‘I am going to keep God in my life’

Fred Ortega

Not many Southland high school graduates can boast of having attended

the same school since kindergarten.

But for some in Glendale Adventist Academy’s Class of 2005,

Sunday’s commencement ceremonies at Forest Lawn’s Hall of Liberty

were the culmination of a 13-year journey together.

“I am proud of each one of these graduates and what they have

brought to our school,” Principal Glen Baker said. “This is a class

with a lot of spirit, and time has passed quickly. I remember some of

these kids when they joined us in kindergarten.”

Anna Lee was one of those “13-year club” members, a designation

given to Glendale Adventist students who have spent their entire

primary and secondary years at the school.

“I feel happy to be here,” Lee, 18, said after the ceremony,

attended by several hundred of the graduates’ family members and

friends. The audience dwarfed the 46-student class.

“But because I have been coming here for 13 years, I feel kind of

empty leaving,” Lee said.

Lee, who graduated with highest honors, has a 3.94 grade-point

average and received an advanced college preparatory diploma. She

plans on attending Pacific Union College, an Adventist school in

Northern California to pursue a degree in pharmacy.

“Anna has always been a very disciplined, self-motivated child,”

said her mother, Myung Lee, through a family member who translated

from her native Korean. “I am very happy of her accomplishments.”

Another highest-honors graduate, class President Moussa Saleh,

reminded his classmates of the many lessons learned in their years at

Glendale Adventist.

“I want to thank the teachers,” Saleh, 18, said. “These gifts they

have bestowed upon us have truly saved us, and will invariably lead

us into the future.”

Saleh, a 3.92-GPA student who plans to attend Walla Walla College

in Washington state, said his teachers’ influence helped him in

deciding to pursue a computer engineering and pre-med major.

“Do not cast off a part of yourselves by forgetting your high

school years,” Saleh told the graduates. “We must look forward, but

the arch of experience beckons us to remember what we have learned.”

He was referring to “Ulysses,” the poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Religion is an integral part of the small school’s curriculum.

Religion teacher Oscar Olivarria, who gave the commencement address,

told his students to remember the lessons about King Solomon taught

in the Old Testament.

“King Solomon said that pleasure and wealth are empty concepts,”

Olivarria said. “‘Remember your creator in the days of your youth and

fear God,’ Solomon said, because he is with us, forever and ever,

until the end.”

These lessons resonated with Lee. “Whenever we needed help, during

school or in our personal lives, we were taught to pray, and things

seemed to always work out,” Lee said. “I am going to keep God in my

life.”

But not all Glendale Adventist students had as straight a path to

graduation as did Lee and Saleh.

“I barely graduated,” said Victor Petrescu, 18.

After falling in with the wrong crowd, Petrescu said he developed

a problem with drugs and missed an entire month of school.

“It got me off track, but I got back into it,” Petrescu said, who

credited his family, friends, and the school itself for his presence

at Sunday’s commencement ceremonies.

“The school was really supportive. They didn’t kick me out,” he

said.

For Rene Grigorian, Petrescu is a source of inspiration.

“Victor is my hero,” said Grigorian, 20, who would have graduated

from Glendale Adventist in 2003, had he not fallen into a similar

predicament as Petrescu. “When I tried to catch up with my studies I

couldn’t; I dug a hole so deep that I couldn’t get out. So when I see

people like Victor, knowing his story and seeing him persevere, it

really heartens me.”

Grigorian has since earned his high school diploma.