Diego Williams — ($500 prize) will enroll at the University of Chicago as a math major.  Among his high school activities was serving as a volunteer for Program for Torture Victims assisting asylum seekers and refugees arriving in the United States, many from Latin America.  He plans to study math because it is a good challenge and that there is seldom ever only one way to solve a problem.

Sofia Farmarco — ($500 prize) will go to UC Davis as an English major.  She was Latinx Student Union Social Media Manager for two years and participated in the Youth Latinx Leadership Conference.  She is leaving her options open; while becoming a published author is is one potential avenue, she is also considering the field of education and in particular becoming a Spanish Dual Immersion teacher. 

Carolina Garavito — ($500 prize) is headed for Pasadena City College to major in music industry and business and hopes to continue her studies at USC, NYU or the Berklee College of Music. She has been a Latinx Student Union member since it was founded.  Her goal is to work as a musician, producer, scoring movies, or becoming an entertainment lawyer in the music industry, which she calls her true calling.

Lulu Talesnick López — ($1,000 prize) is headed for UC Berkeley as an undeclared major.  She not only founded the non-profit group Essential Bags LA, which distributes care kits with environment-friendly products to the unhoused in Los Angeles, she is also a co-founder of the SPHS Anti-Bias Club.  She also made time to compete in volleyball, and was active in drama.  A fighter for diversity and inclusivity, she advocated a Black Lives Matter mural.  She plans to use her education and experience to continue her advocacy for unity, inclusion and equity.

Emilly Albornoz — ($1,000 prize) will be a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she plans to major in mechanical engineering and minor in music performance, with an emphasis on acoustics.  At SPHS she volunteered for the Boys and Girls Club, where she tutored low-income students, and started a penpal club through Ability First for disabled kids and teens.  She is interested in the intersection of music and physics in designing hearing aids, concert halls, and classrooms.

Julieta Frias — ($1,000 prize) is headed for UC Santa Cruz, where she plans to major in political science or education.  She was vice president of the SPHS Latinx Student Union, which she and her friends organized to raise funds and launch programs to help others by partnering with organizations like Casa De Alegria and a Latino Family Institute.   As part of Principles of Education, she worked in a second-grade classroom, learned about learning disabilities, and helped students with math.

Tony Rodz — ($1,000 prize) will enroll at New York University as a nursing major.  An original member of the Latinx Student Union, he was involved in a wide-range of activities, including doing research on health care needs of Latinx and Black communities.  He also served as an academic coach for AP Spanish and often tutored others in Spanish in a non-judgemental manner, allowing them to make mistakes without embarrassment.  By combining his knowledge of Spanish and Japanese, he plans on becoming a Latinasian nurse.

Emily Garcia — ($1,000 prize) will enroll at Oregon State University-Cascades and major in art.  At SPHS she was Art Club president and created a diverse art environment with people of different ethnicities.  She also studied studio art at Ryman Arts.  Emily is already a proven entrepreneur who sells her art in the form of custom press on nails.  Her artistic interests are not limited to this, but she also has an interest in architecture and math.

Samuel Salseda — ($1,500 prize) will enter Brown University as a biomedical engineering major.  At Loyola High School he worked with the Los Angeles County Hispanic Managers Association to increase funding for scholarships of low-income Latinx students and tutor other students in math and physics.  He hopes to include Latinx studies and philosophy in his college studies as he prepares for a career in medicine or medical engineering.  —