Name: Leonora Melendrez
San Andreas Continuation High School
Age: 17
City: Hollister
College: Evergreen College, San Jose
Major: Dental Hygienist
Favorite food: Mom’s spaghetti
Hero: Mom
For Leonora Melendrez, high school wasn’t about dances, pep rallies and assemblies. Her time at San Andreas Continuation High School was about growth.
“One and a half years ago I didn’t even think about college,” she said. “I didn’t even care about school.”
Now Melendrez has every intention of continuing her education and moving on after high school. After being kicked out of Gilroy High School, Melendrez came to San Andreas. On top of disliking school, she was faced with another challenge – pregnancy.
“I was so tired all the time and with the baby waking me up throughout the night, it was really hard to get up for class in the morning,” she said. “It was hard to pay attention too, because I had a lot of other things on my mind like doctor’s appointments and who I’m going to live with after the baby comes.”
Her son, Xzavier, is now 6-and-a-half-months-old, and Melendrez said besides driving an hour to Paicines so her family could watch the baby while she was in school, it was fairly easy to manage her education and caring for her son.
“The staff here is very supportive and most of the work was done in class or you could do independent studies which gave me time with my son,” she said.
Melendrez wanted to thank the teachers, counselors and staff at San Andreas for their support and encouragement to graduate and go to college.
“The minute you start here they’re on your back and talking about where you’re going to go to college and it’s great,” she said.
