The South County California Student Opportunity and Access Program Consortium selected two San Benito High School seniors as students of the month in December.
The group recognized students Joselyn Gonzalez and Cory Matthews for spending a lot of time in the Career Center. The consortium provides advising to low-income and first-generation college students.
“Right now my top school would probably be U.C. Davis but I did apply to my dream school, Stanford, just in case,” said Gonzalez, 17, who sports a 4.0 GPA. “I had no idea that if you do apply to Stanford and you do get in and your parents make a certain amount of money, everything is paid for.”
Gonzalez still remembers when her family came to the United States from Mexico in grade school and she had to learn a new language. The high school senior recently learned she is in the top 9 percent of her class.
“I came home and I told my mom and she started crying and she said: ‘This is why we came. You deserve this and more,’” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez will be the first in her family to attend college in the U.S. and she wants to be a civil engineer. Being a part of Cal-SOAP meant the high school senior had a chance to see two college campuses: University of California, Berkeley and Stanford. She also worked closely with school and Cal-SOAP counselors at the Career Center.
“Cal-SOAP—I could definitely say they’ve helped me tremendously. Being the first one to go to college (in the U.S.), my parents know the language but they don’t know it very well. They don’t know it 100 percent, so they don’t really know the system here so they can’t really help me,” Gonzalez said.
When Gonzalez isn’t doing her homework, she plays basketball, an interest she has pursued all four years of high school.
The other award recipient is Matthews, 17, who filled out three college applications and a scholarship in the Career Center, and is dreaming up a future as a civil engineer.
Matthews will be the first in his family to go to college and he has his eyes set on the University of the Pacific, a private university in Stockton.
“Cal-SOAP—shoot—they’ve helped with a lot of stuff,” he said. “Just kind of guiding you through how to do all the college applications and stuff like that. It helps a lot.”
When Matthews isn’t studying—he has a 3.1 overall GPA—he is often sprinting around the high school track. He sprints and participates in relays for the track and field team and has pursued his athletic interest for four years.
He’s also been participating in the Circle of Friends, a program that makes sure developmentally disabled students don’t sit alone at lunchtime. He started participating in the program in seventh grade at Peyton Elementary in Stockton and has continued to be a part of the group through high school.
