When she was a high school sophomore, Tessa Permar’s mother promised her that if she kept her grades up for the next two years, she would help to fund and support a gap year for her daughter, between high school graduation and Tessa’s first year of college. Now a senior at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, 17-year-old Tessa has kept her end of the bargain, and is currently applying for programs for that gap year.

The late Lillian Hellman did not have to wait long for validation of her talent — many of her 12 plays, including The Children’s Hour and The Little Foxes, were instant successes. But some of her other contributions have taken a bit longer — in this case, more than 25 years — to reach fulfillment.

As a student at the Edgartown School, a counselor once told Chappaquiddick native Stephanie Duckworth-Elliott that she wouldn’t go to college, and implied that Ms. Duckworth-Elliott would not achieve in life. The young girl had a background and home life that already separated her from other kids her age — she was a member of the only Wampanoag family living on Chappy at the time, and raised primarily by her grandfather — and the counselor’s prediction made her feel even more detached from her peers.