Rosa Gonzalez shakes her head as she remembers where her daughter was just three years ago. “When Stephany was in ninth grade at the local high school, it was too bad,” she says, adding that she didn’t seem to have control over her daughter, who was disengaged from school, skipping classes and hanging around with other students who did not value education. “When she went into private school, everything changed. Her person was changed. Her life was changed. Now her grades are up. And, I’m happy, because next month my daughter will be a graduate.” On May 24, Stephany D’Avila…

Perhaps Nicole Romero’s greatest attribute would be the one that makes it easy to overlook her. She is silently resolved. The junior at Shoreland Lutheran High School does what she is supposed to do. She works hard, she encourages others through her actions rather than words and is a relatively quiet teenager. For those reasons, teacher Matthew Grow hardly knew the girl who had done so well in his social studies class. Then, he became her soccer coach, and the quiet but strong demeanor this student demonstrated made it impossible not to notice her. “It was during her time at…