Salem Reporter is publishing profiles about one graduating senior from each Salem-Keizer School District high school for its Class of 2026 series. The seniors were selected by their teachers, coaches and advisors for exceptional leadership and perseverance. See the other profiles here. 

Elvis Muthee, a graduating senior at West Salem High School, has always been a pillar of support for others. 

Whether by protecting his younger brothers from danger, being a rock for his mother or, more recently, being a father to his newborn son Zaire, Muthee sacrifices for his family.  

Having so many rely on him meant putting school on the backburner. He fell behind, was chronically absent, and even missed his entire junior year. 

Despite that, he refused to let circumstances dictate his future after his school councilor, Linda Munguia, gave him the nudge he needed to lock in.

When Muthee was told his senior year that graduating on time was a long shot at best, Munguia saw the student’s motivation smoldering beneath the surface. She shared her own life experiences with him, and helped convince Muthee that getting graduation over with would make his life much easier in the long run. 

“He asked the question, ‘Is it possible? What do I need to do to be able to graduate on time?’ It wasn’t, ‘What does my mom need to do, what do my teachers need to do, what does my counselor need to do,’ it was him asking me, ‘Mrs. Munguia, ‘What do I need to do to graduate on time?’” she recalled. 

Muthee put in the work, and was able to walk across the stage with his graduating class on Thursday, June 4, to receive his high school diploma. 

He said the birth of his son, Zaire, several months ago made the difference. 

“I made up my mind. I was like, OK. This is what I have to do. Say no more. And I just started grinding. Simple as that. Slowly by slowly. Every day. I was here. I would pull up to school on time,” Muthee said. “That is crazy for me to say because I always struggled with it. I can take school seriously when I have to, but I always have struggled to take it seriously because I’ve been doing so many grown up things ever since I was little.”

Muthee’s story began in Kenya, where he was born and spent his early childhood before moving with his family to North Dakota. Before he turned eight, the family moved to Boston, and that, he said, is where his life truly began. 

By middle school Muthee said he watched younger children get recruited by street gangs and he feared for his younger brothers as they walked to school. 

In order to protect them from such a fate, Muthee got involved himself. The experiences on the streets in Boston robbed him of a childhood, forcing him to grow up fast, he said. 

“It was so depressing. Being a kid, you are supposed to be in an environment that makes your imagination wander. You are supposed to be in an environment where you can be creative. That makes you playful, you know?” Muthee said. “Not in an environment where you are watching out for needles. Not in an environment where you got to duck down every five minutes because there is a shooting going on in your neighborhood.” 

He said losing a close childhood friend to street violence in Boston was a key moment when he realized he needed to change his life. That friend wasn’t the only one to die young.

“It all happened so quickly,” Muthee said. “That’s when I made up my mind. I have to be great. I don’t have a choice. I don’t. Because if I don’t be great, then they will be forgotten … I can’t let that happen. So, I have to be great.” 

Despite his realizations, Muthee lost himself. He skipped school and got into fights. He got suspended. 

He said his childhood in Boston was characterized by a sense that something terrible was always about to happen. His nervous system was primed for tragedy and he operated on a sense that he would have to be ready for anything. 

Eventually, his family sought new opportunities in Oregon. He started at Crossler Middle School in the middle of his 8th grade year.

When he first came to school in Oregon, there was a striking difference between his life on the East Coast compared to his new one on the West Coast. 

“I moved here and I’d seen how everything is, and it’s like, quiet, it’s calm,” Muthee said. “I wasn’t used to that. That calmness and quietness was uncanny.” 

He said the move to Salem was life-changing, for the better.

Weeks before graduation, Muthee looked calm and content. He smiled as he talked about his plans for his future, and of his past traumas. Events and experiences that shaped him into who he is today. 

“I am a very traumatized person for sure. I can sit here and be depressed all day if I wanted to be. I could sit here and sulk all day if I wanted to be and just be mad at the world because my friends are all dead, because this and this happened to me, because I never got a childhood, because woe is me,” Muthee said. “I could sit here and pity myself all my life. But if I do that, then exactly what kind of man does Zaire have to look up to?”
Muthee said that someone’s environment does not limit their potential.

“My message to honestly everybody, it’s just ‘get up, stand up. You have to fight. When you think you’re done, you’re not.’” Muthee said. “There’s been so many times I thought I was done. I thought I gave it all I could, and I looked at myself in the mirror, and I gave 10 times more than what I just did. Because you can do a lot more than what you think.” 

Muthee wants to move to Texas with his partner Aylena and their son. He has his sights set on a career in business and law. Muthee has a plan, and the motivation to carry it out. 

Not for his own sake. But for the sake of others. 

“All my life I’ve been used to being a pillar. And I’m ok with that. Because I know I am a good pillar. I know I am strong, and I know I’ve got to troop it through,” Muthee said. “Got to troop it through.” 

Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected]. 

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