A beaten mother, a convict sibling, and one emotionally scarred little boy. A handful of robberies, a lifetime of slacking in school, and one 25 year to life sentence. 

These are the images that students envisioned Friday, April 23, when speakers from the Architects of Peace foundation shared their stories at a school wide assembly.  

With elbows touching and ears straining, students stretched their necks to hear what these speakers had to say. One of the speakers, Samuel Nunez, gave a basic timeline of the atrocity he called his life. 

At age 5, Nunez witnessed his mother getting beaten by a sadistic male. At 13, he was expelled from school as his forlorn mother worked two jobs. From ages 15 to 18, he was in and out of juvenile hall and found himself drawn into the world of drugs and alcohol. 

Despite ambling upon an increasingly rocky path, he happened to find hope lying at the end of it.  “When I got shot, the bullet went right through my chest,” Nunez said at the assembly. “My lungs collapsed and everything, but prayers saved my life.”

This epiphany is what led him to join the Architects of Peace.

Junior Felicia Wimmer was enthused by this motivational tale. “It’s encouraging to know that even those that grow up with a bad background can have a successful life,” she said. “Not everyone who does drugs and alcohol will be a failure.”

Nunez said that he has been taught a valuable lesson through all of the turmoil he has been through – a lesson he won’t soon forget. 

The most important thing he learned was that everybody should get recognition for what they do. “The minute we cease to acknowledge people, the minute we cease to give them their place, is the day they cease to show up.” 

Another speaker, Kelly Turner, told of her life as well. She chose to ditch school and even worse, took up the nasty habit of theft. After “three strikes,” she was sent to a federal prison to serve a 25 year to life sentence. 

She said she learned many priceless lessons from her life of thieving and deceit. “I realized that I needed to have self respect,” she said. 

Not only did she become conscious that she needed to respect herself, but she began to understand that she couldn’t get through the world without help. “It takes a whole community to make peace,” Turner said. “You can’t do everything on your own.”

Students were amazed at the progress these speakers have made to turn their lives around. “They’ve come from so much, and they’re doing so well now,” sophomore Linda Avitia said. “I guess it goes back to this saying: ‘it’s never too late to turn back.’” 

Sophomore Marquel Toves was intrigued as well. His teachers say that he is a very bright kid but often hangs around with the wrong people. Though it may be true, Toves admits that the “Architects of Peace” assembly was a bit of a turning point. 

“I thought it was nice to hear those stories about when they were younger,” he said. “They made mistakes and learned from them.” 

     Mistakes are part of what makes this world  function. Had these speakers not made any mistakes of their own, they wouldn’t have been able to learn from them.

     Architects of peace is all about making peace with the past, present, and future.