Sam is among the 27 students OPB has been following as part of the Class of 2025 project, which began in response to the state of Oregon’s goal that 100% of students would graduate from high school, starting with this cohort of students. Like all 27 students OPB is following, Sam started at Earl Boyles Elementary School in Southeast Portland. His family moved to Springfield when Sam was still in the primary grades, and he’s been there ever since.

When OPB checked in with Sam at the end of his freshman year, he was behind academically.

“I failed a bunch of classes my freshman year,” Sam explained, thinking back on his start to high school this past July, from his home in Springfield. “So I had to retake those.”

Sophomore year, he also failed a few classes.

But he’s been able to get back on track. Sam went to summer school the past two summers to retake classes he failed. And junior year, he didn’t fail any classes.

What made him successful this year, when things had been more challenging in the past?

“I have to say it’s my friends and my girlfriend,” Sam said.

“I just wanted to hang out with people really, but when your friends are also going to school and they aren’t skipping all the time … why are you going to skip?”

“Falling in with the wrong crowd” is a cliché with some truth behind it. But falling in with the “right” crowd can make a difference too.

“There’s this stereotype that … teenagers are going to be influenced to do bad things, but the evidence suggests that teenagers are just as likely to support and form relationships around really pro-social things, like academics,” said Melissa Witkow, a psychology professor at Willamette University.

Positive friendships with peers who are successful in school can make a student successful too. At a time when Oregon struggles to even get students to attend school consistently, anything helps.

Sam says his friends hold him accountable when he’s not in class. Take Julio, who took math with Sam.

“Anytime I was late, he’d [text me] like …‘where are you,’ and if I’d be like ‘I don’t want to come today,’ he’s like ‘show up, don’t do that. Show up.’”

“For some people, I would maybe say a lot of people, school isn’t all that fun,” Witkow said.

“But having friends in school provides a sense of belongingness, where now school is a place where I get to see my friends, I get to be with my friends, I have this shared experience with them, and that makes school more palatable.”

From making friends to making videos

Junior year, Sam also took three new elective classes that further strengthened his connection with his friends — and with school.

Through digital arts, advanced media, and graphic design classes, he learned new computer programs and got involved with the Springfield High School news crew.

Appearing on SHS News episodes, he and his classmates rank fast food cheeseburgers and do interviews in the halls.

He also works behind the scenes as technical director, queuing up graphics and photos as anchors share news about what’s going on at Springfield High.

Michael Klindt teaches digital arts at Springfield. He wants students to find something they’re passionate about.

“Sam is constantly asking questions and asking about ways that he can improve his skills, so you can definitely tell that it’s become more personal than just, ‘oh I have to do this because it’s school,’” Klindt said.

Sam says school electives are important because they can show students all of the paths available to them.

“School is supposed to be learning about who you want to be as you grow up, what you want to do for a living,” Sam said.

Back when he was a sophomore, Sam was interested in welding. He still is and hopes to take it in his senior year.

“I feel safe knowing as long as I am not into one thing, I’ll be into another,” he said. “If I’m not in welding, I still have graphic design and media, I still have a bunch of paths to choose from.”

On the news videos, Sam gets to work with friends who have the same interests he does. That creates an environment he wants to be in at school.

“When you enjoy something and everybody else there enjoys the same thing as much as you do and you’re able to just work together and get the thing done and you all are able to be happy about it,” Sam said, “that’s a good feeling.”

Klindt, Sam’s teacher, thinks back to his own high school experience. He said it’s not just about finding the right people to be around, it’s about finding “projects.” For Klindt, it was performing music and creating videos.

“It grounds the relationship into something positive and productive so that students who maybe even considered to be the ‘wrong crowd’, once they have a role and a responsibility and a project and people depending on them, they start to become the ‘right crowd,’” Klindt said.

After high school, Sam wants to combine his interests and get involved in graphic design, media or welding.

Through his electives, he already has practice using programs he might need to use in his professional life.

Sam admits his friends play a big role in his success at school. Sam’s dad, Rodger, says his son is coming into his own as he applies for jobs and exerts more independence.

“I’m real proud of the progress he made, this year in particular,” Rodger said.

“I think he’s taken that beyond just school, he has a lot more follow through in everyday aspects.”

Not just academics

Friends helped the Class of 2025 get through some of the tough times of junior year.

Making new friends made Ali’s junior year at David Douglas High School “memorable.”

“They include me in everything and don’t make me feel left out, and I feel like I can trust them,” she said at the end of junior year.

Her friends also came through when she was in an unhealthy relationship.

“They all tried telling me how toxic it was, but I didn’t listen, but eventually I did and I realized I shouldn’t be in that, I shouldn’t have to deal with it,” she recalled.

Austin started at a new school junior year, moving from David Douglas to Adrienne C. Nelson High School in North Clackamas.

“The first day of school, I was really intimidated,” he said. “I didn’t really talk to anybody the first day of school, I just kept to myself.”

But then Matt, an old friend from middle school and a fellow junior at Nelson introduced him to some of his friends.

Even as Austin made new friends, he missed his friends from his old high school. But he’s stayed in touch. At homecoming junior year, the old friends met the new ones.

“I introduced the two groups,” Austin said. “It was really fun, it was really funny.”

For Joel, another Class of 2025 student at David Douglas, friends make school worth it.

“Waking up at 7:40 is not nice, but I get to see my friends,” Joel said.

“My friends mean a lot — even when I’m down, they cheer me up without knowing they’re cheering me up.”

Friendships and close relationships are important at any age, Witkow said. But she said there’s something “special” about school friendships.

“There’s that opportunity to provide that sense of belonging in school and the opportunity to have those supports for what you’re doing in your classes, and it’s very proximal to school,” she said.

Heading into senior year, there’s a lot students will have on their plate — everything from what to wear to prom to what comes next after graduation.

But for Sam, he’s happy to only have his caseload to worry about, without extra classes to make up.

“It feels more accomplishing, it feels less dooming,” Sam said. “I’m going into the school year being like, ‘I’m only going to have to worry about the classes I’m given.”

“I’m glad when I graduate, it’s just going to be that I get my diploma and I figure out myself from there.”

Rob Manning contributed to this story.