Mica Peak High School: New home and new school steered Ethan Vaughn to success (original) (raw)

This is a story about Mica Peak High School senior Ethan Vaughn. Or more accurately, about Vaughn and the sister he says saved him.

Vaughn was almost halfway through his sophomore year in Oklahoma, failing most of his classes, with little interest in school or anything else. He decided to visit his older sister, Julia, for Thanksgiving, and it wasn’t long before he asked if he could move in with her, subject to his parents’ approval.

“At that point, I didn’t have any thoughts about my future and I didn’t care about anything,” he said. “And even after I moved, when I started at Mica Peak, I was indifferent about the idea. I had never heard about alternative schools where you could make up credits and I didn’t know what to expect.”

It wasn’t a wake-up call right away, he said, but as he was able to meet more students and staff at Mica Peak, he began to understand that an education was not just a requirement, but a privilege: “When I did, I found more purpose to everything that I was doing. That was something that I hadn’t previously understood.

“I was no angel, though, and I gave Julia plenty of reasons to regret keeping me before I turned it around. She’s 10 years older and had practically raised me and my siblings anyway, so she understood that it would be a challenge, but she knew that she could give me a better chance at a future. For a while, though, I kept not listening to her.

“But Julia never gives up on anything, even if it costs her everything, and she didn’t give up on me. She’s an amazing and compassionate person, and she was always patient with me.”

When Vaughn realized that at Mica Peak he could make up his missing credits, his attitude and his effort took an abrupt turn for the better.

“During my freshman and sophomore years before I moved up here,” he said, “I used to say that I wanted to run away and live in the woods. No one at home or school was really invested in me, but that changed when I got up here. I was still way behind, but I was able to regain some credits through state testing and eventually graduating on time with my peers was something that I really wanted to do. I don’t think that I would have graduated if I stayed in Oklahoma.”

Vaughn has been enrolled during his senior year in the Automotive Tech program at NEWTech Prep, the Spokane-area cooperative skills center.

“NEWTech gave me amazing opportunities,” he said. “I’ve always loved math and eventually I’d like to become a mechanical engineer. Right now, I just want to get my foot in the door somewhere and get a start as a technician.”

The lesson that Vaughn has learned from his experiences, and from his sister?

“Never give up, no matter how hard things seem. You may be your biggest problem until you figure that out, and when you do, you can accomplish anything. I owe my sister everything. She and her fiancé are the reason that I am where I am today.”