This year, the Free Lance profiled an outstanding soon-to-be senior at each of San Benito County’s three main high schools. Selected by school principals and counselors, these students represent some of the best Hollister has to offer.
SBHS valedictorian goes from family farm to engineering
Pablo Azcona will likely be remembered at San Benito High School as the valedictorian that turned down Princeton.
Azcona, 18, sports an impressive 5.0 GPA for senior year, is taking six AP classes and nine AP tests and turned down an Ivy League school to study civil engineering at Berkeley, one of the best public universities in the nation and the home of a star engineering program.
He brought home the Gates Millennium Scholars scholarship this spring, which is given to only 1,000 students across the nation and promises all winners a full ride to the college of their choice.
“I strive to be an outlier,” said Azcona. “I wanted to represent everyone who built me up and anyone who was an integral part of my life, and I wanted to show my respect to them by devoting my time and my career to being a civil engineer and getting this valedictorian (position) as tribute to them.”
Azcona grew up on the family walnut orchard south of Hollister, where he moved water pipes and cut grass as a child and was told to seek a higher education. The oldest of six children, he is now blazing the way.
Azcona is a leader on campus in more ways than academics. He’s captain of the track team. He is also the treasurer of Key Club; vice president of the California Scholarship Federation; and an active volunteer in planning school dances, helping low income residents find winter clothes through the nonprofit Small Steps and assisting in downtown cleanups from here to San Jose.
Picking a college major was not hard for this student, who showed an interest in engineering in grade school and has been working – not interning – alongside civil and structural engineers at Advantage Truss Co. since last summer.
“I like to say that choosing my major was special because I chose it in the sixth grade,” he said.
Azcona has always liked math, something he’ll be doing a lot of as he prepares for a career in engineering.
“I like math because there are multiple ways to get one answer. I think math is absolute, and you have all these approaches to find one correct answer. And it’s like life – you get all these opportunities and each road has its different paths, and whichever one you take is based on your destiny.”
Anzar student takes on the world through service
Alexandra Bautista is the modern humanitarian.
Bautista, 18, is graduating from Anzar High School. The champion of leadership and community service is off to Santa Clara University to study business and she wants to make technology accessible to people in third-world countries.
“I think, this year, since I’ve had such a huge role in leadership, I guess it proved to me I really do like that leadership role and I feel business is leaning towards that,” she said.
Leadership might be the word of the year for the senior who is president of two service clubs, captain of two sports teams and the editor-in-chief of the school yearbook.
She is also her class senior commissioner, an elected ASB position that involves ordering class sweatshirts and taking charge of events such as winter ball.
When she’s not volunteering or coordinating for her school, Bautista is out on the field or by the pool. She’s done varsity soccer and swimming for four years. In her not-so-copious free time, she edited the school yearbook.
“I think one the best things I’ve learned in high school is time management because I have a lot of AP classes and I’m part of a lot of sports and classes.”
In the classroom, her favorite topics are economics and globalization – essentially anything that looks at how countries differ worldwide.
“I really like my economics class. I think that was probably my favorite (class) of all four years,” said Bautista. “I really liked learning about globalization.”
That interest in globalization fits right along with her extracurricular activities. This year, she was president of the campus Interact Club, which raised money to send solar-powered ovens to Afghanistan. She was also president of the campus Circle of Friends club, which pairs autistic students with mainstream classmates at lunchtime.
Off to the Army
Ben Viramontes of San Andreas Continuation School is taking the road less traveled this year and is delaying college to spend some time in the U.S. Army.
The 17-year-old transformed a GPA of about 1.5 in his freshman year to his current GPA of 3.25, but he’s still not sure he’s ready to make the leap to college.
“To be honest, I just don’t think I’m mature enough for college yet,” he said. “I’d just go and want to hang out with friends and party. So I chose to go to the Army and then go to college after.”
His dream job is to be a game warden for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The career path was actually his father’s dream job, and it “kind of carried over,” he said.
“I like to go hunting so it just seems like a fun job. I like to be outdoors so it seems like it would be cool,” he said.
After a stint in the Army, Viramontes has his heart set on attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas – a public, coed school.
Until then, he’s setting his sites on a more practical goal: buying a car.
He’s been working for the City of Hollister Recreation Department as a score keeper and referee since his freshman year and he clocks between 10 and 35 hours a week now.
The car is not far away now – just two or three months, he said.
When he is in school, his favorite subject is government because it breaks down Congress and the presidency and explains how laws become reality.
“It’s just interesting,” he said. “It fascinates me.”
While in high school, he played football for two years at San Benito High School, before playing basketball and baseball his junior year at the private Anchorpoint Christian School.
High school came with some tough life lessons, especially after he was kicked out of traditional high school.
“The thing I learned most in high school was probably to listen to what your parents say because it is true,” Viramontes said. “They said ‘time flies’ and it does. I’m already graduating. It went by quick.”
He’s not sure exactly what the future holds but there are some things to look forward to as an Army recruit. He’ll soon be off to Airborne School, where he’ll learn the art of jumping out of planes and flying a parachute. Then, it’s off to Ranger School, which is “kind of like Navy Seal (training) but for the Army,” he said.
Top 10 San Benito High School students and where they are attending:
Valedictorian Pablo Azcona: UC Berkeley
Salutatorian Patrick Carlson: UC Berkeley
Breanna Alosi: UC Berkeley
Alondra Covarribias: UCLA
Vanessa Gutierrez: UCLA
Ryan Han: UC Davis
Megan Haugland: UC Davis
Aaron Martinez: UC Davis
Rachel Logue: SDSU
Tristan Russell: BYU
* Names are not listed in order by class ranking or GPA
