Outstanding OPHS seniors

Aaryn Lustig Aaryn’s upcoming high school graduation is a testament to both her patience and perseverance. Aaryn was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at 3-weeks old. Because of her condition, it’s often difficult for her to maintain a regular class schedule, so Aaryn splits her days between home school and classes at Oak Park High School.

While Aaryn juggles both a full class load and a part-time job at a local ice cream shop, she anxiously awaits a call from the hospital at UC San Diego announcing they have located a lung donor for her. She has been waiting for over two years. Aaryn said she has undergone more surgeries than she can remember, but remains optimistic about the future.

Andrew Wilson She plans to attend Moorpark College next fall where she will study nursing.

Andrew Wilson spent the first

12 years of his life bouncing from

one home to the next. His mother

is an alcoholic and her constant

unpredictability forced Andrew

between the homes of his mom, her

boyfriends and Andrew’s grandparents.

Fatherless since birth, Andrew lived this hop-scotch lifestyle until nearly six years ago when his mother was arrested and he went to live with his grandparents in Oak Park. It was then that Andrew made a promise to himself that he’d never be like his mother.

Meirav Haber With a 4.4 GPA, Andrew will attend UCLA next fall on a full scholarship, making him one of the first in his family to go to college.

Andrew is interested in majoring in medicine and wants to become a vascular surgeon. Andrew is a peer counselor and also tutors.

Meirav is a true Renaissance woman. She is a scholar, athlete, artist and philanthropist.

Samantha Stoll The busy 18-year-old splits her time between school, a parttime job, tutoring, art classes and a hospice center where she volunteers with the elderly. She’s also on both the track and tennis teams, as well as the academic decathlon team, which ranked fifth in the nation.

If that was not enough, Meirav overcame a bout with mono this year which kept her out of school several times over five months.

Nevertheless, Meirav persevered. She will graduate with a 4.3 grade point average and an SAT score in the high 1300s. And she’s set to enter UCLA, her “dream school,” where she will major in the arts.

Tamar Mardirossian Samantha Stoll has played on the Oak Park High girl’s varsity soccer team since her freshman year. She’s on the all-CIF team, a nominee for the CIF ScholarAthlete Award, a recipient of TriValley League Offensive MVP honors, a co-recipient of the Bill Hoffman Memorial Award, and also a nominee for the Wendy’s High School Heisman Award.

Incidentally, Samantha managed to earn all those honors after she tore a knee ligament in her sophomore year. She returned a year later to post both 28 goals and 28 assists and serve as the team’s co-captain in her senior year.

With a 4.0 GPA, Samantha is busy with the National Honors Society and leading peer counseling sessions. She’s named in the Who’s Who of High School Students. She starts classes at UCLA in the fall.

Some people talk about their dreams; others work hard to turn them into reality. Tamar has spent her high school years pursuing her dream to become a professional singer. In fact, she’s in the midst of cutting her first demo and has already begun to attract attention from record industry scouts.

But the star-to-be said her parents made it clear early on that if she wanted to keep singing, she had to maintain an A-average. With a 4.1 GPA, Tamar has done just that.

Tamar’s academic success earned her a spot at UC-Berkeley.