CORONA DEL MAR HIGH SCHOOL:Dedicated to breaking down barriers

Zan Margolis walked through the front doors of Corona del Mar High School every morning during her senior year and saw an inspiring sight. The wall of the front office featured a framed proclamation, dubbed the school’s “Resolution of Respect,” which contained a few typewritten sentences about human rights and more than 100 student signatures.

It was an inspiring sight, and it was the legacy that Margolis will leave for Corona del Mar High. Or part of her legacy, anyway.

Margolis, 18, dedicated her school career to breaking down barriers between groups. She founded the Human Relations Council, a group that holds assemblies and other events to combat prejudice on campus. She also co-founded Club Anthro, a philanthropic student group, and served as an organizer for the annual Leadership Institute for Teens in Aliso Viejo.

And while much of Margolis’ work has centered around fighting cliques, she’s always kept an eye on the tumultuous world outside Newport Beach. While at Corona del Mar High, she’s appeared in a documentary about post-tsunami Thailand, invited landmine victim Ken Rutherford to speak on campus, and spent Martin Luther King Jr. Day touring the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

Raising awareness can be tough work at times, but whenever Margolis passed by those signatures in the front office, she knew she wasn’t alone in her quest.

“The world has globalized, and we’re in a position to combat bigotry on a global scale,” she said. “Every generation is a new beginning, and I may be flattering myself when I say that our generation is doing something special. But for progress to be made, every generation needs to feel that way. That’s how we keep moving forward.”

LIU GOES FROM LAB ASSISTANT TO BIOLOGY MAJOR

At the end of his junior year, Larry Liu decided he’d like to be a research assistant in the University of California system. Then he realized he didn’t need to wait until graduation.

The China native, who moved to the United States four years ago, looked up 40 professors at UC Irvine — 20 in biology and 20 in genetics — and asked if he could do apprentice work in their laboratories. Thirty-nine of the professors turned him down or didn’t respond at all.

The one that came through was Carrie Brachmann, a professor of developmental and cell biology who invited Liu to be her lab assistant.

Liu, 19, relished the opportunity — and he proved it to Brachmann by working in her lab up to seven days a week during the summer. When senior year began, he stopped by the lab in the afternoon and did his best to juggle high school and college life.

“I had to jam to finish my homework at school sometimes,” Liu said.

This fall, he plans to attend another UC campus — Berkeley — and major in biological engineering.

Despite his background in science, Liu has an equally strong passion for business; his dream career, he said, is in the pharmaceutical industry.

Jessica Monserrate, a graduate student in Brachmann’s lab, said Liu would have a good shot at any career.

“He was a very sharp student,” she said. “It was quite obvious when we first met him.”

SCHOOL STATS

VALEDICTORIANS: Michelle Atkins, Sarah Cummings, Allison Gruber, Thomas Hutchison, Geon Jee Kim, Jeffrey Lee, Tiffany Liu, Brittany Ngo, Erica Su, Ilana Yamtoobian

PROM KING AND QUEEN: James Monahan and Markie Beidleman

HOMECOMING KING AND QUEEN: Michael Tanzer and Anna Fletcher

AVERAGE GPA FOR SENIOR CLASS: 3.20

PERCENT OF SENIORS GOING TO COLLEGE: 99.5%

To see more photos of students profiled, click here.