Ki'Ara Rivera evolved into a leader at Valley Vista High School

Ki'Ara Rivera, one of the class of 2020 graduates from Valley Vista High School, plans to attend Orange Coast College.

By Andrew TurnerStaff Writer

June 13, 2020 3:49 PM PT

When Ki’Ara Rivera reflects on her time at Valley Vista High School, it is safe to say that she will view it as a life-changing experience.

Valley Vista is the continuation school of the Huntington Beach Union High School District.

Rivera, 18, arrived there at the start of her junior year. At the time, graduation felt out of reach.

“I just went through a period of time where I was dealing with a lot of personal events in my life,” Rivera said. “The first two years of high school, I didn’t pass any of my classes because I had so much else going on. Once I transferred, I thought about graduating in a complete other light, and it was something that I wanted for the first time in my life.”

Rivera said that she had dealt with anxiety, and some bullying, while attending her home high school, Fountain Valley, but the environment at Valley Vista aided in putting that behind her.

Smaller class sizes allowed the staff to make a personal connection with its students.

“At Valley [Vista], every teacher cares about you,” Rivera said. “Every staff member is always asking how you’re doing. If you’re having a bad day, you can step outside, regather yourself.

“Everyone there is there for the same reasons, maybe because of different circumstances, but there’s no hostility or weirdness between students because we’re all in the same boat.”

Kerry Clitheroe, the principal at Valley Vista, said in an email that Rivera came into her own in the two years that she spent at the school.

“As time went by, she began a slow transformation into a confident and caring young woman,” Clitheroe said. “She began to speak up in class and ask questions, especially in her social studies classes in order to gain a deeper understanding of the issues and to connect historical events with current situations occurring in the world.”

Rivera enrolled in the school’s leadership class offering, taught by Meghann O’Connor, who was also her social studies teacher. Take the lead Rivera did, organizing campus activities and fundraisers to support charitable causes.

Among the community service efforts, she helped students raise $800 for Laura’s House, an organization that provides services to domestic violence victims in Orange County.

Rivera also organized a canned food drive to support Orange County Food Bank. She also sorted food in their warehouse.

Clitheroe added that Rivera was awarded the 48th Congressional District Leadership Recognition honor, and she received the Simon Youth Foundation Scholarship.

Rivera plans to attend Orange Coast College, starting down a path that she hopes will lead to becoming a history teacher. She wants to educate at-promise students like herself.

“I just feel like I’ll be able to connect with my students more, especially with them knowing that I used to be right there with them,” Rivera said of her desire to teach at an alternative high school. “They can graduate, and they can go on to college and extend their education, and it doesn’t have to end in continuation school.

“[An at-promise student is] someone with bad circumstances, but you can overcome it, and that’s what I did, so I really just want to help other students ... get to this point, because I felt like a lot of teachers of mine helped me get to where I am now, which is graduation.”

Rivera was among 188 graduates from Valley Vista, which held a drive-up graduation on Wednesday. Her advice to her classmates is to take chances.

“Take big risks because that’s what produces big outcomes,” Rivera said. “Just take any big risk that you can.”