Growing up, Gabriela Castillo never thought that she would graduate high school, let alone go to college.

But when she transferred from Portland Adventist Academy to Ridgeview High School her junior year, Castillo’s attitude about school changed. She will become the first female high school graduate in her family when she crosses the graduation stage on June 7.

“I didn’t even think I was gonna graduate high school, honestly,” Castillo, 19, said. “My mom never made that a priority. School was never a priority for us. She would let us stay home whenever we wanted to, and I think that’s why I struggle so much.”

Castillo’s school situation was complicated. Originally from Arizona, she transferred to numerous elementary schools around the state due to financial instability.

Her biological father was deported to Mexico when she was five. After that, her biological mother struggled financially to raise her eight children by herself.

Castillo’s brother, Cesar, who was a part of a Phoenix Youth at Risk, a youth mentorship program, connected him with the Yano family when he was eight-years-old. Castillo was also a part of that program and had gotten to know the Yano family as well.

Under difficult circumstances, the Yano’s decided to adopt Castillo’s brother into their family after they had moved to Portland when he was 12-years-old. Castillo followed shortly after.

At the age of 12, Castillo’s life again changed drastically. She got a new start as part of an adopted family in Portland.

“It’s been an amazing, eclectic, little family unit that we’ve created,” said Sara Yano, Castillo’s adoptive mother. “But it’s just been an amazing experience and both of the kids are exceptional.”

But in that family, her education was off to another rocky start. Because school had never been a priority, her adoptive parents felt that enrolling her into a private high school would offer better support.

But it didn’t work for Castillo. She was a new to a smaller group of tight-knit classmates who had different, more stable upbringings than she did.

“I never got the hang of school really,” Castillo said. “I just never studied and didn’t know how to study. I was really struggling … I don’t know. I just never felt like I fit in in that environment. I didn’t feel like I was growing at all. I wasn’t getting good grades.”

When COVID-19 hit during her sophomore year, not much changed for Castillo. In fact, she recalls it being easier since, remote learning required less effort and fewer days in the school building.

“We were through Zoom, which didn’t bother me at all,” Castillo recalls. “I would say that I really didn’t struggle but again, I wasn’t motivated on getting my grades or anything. It was super easy during COVID.”

Something shifted when Castillo’s family made the decision to move to Redmond the summer before her junior year. She enrolled at Ridgeview in 2022 and started that fall.

“I just realized that I was gonna graduate in two years and I needed to pull myself together,” she said. “I think teachers also made a really big impact. Miss Felton is our senior teacher and she’s so amazing. I think just relationships with teachers really helped me and helped me realize that teachers actually want to help. And I never used to think that.”

During these last two years, Castillo has stayed focused on school while working 38 hours a week at KFC, taking an intro to early education course at COCC and volunteering at a local child care center.

“I always wanted to work with kids, I love kids,” Castillo said. “At any family event, I always found myself holding a baby or just playing with kids.”

Castillo got into volunteering at MountainStar Family Relief Nursery when a family friend told her about the Pips Education Fund that helps pay for college classes. The program requires a set amount of volunteer hours to be eligible for the scholarship.

After graduation, Castillo plans to attend COCC and study early childhood education.

“(Gaby) has risen above life circumstances that maybe would have kept her down and has worked really hard to accomplish what she’s accomplished and get to where she is in life,” Yano said.

She is motivated by her past to be a support system for young people, so that they won’t have to experience what she has had to go through in her childhood.

“Just realizing that, yes, I’ve been through a lot. And, yes, I guess I just grew from my trauma honestly, all of my childhood problems and trauma have really made me the person I am today because I realized that there’s more to life,” Castillo said. “ I’ve noticed that I actually have motivated myself a lot more because of it. And because of that, it just showed me that I want to be a good parent, and I want to be there for kids who are struggling with that.”