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The CCS girl’s varsity volleyball team had a self-proclaimed “lessons learned” season. They ended up with a 2-12 record.

Boy’s and girl’s high school varsity basketball is in full swing. Heads are held high while the team hopes and works for playoffs. The boy’s current record is 4-5.

The girl’s current record is 1-5. Games for both boys and girls are scheduled through February.

Talk of baseball and softball has began to buzz the campus as student athletes prepare for a baseball and softball meeting that will take place next week.

Author: Student Alex Vanderspek :: Direct Questions or Comments to jdpaul@ccs-w.org

Cornerstone Christian High School had an international flavor at its commencement ceremony Friday night. Seven of the 20 graduates are natives of South Korea.

Many of the students, who live with host families near the Wildomar campus, had families members come in from Korea for the ceremony.

Among the visitors was Dong Kyu Shin, who flew in with his wife and son to watch daughter Ji-Sun “Michelle” Shin graduate.

Speaking some English, and getting some help from his daughter who translated, he said he is very proud of her accomplishment.

He said he missed his daughter while she has been at the school for three years.

“I called three times a week,” Shin said.

Michelle Shin, 18, said she enjoyed the independence that came with being on her own.

“Even though I wasn’t staying with my parents, I was OK,” she said, adding other foreign students lived with her and her host family.

Shin said she plans to attend fashion college in Los Angeles.

Classmate and fellow Korean In Young “Lindsay” Oh, 19, said she grew to love her time at Cornerstone.

“At first it was really hard because I couldn’t speak English at all,” she said. “I got homesick.”

Oh said going to school in America was a change from what she was used to.

“In Korea, they spend 10 hours a day in school,” she said. “Here they spend six hours. American students play many kinds of sports. In Korea, we don’t play sports.”

Oh, who plans to attend State University of New York, and Shin were members of Cornerstone’s softball team.

Principal Sharon Privett praised the students who leave their home and family to study abroad.

“They have brought so much to our program,” Privett said during the ceremony. “Their smile, their genuineness, their academic brilliance.”

Dean of academics Debra Rosen said having the foreign students on campus helps push classmates.

“They challenge our students in some ways to step up in academics,” Rosen said. “They come in very driven.”

The students have a lot in common, however.

“It just bridges that cultural gap,” Rosen said. “Whether you’re from Korea, China or Murrieta, kids like the same things, laugh at the same things. It’s amazing how they come together and bond.”

Rosen said 19 of the 20 graduates are headed to college and the class combined to give 3,160 hours of community service, including 436 by Michael Uraine.

The class also boasts its first-ever National Honor Society members in valedictorian Donnielle Reynolds, salutatorian Nicole Huffman and Yae Sul “Angela” Kim.

Reynolds said she started working on her speech about two weeks ago, going to the Internet for help.

Her main message to classmates was to have no regrets and remember the good times.

“Keep in your heart all the lessons you have learned, either good or bad,” Reynolds said in her speech.

The school’s renamed Heritage Award went to Cody Kretzschmar. It honors the senior who best meets the school’s mission of faith, virtue and influence.

Call staff writer Craig Shultz at 951-676-4315, ext. 2625.  See the article on NCTIMES.com

Furlong said he believes Chambers will challenge the athletes in many ways. He will make the players more physical through his training.Chambers also put in a new machine in the weight room called the Vertimax, which helps with jumping and running.