Kevin Orellana’s family came to the United States from El Salvador five years ago when he was 13 — around the age gangs start recruiting young boys.
“There is a lot of violence. Several close friends and neighbors were killed,” said Orellana, a senior at Seton School in Manassas. “We were fleeing from that. My parents really sheltered me and my younger brothers (now ages 13, 12 and 10). They were afraid of losing us. They gave up everything to come here.”
In public middle school in Manassas, he put all his energies into learning English, and joined the Hispanic youth apostolate Stabat Mater, which he credits with helping him grow in his faith.
Although his family was religious, he said he used to think saints were “like a statue. I was very self-centered. I thought, ‘Why would you go help somebody you didn’t even know?’ ” But he said the group “formed me and taught me to be a leader. They presented me with the opportunity to be a saint — to forget about myself and start thinking about others.”
He said the group also connected him with Seton, where he has continued to grow and thrive. A diligent student now fluent in English, he plays a varsity sport each season, sings in the choir and assists with the school’s sound system. He also helps livestream Masses at his parish, All Saints Catholic Church in Manassas.
Tim Heisler, Seton dean of students, said from the time he met Orellana as a freshman in his pre-algebra class, “it was obvious that he was an exceptional young man, dedicated to his love for Jesus and greatly desiring to spread that love to his fellow students. He is kind, courageous, understanding and humble. He has many responsibilities at home to help his family, and yet service is his calling card everywhere he goes: at school, at home and on the weekends.”
Heisler said his son, Kolbe, hired Orellana to work part time at his landscaping business a couple of years ago, and they often debated the “impracticality” of Orellana’s self-giving love and service. His joyful approach to whatever task he was given, “day in and day out, rain or 100 degrees, would often surprise my son and leave him shaking his head that there were actually people like Kevin who brought their love for Christ into everything they do, even landscaping.”
Heisler believes those conversations “had a bigger impact on my son than Kevin realizes.” He said a couple of months ago, his son sold his business and moved to Honduras to live with the Franciscans for a year, working in an orphanage.
Orellana downplays his own influence. “But it’s amazing to see how God is working with him now,” he added.
He is headed to Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio this fall on scholarship, where he is thinking about studying social work or business. But he’s not stressed about the choices before him, he said. “I’m trying to live as much as I can in the present moment. We’ll see how it goes, whatever Jesus says.”
Whatever direction he takes, Orellana feels confident in “being able to be holy, while doing whatever I do in the secular world. We can pray wherever we are.”
