Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing six seniors
from San Juan Diego Catholic High School. When interviewing them, I asked them
questions such as why they decided to come to SJDCHS and what their plans were
after graduation. These students have worked hard and are incredibly determined
young individuals. While I was in high school I don’t recall being this
ambitious or having such big aspirations for my college career or even after my
college career for that matter. However, these students know what they want and
are determined to have it for not only themselves, but the ones that have
always supported and encouraged them, their families.
The first student I interviewed was senior Andres. Andres
has been at SJDCHS since his freshman year and has served on the varsity soccer
team all four years. He has also been part of the varsity basketball team for
the past two years and is a very polite young adult who has big dreams after he
graduates. When speaking with Andres, he spoke of how he was the oldest of five
siblings who all look up to him, and how he feels a sense of pride being a role
model to his younger siblings.
Andres spoke of how it was ultimately his decision to come
to San Juan Diego Catholic High School, “I told my parents about the CIP (corporate
internship program) program, and while they were initially a little skeptical
about the transportation, they ultimately knew it was a great idea for me to
attend.” While in the CIP program, Andres has worked at Dell in the acoustics
engineering lab, explaining that he tests hard-drives and exposes them to
different frequencies that could potentially damage the hard drive. This is
great experience for the career path he wants to pursue - engineering. “The
school has helped me want to pursue an engineering degree, thanks to the CIP
program and the experience I’ve had at Dell.”
Not only has the CIP program helped him choose his career
path, Andres credits his choice of colleges to college counselor Alison Liu.
“Ms. Liu has been extremely helpful in assisting with college applications and
finding the right schools that fit us,” Andres says about the senior seminar
class. The senior seminar class is unique to SJDCHS in that senior students
spend the entire fall semester learning about the college application process,
scholarship opportunities, and resume writing.
Because of his GPA, Andres has already been accepted to The
University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas at San Antonio. He is
awaiting responses from Rice and Stanford University and hopes to, after
graduating from college, travel to California or any major city that has a
major engineering need.
