The principal, the students

Diana Del Pilar:

Del Pilar has served as the principal of Middle College High School at HCC Gulfton since the school opened in 2014. She believes that by focusing on students’ social and emotional needs, she can help them meet their academic goals. But as the state continues to raise the bar on what it expects from students, the 2017-18 school year is shaping up to be Del Pilar’s greatest challenge yet.

Daniel Carbajal:

Daniel keeps a list of rules taped up on the wall next to his bed in the room he shares with his brother. The rules came from his probation officer, after Daniel spent much of 2016 in juvenile detention for aggravated robbery. They’re the motivation he uses to remind himself each morning to stay on his new path and become the first in his family to graduate from high school and go on to college.

Dakota Koppenol:

Dakota has bounced around several schools in the four years since his mother committed suicide, and he moved in with a steady string of relatives. When he started at Middle College in the spring of 2017, he immediately grabbed the attention of his teachers for his artistic talent and flair for poetry. If he can keep his grades on track, through all the noise in his life, he has a shot at being named valedictorian.

Carmen Zuniga:

Carmen asked her mom to pull her out of school when she was 13 so she could help raise her little brother and sister in the wake of her father’s deportation. When she came to Middle College a couple of years ago, she was a 17-year-old freshman. Now, she’s on the cusp of graduating, as long as she can avoid racking up too many absences caring for the kids.