Huntington Beach student on track to graduate with perfect K-12 attendance record

Huntington Beach High School senior Kylie Cochran is getting closer and closer to graduating June 13 with a perfect school attendance record since her first day of kindergarten at Hope View Elementary.

Cochran, 18, said she never intended to pursue perfect attendance. She attributes her achievement to the fact that she’s never been seriously ill and that she didn’t want to fall behind on her classwork.

Her secrets for staying healthy? Regular chiropractor visits, never touching her face and eating fresh food.

“If I have a headache and I go to the chiropractor, it will go away in an hour — it’s amazing,” she said.

Cochran’s spotless attendance record from Hope View Elementary to Mesa View Middle to Huntington Beach High schools was confirmed by the respective school districts.

After high school, Cochran plans to attend Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa for a year before transferring to Chapman University in Orange, where she wants to pursue a bachelor of fine arts degree in broadcast journalism and documentary.

Her mother, Claudia, came to the United States from Austria in the early 1990s to learn English so she could be a flight attendant for Austrian Airlines. That career path didn’t pan out, but her love of languages and the international lifestyle stuck with her over the years. She met her husband, Ron Cochran, while working as a nanny for his friends, and he ultimately asked her to stay in Southern California.

When Cochran enrolled as a Huntington Beach High freshman, her mother encouraged her to try Model United Nations. After four years in the program, her relationship with it is complicated, Cochran said.

“It’s like a 50/50 love-hate relationship,” she said.

Model UN requires a lot of time and work on top of a student’s other class load, Cochran said. It takes her about a month and a half to prepare for competitions, she said.

As an avid reader of international news, Cochran said she is particularly interested in the topics of money laundering and the illegal narcotics trade.

When she’s not debating international law enforcement, she works at a Hollister store and previously worked for years at Huntington Surf and Sport. She also is a model with Willow Model Management.

Cochran attributes her work ethic to her mom. Cochran’s younger sister Amy is a freshman at Huntington Beach High and also is on track for perfect attendance.

Claudia Cochran said she has taught her daughters to respect their elders and not to interrupt her when she’s talking on the phone unless it’s an emergency. Those manners have served Kylie well when speaking at Model UN conferences.

“We get a lot of compliments about how my mom raised us,” she said.

DANIEL LANGHORNE is a contributor to Times Community News.

Twitter: @DanielLanghorne