Student scholars are living examples of the American dream

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

KAHUKU — As a child, Cristobal Miguel Sisneros could only watch as his parents spiraled into the depths of drug abuse that forced him from their home and eventually killed his father.

Kahuku senior Cristobal Miguel Sisneros was awarded a $10,000 Horatio Alger National Scholarship. Sisneros was among 104 teens nationwide to receive the scholarship. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

But a few moments later Sisneros was counting his blessings, including supportive sisters and earning a $10,000 Horatio Alger National Scholarship for overcoming adversity and succeeding through hard work, integrity and perseverance.

"I was lucky because I had a family to take me in instead of going to foster parents," Sisneros said. "I think that's why I did so good."

Sisneros and 103 other teens nationwide are recipients of the 2002 Horatio Alger scholarships, all of them proving that a person can do well despite such problems as poverty, hard luck and abuse. Some 50,000 high school juniors nationwide applied to the organization, which distributed more than $4 million in need-based college scholarships.

"It's pretty incredible what these kids live through and have optimism about their future and the future of the country," said Anthony Hutcherson, with the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans.

Before coming to Hawai'i, Sisneros and his older brother were shuttled between his mom's place in New Mexico and his father's home in Arizona. Sisneros said he remembers having to get his own meals — there was always food in the house — and staying with friends and relatives to avoid going home.

By the time an uncle and family friend intervened and got him out of his mother's home, he was living in a hotel on the seedy side of town, said his half sister Felicia Orian, who lives on the Big Island and who took Sisneros in.

"It's a very intense situation to be in, especially when you're a kid," Orian said. She said she also had lived with her mother's drug and alcohol problem, and began living with friends and relatives when she was 9 years old and was on her own at 15.

Orian, 30, said she wasn't surprised that her half brother, who now lives with another half sister, Bess Sisneros, in Hale'iwa, received the scholarship. He was always self-motivated, playing soccer, getting good grades and surfing, which she said has contributed to his well-being.

While recognizing that getting him out of the situation was the best thing for him, Orian said she just provided the financial support and was the big sister. In fact, she said she benefited from living with him, especially when it came to forgiveness.

She struggled when their mother, Shari Lee Ohlinger — drug-free for five years now — visited them recently.

"I have a lot of bitterness," Orian said. "It's hard to be nice to her, but he tried to pull us together. He's so forgiving. I felt totally immature trying to rise to his level."

Ohlinger said she didn't like the circumstances under which her son left, but thought it was better to let him go and work things out later. She came to realize that the move was good for him and said she was proud of his successes.

"He went and he blossomed," Ohlinger said by phone from the Mainland, adding that her son is able to turn "hard times" into something positive.

Ohlinger credits Orian for her son's success.

"She suffered the same adversity," Ohlinger said, adding that both children could have ended up using drugs but didn't. "Felicia is the rock of the family."

At least 10 other Hawai'i students have won Horatio Alger scholarships in the past 10 years. The scholarships were first awarded in 1986.

The association and the scholarships it distributes are a way to promote the American dream, that through hard work one can succeed, the theme found in most of the books by Horatio Alger Jr., a prolific and popular late 19th-century writer, Hutcherson said.

Alger's plots followed a template of poor kid without parents, using quick wit, integrity and honesty to overcome adversity.

The stories told by the scholarship recipients are living examples of Alger's theme, Hutcherson said. The students' tales recall hardships from extreme poverty to almost every imaginable abuse.

Sisneros said he was glad to be rescued from his mother's home when he was in the sixth-grade.

"I saw (my parents') lives get destroyed by drugs," Sisneros said, adding that the addiction worsened until his father died last year. Fortunately, his mother sought treatment.

Not having parents was difficult, he said, especially since they were loving and caring before the addiction took over.

"Watching them fall apart was the hardest," Sisneros said. "They used to be normal and good at what they do."

He spoke proudly of their ability to make silver jewelry, some of it displayed in museums, in Taos, New Mexico, where he was born. He said he speaks to his mother by telephone regularly.

Cristobal Sisneros, whose grade point average at Kahuku is about 3.4, had planned on going to college since he was in the ninth-grade. The $10,000 scholarship will make it possible for him to attend the University of Hawai'i.

Lisa DeLong, Kahuku principal, said Sisneros always sought opportunities to grow and move toward his goal, like participating in the Upward Bound program that gives kids a taste of college and enrolling in challenging courses such as trigonometry.

"I was surprised to hear he had experienced hardship because he's so successful and good-natured," DeLong said. "His story is inspiring, too, and one I'll use to motivate others."

Longtime family friend Rachel Whitley said Sisneros is motivated, getting himself up for school each day, working at Sunset Pizza and pulling his weight around the house.

"He's an amazing teenager," Whitley said. "I don't know any others like him as far as his dedication to school, work and other things."

Although Sisneros, 18, is pretty much responsible for himself, he credits his sisters for his successes.

"I wish things would have turned out different with my parents, but I'm glad things turned out for me, and my sisters took me in," he said. "I couldn't have done it without them."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.