Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Graduates
“I just love the game a lot, and I just love the physicality of it,” Gregory said, explaining he never shied away from playing football. “I really just saw how much I could improve myself in all aspects just from playing the sport.”
Diehm said Gregory has stood out among his peers by overcoming circumstances that may have crippled others emotionally.
“It just didn’t with him,” she said. “He’s so mature for his age.”
Gregory said he’s had less of a relationship with his birth mother than he would have liked over the years.
“It’s helped me appreciate the people that you have in your life and not take them for granted,” he said.
Gregory said he’s grateful for his relationships with his father and stepmother, Eric and Blake Gregory.
“There’s going to be people who will let you down even though they’re close to you, but you have to kind of overcome that and find other people that will be there for you,” he said.
Gregory will pursue a degree in computer science. Diehm said she’s excited to see what the future holds for him.
“I don’t know what God has planned for him, but I think he would be just an amazing example for anyone,” she said. “Wherever he goes, he’s going to command respect. I think that’s just a given.”
OSCAR CERAS Rogers Heritage High School
It hasn’t been an easy final semester of high school for Oscar Ceras. His father died Jan. 14. His grandfather died a month later. Both lived in Mexico.
“Two really hard hits,” said Ceras, 18. “I missed almost a month of school.”
Just as Ceras was recovering emotionally, the coronavirus pandemic closed schools to in-person instruction for the remainder of the school year.
“I miss my friends. I really miss the school,” he said. “I wanted to spend more time there, because I know I’m not going to go back. All my friends wanted to spend more time there. I feel sad for them and for me.”
Ceras’ mother got a green card and brought him to Northwest Arkansas from Michoacan, Mexico, seven years ago, he said. Everything was new, and it was a struggle at first. But he adapted quickly, learned English and made friends, he said.
His interests and talents span a variety of areas. He likes to be a disc jockey. He took an automotive technology class at Northwest Technical Institute this school year. And for the past five years, he has worked for his uncle, who owns a carpentry business.
Ceras plans to go to Northwest Arkansas Community College, then transfer to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to study civil engineering. He’ll be the first in his family to attend college.
He joined Heritage High School’s League of United Latin American Citizens club and eventually rose to co-president his senior year. The club has about 150 members, he said.
One of the biggest influences on Ceras was Brig Caldwell, who was the school’s student relations coordinator and community liaison until he died of cancer in December 2018 at 43.
Ceras initiated a club project last fall in Caldwell’s memory. The club raised money through various methods to buy hundreds of toys — more than 400, by Ceras’ estimate — which members delivered to Arkansas Children’s Northwest for Christmas.
“Mr. Caldwell meant a lot to me. If I needed something, he was always there for me. He was always there for everybody. He impacted so many people,” Ceras said.
Ceras had an impact on others, too. Tina McClure, a counselor at Heritage, said Ceras is gifted at helping and mentoring his peers. He tutored students whose first language is Spanish who needed help with math, she said.
“I have had many students tell me when they came in to see me about college or they were having a hard time, that Oscar encouraged them to come and seek out help,”
McClure said. “Or, he would tell them what they needed to know as well.”
CAMPBELL HILL Greenland High School
Sports played an important part in Campbell Hill’s high school experience. The coronavirus pandemic deprived student athletes like her of opportunities to make a final statement.
Hill, 18, played basketball and ran cross country and track throughout high school.
Her track team, consisting of just herself and four other girls, finished state runner up in Class 3A last year. Hill expected good outcomes for this season, which the pandemic stopped after two meets, the last one March 6.
“We had two seniors, including myself. We had high hopes for sure,” she said.
Hill is a lifelong Greenland resident who’s attended schools in the city her entire life. The school district, with about 750 students, is one of the smallest in Northwest Arkansas. That’s just fine with Hill.
“I can’t imagine going to any other school,” she said. “At a small school, you have such community support, such a community following. Fans will always show up for games. They really want to support academics and athletics.”
Beyond that, she’s happy to have grown up with so many of the same people.
“I’ve had the same group of friends, and it’s a cool experience to do that. You know everybody, all the teachers know you. There are close relationships formed with everybody.”
Her mother is a computer lab teacher at the elementary school. Having her mother as a teacher back then wasn’t a problem, she said.
Hill finished with a grade point average above 4 and was a National Honor Society member her junior and senior years. She’s headed to Northwest Arkansas Community College, then plans to transfer to the University of Arkansas with an eye on becoming a radiologic technologist.
Jake Hardin, principal of Greenland High, said Hill took full advantage of the small-school experience by participating in athletics and numerous extracurricular activities as well as taking her studies seriously.
“Campbell is a highly motivated student, a natural leader and shows a maturity well above her years,” Hardin said.
ABIGAIL HOWARD Providence Academy, Rogers
Abigail Howard went to bed Jan. 19 feeling fine. She woke up the next morning with excruciating back pain — “the worst pain I’ve ever felt,” she said.
Her legs became weak within an hour, and before long, she couldn’t move them at all. She went to the emergency room that day and was in the intensive care unit for 10 days. Doctors did numerous tests, even exploratory surgery. They discovered a slight herniated disk in her spinal column, which they believed broke off and caused a stroke in her spinal cord, Howard said.
Life had been going well for Howard until that January morning. She was voted homecoming queen. She received a scholarship to play soccer at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia. The stroke left her wondering when she would walk again.
She was admitted to the Craig Hospital, a rehabilitation facility just outside Denver specializing in spinal cord and brain injuries.
Howard spent nearly two months in an intense physical therapy program — eight hours per day, every day.
Frustration set in at times, but her therapists remained upbeat and energetic, she said. By the first week of March, she was jogging on a treadmill.
The 19-year-old envisioned returning home to Lowell to celebrate her recovery with friends. By the time she got home March 21, however, the coronavirus pandemic had hit. Such a celebration would have to wait.
Howard never experienced anything like the stroke. It reshaped how she looks at life and sharpened her sense of gratitude, she said.
“I got to the point where I was complacent and took for granted everyday things, like being able to feed myself, because there was a point where I couldn’t do that,” she said. “I can’t really relate anything in my life to be as hard, yet rewarding, as my spinal cord stroke.”
Soccer is off the table for this fall. She’s not allowed to participate in sports for a year after her stroke. She continues to see a physical therapist twice a week. She works at recovering her soccer skills.
Howard finished most of her classwork while in Colorado and is graduating on time with her class, she said.
She hadn’t thought of pursuing a career in health care before her stroke. Now, she intends to major in kinesiology and become a physical therapist who specializes in spinal cord injuries.
Jason Ross, Providence Academy’s chancellor, said Howard’s “positive, approachable and steadfast spirit” earned her high esteem among her teachers and peers.
“Abigail has inspired our school and many others. We are so proud of her,” he said.
REID PETRIE Farmington High School
Reid Petrie said his experience as a Farmington High School student was different than he anticipated.
“I kind of always pictured me just being another kid that didn’t really need to stand out or anything,” he said.
Petrie, 18, was born and raised in Farmington. He said he unintentionally became well-known in high school after becoming involved with the school’s broadcasting program as a sophomore.
“It was kind of scary, but I got over it,” he said, adding he took on a new weather segment in his junior year. “I volunteered to be the meteorologist, and I’ve been doing that every Friday for about two years now.”
Donna Norsworthy, his high school counselor, said the teen emerged as a “quiet leader” for his peers through the experience.