'I get to decide what memories I get to make': El Paso students conquer challenges to graduate
Borderland high school graduating seniors have built friendships through a screen, learned from home and weathered the uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While they faced unique challenges, the students are ready to graduate and start the next stage of their lives. Some of those graduates agreed to share their stories ahead of commencement ceremonies this weekend.
Alyssa Ramirez
For a few months of her junior year, Alyssa Ramirez felt like she was only a little box on her peers' and teachers' computer screens. No one knew her name and she was also not familiar with the school. But these challenges pushed Ramirez to find her way at Hanks High School.
When she transferred from the Young Women Leadership academy to Hanks High School during the beginning of the pandemic she didn't have anyone to lean on. Alyssa began attending school solely online and found things as simple as asking peers for help on an assignment to be difficult.
"A lot of teachers were always like, 'I know you're probably asking your friends for help.' And I'm like, 'I don't know anyone here,'" Ramirez said.
Ramirez would interact with her teachers online as best as she could to stand out and make an impression. She always kept her camera on and always interacted with teachers during class. Things started to look up for her and she began to make friends when she joined the track team and volleyball team.
"It really helped me because even though I couldn't come to school and come to classes to meet people, I still had a group of people that I would see everyday and gradually we became friends. I got to know them," Ramirez said. "And it really made my online experience a lot better."
Ramirez will attend Duke University, where she will study biomedical engineering, the pre-medical field track. Ramirez plans on attending medical school after she graduates from Duke.
"It's nerve-racking because I'm going to be a full-fledged adult. But it's exciting because I get to make those choices," Ramirez said. "I get to decide what I'm going to do today and what experiences I get to have and what memories I get to make."
— Julia Lucero
Citlaly Rodriguez
Citlaly Rodriguez is the fifth of six siblings, the last of three girls. But she will be the first in her family to play college sports when she joins the Northern New Mexico women's basketball team this fall.
She plays ferociously. She plays like her father taught her. She plays to make her family proud.
"I got into sports because of my father," Rodriguez said. "Ever since I saw him play, I just wanted to be like him."
The Bowie High School senior graduates in May after outstanding careers in Bears basketball and track and field. Her star is still rising: Her goal is the WNBA.
"She is a young player with a lot of promise," said J.R. Giddens, head coach of Northern New Mexico women’s basketball. "She is a very tough kid. You can tell when she plays, she plays with a little umph. She has grit. The energy she plays with is contagious."
Her mother, Marisa Barraza, said, "She would always tell me that she is going to make it big. She is still telling me that."
More: El Paso high school student-athletes to continue playing in college
Rodriguez was born in Denver. Her mother and siblings picked up and moved to the Borderland after her father, Juan Carlos Rodriguez, was deported to Mexico. She was 11 or 12 at the time.
He found a place in Juárez, and Barraza found an apartment in El Paso. Rodriguez went to school in El Paso and spent weekends in Juárez, making the pilgrimage that thousands of families make in the Borderland.
Her father has never seen her play a high school game.
"Going back and forth, it was a struggle," Rodriguez said. "I am close to him. He said he is very proud of me and wishes he was there to watch me every game and every practice."
"It’s going to be sad leaving," she said, "But it’s the next thing in life."
— Lauren Villagran
Felix Chavez contributed to this entry.
Ashley Leyva
When Ashley Leyva was filling out college applications and cramming for her SAT her father was in the hospital battling a life-threatening brain infection.
Leyva’s family is no stranger to adversity. She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants who moved to El Paso in search of better medical care for her older brother who was born with spina bifida, a spinal defect that curtailed his ability to walk. Her father's meningitis diagnosis in the spring of Leyva’s junior high school year nearly shattered her college dreams.
“I’ve always tried to fight any obstacles present in my life because I know that getting a college education is one of the best ways to move ahead in life,” she said.
Her fight paid off when her stellar academic record won her a full-ride scholarship to Norte Dame University. She got the news five months after her father recovered and came home.
This year, Leyva will be the salutatorian of the first class to graduate from the Young Women’s Leadership Academy, an all-girls 6th-through-12th grade school in the Ysleta Independent School District.
STEM focused curriculum at YWLA nurtured Leyva’s love of math. She wants to become an astrophysicist who studies black holes and dark matter at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland.
Leyva is a QuestBridge scholar, a program that helps low-income students attend top U.S. universities.
“I’ve always dreamed of going to college, but the financial side of it always terrified me," she said. "Growing up, there was a couple times where I wondered where my next meal would come from."
When she leaves for Norte Dame later this year, it will be Leyva’s first time living outside of El Paso and away from her family. She’s both nervous and excited about this new chapter in her life.
“Aspiring to be like my parents motivates me,” she said. “I’ve watched them battle adversities and they always find the light at the end of the tunnel.”
— Monica Ortiz
Luke Miller
Luke Miller, a Coronado High School graduate, never thoughta nonprofit organization started by him and two friends would grow into a program with around 100 members across 10 schools.
The El Paso Youth for Change program is a nonprofit designed to help those in need.
"At first it was just kind of like a substitute (for programs that were on hold) and now it's grown into so much more because people really did want to help at that time. They continued to want to do so," Miller said.
El Paso Youth for Change has recently helped the El Paso Center for Children by providing gift baskets with gift cards, candy, magazines and headphones.
"I hope that it's fostering a culture of service," he said.
The group did not plan on having the organization take off. It started off with simple donation drives that grew the program and branched out to those who wanted to help their community.
Now Miller is heading to Princeton University, where he plans to study economics. He is still deciding a career path in business, finance, government or law.
Miller feels his family, friends and school are a team of people rooting for his success.
Marc Escareno, Coronado High School principal, said Miller is one of the finest students he has ever known.
"What I believe separates Luke from others are his deep values of community service and wanting to help those around him," Escareno said. "Luke will undoubtedly make his mark on the world. He is a true role model."
— Julia Lucero
Anthony Nunez
Falling behind in classes to take care of his great-grandmother in the hospital, Anthony Nunez took a scholastic setback and turned it into inspiration to become a nurse after graduation.
The Options High School graduate transferred his senior year from Pebble Hills High School to Options High School after not being able to attend classes.
"Unfortunately no one wanted to step up, so I had to take that place," Nunez said.
Options High School, a self-paced online facilitated campus, allowed him to keep working and finish high school.
He said he wanted to continue his education to prove to his younger siblings that if he can make it, they can too.
After graduation Nunez plans on attending Southwest University where he will study to become a nurse or radiologist.
Tim McDonald, Options High School English core teacher, said Nunez is a resilient student.
"He stuck it out and he came back in and he put in a really impressive amount of work and graduated. Not just on time, but a little bit early," Mcdonald said. "For him to dig down deep and come to Options and go, 'I wanna finish, I'm gonna put my best foot forward,' I think that speaks volumes about his character."
— Julia Lucero
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso high school graduation: Seniors celebrate hard work
