without being told, he bought his mother flowers for Mother's Day.
Anil plans to attend UC-Riverside in the fall and study neuroscience.
Prithvi isn't as proud of Anil winning the Turnaround Scholarship itself as he is of the ways his son has become more disciplined, focused and organized. The scholarship only reinforces Prithvi's own feelings about Anil. "There's no question that Anil is a comeback child," he says.
Once again, Prithvi says, it's "the real Anil. Now he's back."
Prithvi is glad that Anil's rough years were temporary. "But when I see the comeback, it's very rewarding," Prithvi says.
For Donald Prolo, the third Saratoga High senior winner, receiving the scholarship was "kind of a surprise." He'd never even heard of it.
Prolo turned his life around by overcoming Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder without medication. Although he struggled academically his freshman and sophomore years, he took a full course load his junior and senior years and earned a 3.9 GPA.
Prolo has also been a strong contributor to his school's track and cross country teams, says Gail Wasserman, the academic advisor at Saratoga High who's in charge of the school's Turnaround program.
Eric Schreiber, Prolo's academic advisor, says that Spanish teacher Brett Yeilding and physics teacher E.J. Lux go on about Prolo's responsibility, diligence and humor, as well as his high level of participation in their classes. Prolo's freshman year teachers, according to Schreiber, note the contrast between his freshman and senior years.
According to Schreiber, when Prolo's friend wrote an essay for his college application, he wrote about how having difficulties helped Prolo put things in perspective and place more importance on friendships, which helped him put his life in perspective as well.
Prolo will attend Santa Clara University in the fall. He is considering study in mechanical engineering.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
