Newport Harbor High School: Simona Avram

Simona Avram

Newport Harbor High School Senior Simona Avram didn’t even know what the English word “tardy” meant when she moved with her mother and 12-year-old brother from Timisoara, Romania, as a freshman.

Now she’s graduating near the top of her class, with 10 Advanced Placement courses under her belt.

“I feel like I’ve grown up a lot and come so far,” Avram said. “It’s been miracle after miracle. It wasn’t easy; every single step of the way was hard.”

At 19, Simona is a year older than most of the other seniors at Newport Harbor — children don’t start school until age 7 in Romania. Simona had a pretty good command of English when she and her family immigrated to the United States from taking language classes in school and attending American-sponsored summer camps in Timisorara, but it didn’t completely prepare her for her new life as a high school student in Southern California, she said.

“It was something completely new for me — there were so many different words I didn’t know, but my teachers were great,” she said.

Simona also has had to work her way through school, taking jobs first as a file clerk in a doctor’s office and later at a local book store. She’s also volunteered her time putting on a puppet show at a local public library and has gone with a youth group from Newport-Mesa Church to volunteer at an orphanage in Mexico.

Simona’s been back to Romania twice to visit her grandparents since she moved to Newport Beach in 2005. The visits have been bittersweet, she said.

“It’s a fun thing to go back, but also painful sometimes. I see some of the barriers that are there,” Simona said.

Very few Romanian students go on to get a college degree. Bribery is rampant in the higher education system there.

“I love the people, but the system is still corrupt,” she said.

Simona was named Newport Harbor’s Social Studies Student of the Year. She plans to take classes at OCC next year and hopes to eventually transfer to USC, where she would pursue a degree in international studies. Her ultimate goal is to go to law school and study international law.

“I have a passion for different nations and meeting people from different countries,” Simona said.

— Brianna Bailey