The Lakers are proud to announce February’s Student of the Month winners, Erica Capellino, Javier Garcia and Sam Yarin and Teacher of the Month winners, Davide Busetti, Gary Fong and Lynn Walker. This month’s winners demonstrate an outstanding commitment to academia, athletics, and community outreach.

Erica Capellino, a 9th grader at Palos Verdes High School, has maintained straight A’s in the classroom, led her cross country team to the state championships for the first time in school history and played a lead role in the classical ballet, “The Nutcracker.” Erica is also participates in the Palos Verdes Ticktockers, the school’s community service club, and she is a member of the L.A. County Junior Life Guards organization.

Javier Garcia, a 12th grader at El Rancho High School, is captain of the Academic Decathlon Team, president of the AP Biology Club and co-founder of the El Rancho Model United Nations Club. In addition to his heavy course load full of advance placement classes, Javier volunteers time to organize canned food drives and help beautify the school campus on El Rancho Pride Day every year.

Sam Yarin, an 11th grader at Agoura High School, is a member of the honor roll, the National Society of High School Scholars and the California Scholarship Federation. In addition to his school work, Sam participates at the varsity level in both basketball and baseball. He also works with the Agoura Youth Basketball Association as a scorekeeper for youth games. Two years ago, Sam co-founded the Kids for Kids charity, which collects used sports memorabilia to donate to youth in South Central L.A.

Davide Busetti, a 2nd grade teacher at Wallace R. Elementary School, is committed to creating an exciting learning environment for his students. Davide is a member of the school’s social and academic committee and creator of the Morning Family Reading Program, which allows parents to read with their children at the beginning of each school day. He is trained the school’s CATCH Physical Education program and works with the after school nonprofit provider, THINK Together.

Gary Fong, a 4th grade teacher at Clover Avenue Elementary School, leads his students to achieving academic success, which is demonstrated by their consistently high scores on the California Standards Test. As supervisor of the student council, Gary organizes elections, runs meetings and plans activities. Gary is also the school’s Gifted and Talented Education coordinator, the Technology coordinator and a volunteer for the Junior Achievement program. In addition to his work at Clover, Gary is an adult literacy teacher with the South Bay Literacy Council.

Lynn Walker, a 5th grade teacher at Carr Elementary School, is a member of Carr’s Staff Development team, Principal’s Advisory committee and District Language Arts steering committee. She is the driving force behind Carr’s Read to Achieve program and has led her class to 100% completion for two years running! As the spokesperson for Carr Elementary, Lynn volunteers to attend various assemblies and award ceremonies on behalf of the school.

The honorees were invited to the home game on February 19 where the Lakers took on the Atlanta Hawks. They were honored during a halftime presentation where the recipients received a plaque and a $50 gift certificate to Staples. The nominations for the February Student and Teacher of the Month were submitted by principals and teachers of each school based on exemplary teaching efforts, academic achievement or extracurricular activities.