Grad Standout: Immaculate Heart High School graduate celebrates everyday moments amid pandemic

LOS ANGELES - Immaculate Heart High School's Maya Marostica is a student-athlete who has gained a new perspective on life after visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. She says it made her embrace everyday moments, even as her senior year came to an abrupt end due to the coronavirus crisis. 

After her last year of high school was cut short, she wished for one more tackle slide on the soccer field and to the ability to spend one more day with her friends.

“I really took for granted the last day where I could’ve hung out with my friends…prom on top of that. It’s hard to think about because my last thing…I was supposed to have all these things for my senior year and I didn’t end up having them.”

While disappointed in not being to walk at graduation, Maya is managing to keep it all in perspective. 

Maya was able to participate in a junior internship program at USC for the Shoah Foundation where she got the opportunity to meet many Holocaust survivors and document their testimony.  She remembers a moment with the Shoah Foundation that really inspired her.

“While I was on my trip with them to DC, we went to the Holocaust Museum.  It gave me a new perspective on this quarantine.  This is not the worst thing in the world.  I may be losing a bit of my senior year, but there are people who lost their children and their lives."

Marostica received a scholarship to the University of Nebraska and plays to study Criminology. 

In fact, she says she got the bug for forensics after watching popular cop shows on TV.  

Congratulations Maya Marostica from Immaculate Heart High School on graduating, and on being featured on FOX 11’s Grad Standouts!

 We wish you all the best at Nebraska!

If you’d like to nominate someone to be featured go to @dancohenfox11 on Twitter or Facebook and click on the link pinned to Dan’s page.