Two of the Santa Clarita Valley’s graduating seniors have undoubtedly had more said about them than any other member of the class of 2026.
Carlotta Ayala and Val Healey sat to the left of the podium Thursday in La Mesa Junior High School’s auditorium as teachers and counselors described what had made the pair’s personalities special — what had carried them through the Sequoia program, and would ultimately be their biggest strengths in the post-graduation world.
William S. Hart Union High School District governing board member Cherise Moore told the pair that, whatever came after, it was vital that they believe in preserving those qualities.
“I’m just going to speak to you. (The audience is) here, (but) this is for me to you. I want you to know that sometimes in this world people are going to want things to fit into nice little square boxes,” Moore said. “Life is never meant to be like that, and when they try to put you into that little square box, help them understand that, ‘I’ve learned that I’m valuable just the way that I am.’”
The Hart district’s Sequoia program is an education system for students from seventh through 12th grade with an emphasis on mental services and individualized support.
The district’s website touts a low teacher-to-student ratio and the Educationally Related Intensive Counseling Services system, meant to address the emotional barriers that can make a typical education inaccessible to some students.
Those parts of Ayala and Healey’s personalities that perhaps would never have been seen with the same attention by another educator outside of Sequoia were a major part of their send-off Thursday.
Sequoia instructor Raderic Manzano — Ayala and Healey’s workforce preparation teacher, school counselor and case manager — said that the story of Ayala’s time in the program, including the death of her 12-year-old brother, was one that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
Ayala struggled with addiction and depression throughout her high school years, and when her brother died in 2023, it felt as if her world had been rocked, she told The Signal. After she found a faith community at Casa de Oracion Puerta al Cielo, her perspective changed dramatically.
“Carlotta, you taught me that people are capable of changing their own story,” Manzano said. “Sometimes, when students go through difficult things for so long, they begin to believe that the struggle in this life will be all (it’ll) ever be, that the version of themselves they are today is a version they will always remain. But your life proves something different. You prove that growth was possible, that healing was possible.”
Ayala said that the Sequoia staff made going to school a fundamentally different experience than it had been before — one where she wasn’t shamed for not being the perfect student.
“When I started … (at) Sequoia, I still wasn’t coming to school in the way that I should have, but they helped … not put that pressure on me, and be like, ‘OK, we understand what’s going on with her absences,’” Ayala said. “They didn’t make me feel condemned. They made me feel welcomed and understood, and so eventually that helped with me coming to school more.”
Ayala plans on getting her manicuring license at Monarch Beauty Academy, and possibly cosmetology and barber licenses.
As for Healey, the words used to describe him most often were “hilarious,” “creative,” and several versions of “warm-hearted.” Healey knew how to lighten the mood without undercutting a serious lesson, Manzano said.
Healey and Ayala’s English and photography teacher, Lynn Holmgren, said that Healey had learned how to be strikingly resilient in the face of discomfort — while keeping his artistic talent and his sense of humor on his sleeve.
“He created our yearbook cover this year, but brushes this beautiful work off as not a big deal,” Holmgren said. “Well, maybe it’s not a big deal to you, Val, but it’s a huge deal to us. He cleverly wove our school symbol, the samurai, in colors black, gray, and red into a sophisticated representation of motivation, understanding, and resilience, three of our school’s seven core values. Our friend Val embraces these three values as well.”
For his part, Healey told The Signal that, after graduation, he has a range of paths in mind — anything from attending a trade school to pursuing psychology studies, or even auto work.
Whatever came next, it was Sequoia that had given him this, he said.
“It’s been a long journey, and it’s been a journey that’s gone by kind of fast, to be honest,” Healey said. “But just to … have this accomplishment, like they said, it’s only the start of the next chapter, and it feels really good.”
