Student Spotlight: Devon Angle wins Heron School ‘Perseverance Award’

--- Published on March 23rd 2016 ---
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Devon Angle is a Heron School 8th-grader who jogs long distances – and from that he has learned life lessons we can all take to heart.

Devon was chosen for this month’s “Student Spotlight” because he is an example of success through grit and determination.

School has not always been easy for him, but Devon will finish his stint at Heron School this week as the winner of Heron’s 8th-grade Perseverance Award for his positive, never-say-die attitude.

Devon’s jogging is a metaphor to his life.

“I think there’s one thing for everybody, that once they start doing it, it helps them in their life and they like doing it,” Devon said. “It really helps make their lives better.”

For Devon, running has been that niche.

He was not born with a special gift for endurance running: He remembers races in which he stopped along the way, wheezed, struggled to finish.

But Devon learned that the key to success in running – and in school – is to keep taking one more step, no matter the distance, no matter the obstacle.

He learned that victory doesn’t always mean crossing the finish line first.

He learned the satisfaction of challenging himself, pushing his limits, setting goals, working to attain them.

From jogging, Devon said he has learned to have more sympathy for people who struggle along the way. Another fringe benefit is that he jogs with his mother, Nikki, and he values that as  bonding time “when we get to hang out.”

“Devon has really grown this year as an 8th-grader, and his teachers and I have all noticed it,” Principal Amy Whitten said. “He is more confident in himself and seems to have found a new determination to work hard in school and ensure that he is really learning the concepts he needs in order to keep moving forward academically. When I heard about his success in running, I was thrilled for him, and I wondered if this may have been a key component in his new confidence in school as well.”

Devon, 13, remembers a time when he couldn’t run six miles without stopping, but he kept at it, improving, until he could run half-marathons. Over the past year, he has completed both the Disneyland Light Side and Disney Land Dark Side 13-milers.

 “It’s made me want to motivate people to go and try things, just go try before they think, ‘Oh, I don’t want to do that, it’s boring.’” Devon said of jogging.

“Sometimes to get what you want, you have to do things you don’t want to do,” he added.

Another metaphor for life, perhaps.

And another example of why Devon is a Heron “Perseverance Award” winner.