COSTA MESA, Calif. — The 12th Orange County Superintendent of Schools has lived a life that sounds unbelievable as if it came straight off a movie script.

From contracting polio at 2, being paralyzed, his parents abandoning him on the streets of Saigon, to coming to America to start a new life in a country where he didn’t speak the language, Dr. Stefan Bean has faced challenges, obstacles and anything that has come his way through community, family and faith.