BACK BAY HIGH SCHOOL:Overcoming challenges to graduate early

This week, Victoria Fry will graduate from high school a year early. There was a time, though, when the 16-year-old thought she would never finish school at all.

Fry, who started as a freshman at Newport Harbor High School, suffers from dyslexia and a processing disorder, which often caused her to fall behind her peers in class. At a high school with more than 2,000 students, it wasn’t always easy for Fry to get the individualized help she needed, and her grades suffered accordingly.

“It was a struggle that never ended with me,” said Fry, who lives with her grandmother in Newport Beach.

Then she moved to Back Bay High School, Newport-Mesa’s continuation site, where teachers work closely with students in limited-size classes. Since the school didn’t assign homework, Fry used her afternoons to take courses at Orange Coast College. She applied for and got a position as a student school board representative, reporting Back Bay’s news to the district twice a month.

And at an age when most of her peers were finishing junior year, Fry found herself ready for the cap and gown — thanks to her own determination and a very dedicated faculty.

“We didn’t change the intellect,” said her counselor, Annie Younglove. “The intellect was always there.”

Zaragoza turns failure to success with the support of faculty

A sterling work ethic. A dream for the future. The approval of his teachers and peers.

When Hugo Zaragoza began high school, he didn’t have much of any of them.

The Back Bay High School senior, who shone this year as prom king and a teaching assistant, sat at the back of class during his freshman year at Estancia High School — when he bothered to show up at all. The Westside Costa Mesa resident fell in with a crowd of low-achieving students at Estancia and proceeded to fail nearly every class.

“I guess I just hung out with the wrong crowd,” Zaragoza, 19, said.

But the Newport-Mesa district wasn’t about to give up on him. Before Zaragoza’s sophomore year, administrators transferred him to Back Bay under the Alternative Chance at Education program, which gives at-risk students a chance to make up their credits. Before long, Zaragoza was flourishing, as his F’s rose up to A’s and B’s.

It was a tough transition in more ways than one. While Zaragoza went to Back Bay, he also worked full-time to help pay his family’s rent — first at Mainly Seconds, then at Michael’s. He was more than up to the challenge, though, completing all his units three months before commencement.

The persistence of the Back Bay staff, he said, kept him on track.

“Here, if you’re in the back, they’re still going to ask, ‘Do you need help?’ ” Zaragoza said. “They’re still going to push you.”

SCHOOL STATS

VALEDICTORIANS: Patrick Chase, Ashley Shahbazkhani (Back Bay); Thomas Fish, Liliana Luna (Monte Vista)

PROM KING AND QUEEN: Hugo Zaragoza and Angela Coleman (Back Bay)

HOMECOMING KING AND QUEEN: none

AVERAGE GPA FOR SENIOR CLASS: 2.40 (Back Bay); 2.70 (Monte Vista)

PERCENT OF SENIORS GOING TO COLLEGE: 83% (Back Bay); 70% (Monte Vista)

To see more photos of students profiled, click here.