High school graduation marks a shared milestone, but the road to the stage looks different for every student. While many thrive in a traditional comprehensive high school setting, others may face challenges related to academics, social dynamics, personal circumstances, or scheduling needs that require a different path to stay on track and meet their personal and academic goals.
Recognizing that students have different needs, the Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) offers a variety of educational programs designed to support them where they are. Whether a student benefits from a smaller in-person setting or the flexibility of a virtual program, these options offer personalized pathways to positive student outcomes.
This year, four graduates from Creekside High School and the IUSD Virtual Academy (IVA) exemplified the resilience, grit and determination that is representative of IUSD students. Each navigated unique circumstances, including serious illness, foster care, caregiving responsibilities, or extensive volunteer commitments. For these students, a non-traditional learning environment was not an alternative to success – it was the best environment for achieving their goals.
Flexibility, combined with genuine, caring relationships among students and the dedicated teachers, administration, and staff, helped these students regain their confidence, motivation, and sense of accountability. All four students graduated on time or ahead of schedule, and each is heading into higher education.
Yura Shaktilavi (Creekside)
For Yura, the road to graduation was interrupted by a medical crisis layered on top of a monumental life change. Having relocated to the United States at the end of 2022, Yura was still adjusting to an entirely new country when their health faltered.
While at University High School, recurring physical and mental health challenges required frequent hospital stays.
“I was basically hopping in and out of the hospital for about a month,” Yura recalls. “My health wasn’t in the best condition.”
The worst disruptions occurred during finals week, and Yura fell severely behind on credits. Recovery was further complicated by the disorienting nature of American high school culture. The standard format — switching classrooms and peer groups every period — was unlike anything Yura had known.
“In the country I came from, you have an established class,” Yura explains. “Here, you switch. I had problems making friends even back in my country, so here it was three times as difficult.”
Recognizing that the mainstream structure was impeding Yura’s recovery, administrators at Uni High recommended a transfer to Creekside. Yura enrolled at the start of junior year and felt immediate relief in the smaller environment.
The turning point came on the very first day. Overwhelmed by anxiety during orientation, Yura experienced a breakdown on campus. A school counselor stepped in immediately, sitting with them, offering space to talk.”
“He just gave me some space to vent,” Yura says. “He provided me with actual, helpful support.”
Yura also found solace in the campus art studio, a refuge from academic pressure.
“We just had to perform at our best; what we could do was enough,” Yura says. “In a way, it was a safe place to express myself.”
With that support in place, Yura turned their academic trajectory around and finished coursework ahead of schedule. They are now attending Irvine Valley College, pursuing a focus in natural sciences — a childhood dream.
“The most important lesson I learned at Creekside is that sometimes it’s OK to fail,” Yura says. “Ending up at a credit recovery school felt like a failure at first. But I graduated early, I’m at college, and I’m living my best life, all because I technically failed before.”
Ethan Griffith (Creekside)
Not every student struggles because of illness or circumstance alone. Some simply need a different kind of structure, especially when carrying the weight of a complicated childhood.
“Not every child can shine at a traditional, mainstream school,” says Chad Tellekeratne, Ethan’s foster parent. “Creekside fills that gap by providing the guardrails and stability that students need to turn their lives around.”
Ethan spent much of his childhood in the foster care system, placed at age 8 due to family instability and separated from most of his siblings for years.
“I always thought my life couldn’t be compared to other people’s,” he says. “I’ve always struggled by myself.”
Ethan moved to Irvine to live with his older brother and enrolled at University High School for the tail end of his sophomore year. The transition was jarring. Unaccustomed to a rigid block schedule, he quickly fell behind as assignments piled up, and failed most of his classes.
Counselors referred him to Creekside for his junior and senior years, and the change in environment sparked an almost immediate internal shift. Ethan arrived determined to finish school as quickly as possible. Creekside’s model — no homework and coursework he could move through at his own pace — gave him the flexibility he needed to catch up.
“His mindset completely changed once he went to Creekside,” Tillekeratne says. “He started doing work ahead of time. The small class sizes and individual attention gave him a real sense of accountability.”
That academic breakthrough opened the door to longer-term ambitions. Since freshman year, Ethan had quietly harbored a passion for clothing design, sparked by watching skate videos online with his brother. At Creekside, he finally had the mental space to sketch designs and imagine his own brand. With the help of his counselors, he translated that passion into a concrete plan: He graduated early and has enrolled at Orange Coast College to study fashion and business.
“I want to start a clothing brand, baggy skate streetwear,” Ethan says. “I’d get inspiration and draw it out from sketches.”
His drive extended beyond the classroom. For the past year, Ethan has balanced school with a part-time job as a ride operator at Boomers in Irvine. And he stands as the only member of his immediate family to graduate early and head directly to college.
Camille Dedrick (Creekside)
For Camille, the decision to transfer to Creekside began with a moment of self-awareness. Midway through junior year, she recognized that social distractions at Woodbridge High School were pulling her off course.
“I was getting involved in other people’s lives more than I wanted to,” Camille reflects. “That was making my academics difficult. I knew I needed to transfer because I wanted to change my life.”
Raised in Irvine by her single mother, Sonya, Camille had always shared a deep bond with her. But just as she was settling into Creekside, Sonya became seriously ill. Camille’s role shifted overnight. While keeping up with coursework, she took on more around the house — cleaning, cooking, and other tasks that had fallen to her mother. She also took a job at El Pollo Loco to help cover expenses.
“Juggling all of that plus studying and trying to graduate on time was hard,” Camille says. “But working that job also taught me a lot about responsibility.”
Grief compounded the challenge. In April, Sonya died. Six months earlier, Camille had also lost her aunt.
That level of heartbreak could have derailed her education entirely. Instead, Camille found an anchor in the Creekside community — in its diversity of backgrounds, and in the staff who made their care unmistakably felt.
“My teachers, counselors, and even the security guards cared about me,” she says. “You could feel it.”
Camille graduated on time. This fall, she will attend Irvine Valley College, with a dream of one day becoming a pediatrician or a family therapist.
“Family has always been important to me,” she says. “I love kids, and because of everything my family went through.”
She carries her mother with her as she goes.
“I just hope she’ll be proud of me. I want her to see that, despite everything, I graduated on time and I’m going to college.”
Jasmine Khalessi Hosseini (IVA)
Choosing an online school was a scheduling decision for Jasmine as much as an academic one.
As an incoming freshman, she recognized that fixed class times would get in the way of something she already knew mattered more to her: helping people. The IUSD Virtual Academy gave her the calendar flexibility she needed.
“I volunteered at the Red Cross for almost two years,” Jasmine says. “The shifts would be really early in the morning, and they would be four or more hours. So if I didn’t do IVA, it wouldn’t have been as easy.”
Her interest in healthcare traces back to childhood. When Jasmine was six, her older brother entered medical school. She watched him go on to become a gastroenterologist in New York.
Her brother often spoke about the diversity of people and backgrounds he encountered in medicine — a conversation that nudged Jasmine toward healthcare and, she says, deepened her empathy along the way.
After losing her grandfather to Alzheimer’s disease, she joined IVA’s Alzheimer’s and Health Medical Research Club. She led biweekly presentations on new research and made space for the kind of conversations that don’t come easily in an online setting.
“We talked about how having a loved one with Alzheimer’s really affects the family emotionally,” she says. “My club and I had vulnerable conversations. I think especially because it’s an online school, you don’t really get to have those types of conversations. So that was very valuable.”
Academically, Jasmine matched her civic work with serious rigor. She earned the Princeton Book Award, the President’s Award for Educational Excellence, and AP Scholar with Distinction.
Jasmine also spent three years in IVA’s student government, finishing as ASB President her senior year. Aware that online schools can feel isolating, she organized monthly in-person events — bowling trips, movie nights, and gatherings at Boomers — to bring the virtual student body together in person.
This fall, she heads to UC Irvine to study psychology.
“I just want to help people and get to know them,” Jasmine says. “Healthcare feels perfect for that. You get to really interact with people and contribute to their quality of life.”