Meet Our Alumni

• Bright Star Secondary Charter Academy (2010)
  
• BA, University of California, Santa Barbara (2014)
  
• MA, University of Maryland, College Park (2018)
  
• Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (2019, Brazil)

After graduating from Bright Star Schools in 2010, Ivan Lamas-Sanchez earned his bachelor's degree and his master's degree. In 2018, he was awarded the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, and will travel to Brazil in 2019 to teach English to college students.

Ivan is the first in his family to graduate from high school and college, and his goal is to increase the number of students of color, first-generation students, women, and LGBTQ students in competitive universities.

• Bright Star Secondary Charter Academy (2015)
  
• Posse Scholar
  
• BS, Kalamazoo College (2019)

Selected as a Posse Scholar, Karishma Singh is currently attending Kalamazoo College. She credits Bright Star with helping her to get where she is today. As Karishma says, 

“Bright Star Schools shaped my dreams and aspirations -- and gave me the opportunity to be heard.

"I want to leave behind a legacy; I want to be an inspiration to young women of color letting them know that anything is possible.”

• Bright Star Secondary Charter Academy (2015)
  
• Santa Monica College (2017 transfer)
  
• University of California, Los Angeles (2019)

Alexis attended Santa Monica College for two years and after completing general education classes and pre-requisites for a political science degree, she was accepted into UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSC, and UCSB.

She chose UCLA, and attends school full-time while working two part-time jobs. Her post-graduation plans are to attend law school. 

• Bright Star Secondary Charter Academy (2010)
  
• BA, University of California, Santa Barbara (2018)
  
• MEd, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Science (2019)
  
  After graduating from Bright Star, Rony Castellanos started college, but had to drop out to work to support himself.
  
  As soon as he was back on his feet, Rony went back to college and earned his associate's degree from West Los Angeles College, and then his bachelor's degree from UCSB.
  
  As an undocumented and gay student, Rony experienced many setbacks and struggles. But he never gave up on his dream of graduating from college.

• Valor Academy High School (2017)
  
• BS, California State University, Northridge (2021 anticipated)

A strong high school student, Alberto is an even stronger college student with a 3.75 GPA in his first semester at CSUN. He's diving into history, politics, and Chicano studies and credits Bright Star with showing him how college really is.

He's grateful for the support from Bright Star as an alumnus. He says,

“Even after graduating, Bright Star is still there to help you out. It’s comforting to know that I have people to fall back on if I ever need help or fall down."

• Valor Academy High School (2018)
  
• Kayne Scholar
  
• BA, University of California, Berkeley (2022 anticipated)

Selected as a Kayne Scholar, Melissa heads to Cal in fall 2018. Melissa says that Bright Star shaped her into everything she is now, and gave her the motivation to want to start and change things.

She's got her eye on the U.S. presidency, and as Melissa says, "I think that that’s shooting for the stars, but Bright Star makes those stars reachable. 

“Bright Star creates leaders. We create people who want to change things who don’t conform to the status quo.”