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  Wai'anae, Hawai'i
  December 3rd, 2013 - Wai'anae, Hawaii
  
  “A dream’s never too big, and in the end, it’s only you,” said Esteban Vilchez. “It’s you who has to decide what you want to be, what you need, what you what to do in life, because it’s you that’s gonna be your spine, your backbone. You need to think, is this gonna make me happy? Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life?”
  
  Wai’anae High School has, roughly, a 30-percent dropout rate. In his junior year, Esteban Vilchez became part of that statistic that dropped-out of Wai’anae High.
  
  “The reason I left public school is to further my education and exceed in what I needed for my courses, and just for everything, so I can get ready for college,” said Esteban. “I really wanted AP Sciences- like AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics. I guess that I was skeptical, afraid that I wouldn't get enough information from Wai`anae High School.”
  
  WHS offers a total of five Advanced Placement classes: two AP Literature and Composition, two AP Language and Composition, and one AP Calculus class. WHS Counselor Shane Nakamura said that Wai’anae High does not offer more AP classes because resources are being assigned to teach repeat classes for those that failed that specific class. But for those at WHS that want to be challenged in another way, there are other means.
  
  “There is this program called Running Start. In Running Start, you can earn dual credit, high school and college credit," said Nakamura. "You can challenge yourself a lot. Last school year we started it off, we offered one English 100 class, so that was pretty innovative."
  
  After Esteban left the public school system, he enrolled into Orion High School. Orion is an online schooling program that is accredited by Advanced Education. Orion is also an accepted schooling by Esteban’s goal college, John Hopkins University, which has one of the top education programs that Esteban feels he needs to achieve his goal career.
  
  “At first I wanted to become a teacher, then an actor, and a architect,” said Esteban. “I decided I wanted to be a Biomedical Engineering just the science of it... I would study Biomedical Engineering to help the world, make a change and cure diseases.”

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Looking Back

Doing what you need to do to become what you want to be is the tip I got from Esteban.  From him, I realize that once you sent your mind to something do it.

Delilah Rountree, Reporter

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Spending time with Esteban, I learned that there is no boundaries to achieving your goals. 

Abreen Padeken, Reporter

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