BULLDOGS END THEIR FAREWELL TOUR, START NEW CHAPTER PAGE A9
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2018
HermistonHerald.com
$1.00
INSIDE
VIOLENT
WEEKEND
Stabbing, shooting
happen hours apart in
unrelated incidents in
Hermiston.
PAGE A3
LANGUAGE
OF SUCCESS
MARVIN HOZI
One of Hermiston High
School’s 10 valedictorians
this year, sports two
sashes he will wear during
the graduation ceremony.
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
Baghdad-born student
reaches top of the class
VIRAL COPS
Local police departments
find challenges in
striking the right tone on
social media.
PAGE A6
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
W
hen Marvin Hozi walks
across the stage to receive
his diploma, he knows
exactly where his next
steps will fall.
Hozi, one of 10 Hermiston High
School valedictorians in the class of
2018, will attend George Fox Uni-
versity in the fall to study computer
science, and will pursue a master’s
degree at Stanford immediately
after. He has secured full scholar-
ships for both institutions.
But the path to success wasn’t
always easy.
“I lived in Baghdad (Iraq) from
birth to 2006,” he said. When he
was six, his family fled from the
violence and war in his home coun-
try to Jordan, and about a year later,
came to the United States as refu-
gees. From New York they moved
to California, and then to Oregon.
Hozi didn’t learn English until
he was in seventh grade, about two
years after he arrived at the Hermis-
ton School District.
When he started fifth grade in
Hermiston, no one in his family
spoke English. Hozi said he felt he
needed to figure out a way to learn,
to start supporting his family.
“I started by listening to music,
watching movies, listening to how
people talk,” he said.
He soon picked up the language,
and has since maintained perfect
grades.
He still speaks Arabic at home
with his parents — his father owns
a jewelry business and his mother
does embroidery work.
Hozi has not been back to Iraq
since he left due to violence in the
region. But he still has some rela-
tives there, and hopes to return for
a visit.
“I’d like to go back once things
improve,” he said.
Hozi’s hard work has paid off
in many ways, but it also led to a
challenge when he was selecting a
college.
He applied to George Fox Uni-
versity, and decided while he was at
NEW RULES
Hermiston School District
publishes transportation
information, rules for
new graduation venue.
PAGE A8
BY THE WAY
Free summer meals
for students
This summer, students
needing a place to eat
meals they normally get
at school will be covered,
as most cities in the area
will be offering free sum-
mer meal program for kids
and teens.
Echo: July 9-August
2,
Monday-Thursday,
11-11:30 a.m., Echo
School, 600 E. Gerone St.,
Echo.
Hermiston:
June
11-June 22 at Armand
Larive Middle School and
Hermiston High School,
and June 12-29 at Sun-
set Elementary School.
Breakfast 7:30-8:30 a.m.,
Lunch 11:30 a.m.-12:30
p.m.
Stanfield: June 11-July
19, 12-12:15 p.m., Stan-
field Public Library, 180
W. Coe Ave., Stanfield.
Umatilla:
June
18-August 17 (exclud-
ing July 4), Monday-Fri-
day. Kiwanis Park, 12:30-
1:20 p.m.; Marina Park,
11 a.m.-12 p.m.; Umatilla
High School, 8-9 a.m., 11
a.m.-12 p.m.
• • •
Thanks are in order to
Hermiston Herald read-
ers who responded to an
April 4 By the Way entry
from Ivy Young . A fourth-
grade student at Char-
See HOZI, A14
Grad walk
Story | A8
Photos | A13
See BTW, A14
Foundation offers new way to give
The Greater Hermiston
Community Foundation
will start giving grants
after it raises $200,000
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
For Hermiston residents who
want to give back to their commu-
nity, there is no shortage of options.
Rather than adding to that list,
the Greater Hermiston Community
Foundation is creating a sustainable
fund it hopes will benefit the region
for years to come.
The newly created founda-
tion’s goal is to harness some of the
area’s well-known generosity into
an endowment fund that will allow
donors’ gifts to give perpetually
through interest earned on the fund’s
investments.
“This community is dedicated to
making itself better and if we can
help with that we will succeed in our
mission,” board member Nate Rivera
said.
Dennis Barnett, of accounting
firm Barnett & Moro, said he came
to Hermiston just after college with
nothing but a degree and “a few
shekels in my pocket.” All of the
career success and wealth he has
gained since then has been thanks
to the community, he said, and he
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL
See FOUNDATION, Page A14
A wall lists donors for the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center.