San Benito High School graduate Pablo Azcona remembers the days when he sat in classrooms with windows open and fans on and how it was unbearably hot.
That won’t be the case for some students this fall, thanks to upgrades from Blach Construction, a company using money from the $42.5 million general obligation bond approved by voters in June 2014 to bring air conditioning and other modernization improvements to classrooms.
The job was personal for Azcona, the 2014 valedictorian of the school who returned to Hollister as an engineering intern with the company this summer.
“It’s great to come back and work for the community that raised me and brought me to where I am today,” Azcona said. “I still remember the days when we didn’t have AC’s in those classrooms.”
Now a student at the University of California, Berkeley, the 19-year-old is most famous locally for turning down Princeton University to attend the state school.
This summer, Azcona worked as a project engineer helping Blach coworkers review projects, schedule work and designate responsibilities to subcontractors, he said.
A sheep made noises in the background as Azcona answered his phone Friday evening at the family’s five-acre walnut orchard in Hollister.
“I really like Berkeley. It was a big change. Honestly, I did struggle,” he said. “But I was able to manage it. I tried my best and I think that’s really all that counts.”
Since his graduation, Azcona has, on occasion, imagined what life would have been like if he had accepted admission to Princeton instead.
“I stand by my decision,” he said, adding that it brought him to his ‘great’ internship with Blach.
Azcona connected with the company after attending a career fair for engineers held in Berkeley.
“I was kind of looking for something local, and Blach Construction was on the list,” he said. “And I went and I asked if they have anything available for freshmen because usually people don’t hire freshmen.”
During that interview, he learned the company would be doing work at the campus where he attended high school.
The young engineer hopes to return with Blach next summer to work on the gymnasium, he said. Until then, he is happy to be back in the town where he grew up.
“Everything is back to normal,” he said. “I love being home. There’s no place like home.”
