As the sun hits and rises, a group of people will be out of a closed world, with their pathway to their very own open world. Some paths are all the same, but when it comes to Karla Mendez, she has taken a pathway that not everyone can follow, which makes her special. Karla is a Senior at Agua Fria High School and will soon graduate and take on challenges to create her own life. Karla Mendez has created something unique that not all people can make out of themselves. David Reynaga states “I think she sparks up everyone’s lives and she leaves out a huge amount of positivity within those lives”. Karla without any school work loves to read, watch movies, bake, cook, and clean which makes her busy more and more even when school isn’t in the way. It all started 4 years ago, during 2020 as the school years were rough this was the moment everyone was introduced to the amazing Karla Mendez.
Before the Senior
Karla Mendez was taking Honors Geometry, while she was in 9th grade and was different from all the students. During an interview with Mr. Jovanelly, he stated “She was one of my most productive students, she got all her assignments done, she was always on camera and asking questions, would answer when I called and I believe she was a 9th grader, so I was just really impress by her ability to be in that situation”. Mr. Jovanelly was glad to have Karla in his class, especially during rough times during the year. Taking on Honors Geometry is what most people don’t consider and seeing Karla take on that challenge at the start of High School, is what makes her different from other students. According to Mr. Jovanelly, he claims “It was just that drive, she was so motivated by finding success and didn’t find circumstances being excuses for her, her pursuits just drive her”.
The Senior
Time goes by and challenges rise, but for Karla, she still manages to take on these challenges. One of the challenges Karla points out is “time balance because it was hard at the beginning of the year when I started doing basketball I started in August from February, March, and I didn’t know how to balance my AP classes”. Besides the challenges, she loved meeting new people and building relationships as a way to step aside from the hard work. The activities that Karla was in were Basketball and Unified Sports where she was a partner who helped the kids with all the events like track, basketball, and football. If time travel was possible and Karla could do something different in her Senior year, she stated that she would “I would change stressing out over small things, I was the type of person to be a perfectionist”.
The Kindness of Karla
Throughout the years Karla has received multiple achievements and multiple compliments from her classmates and teachers. During an interview with Mr. Jovanelly, he stated “Karla is a leader you can see that in athletics and academics, she’s very kind and gets involved with Unified Sports, she always pushes herself, she’s intelligent, she takes all these classes and pushes herself. As well with Ismael Mata can support Mr. Jovanelly’s statements, by saying “It was fairly interesting, I made many friends along the way, but she was different, she was kind, sweet, and occasionally funny here and there”. Along with the compliments and nice words, she was also getting achievements that not all students were able to do. Karla has received the award of placing at state in a construction, getting recognized by the school district, and at school, she would get, AP of the Month, Student of the Month, or Athlete of the Month. Mr. Smith a new teacher at Agua Fria claimed “Karla contributed to our classroom culture, I think that my 6-hour class just had an amazing culture, Karla made us cohesive and helped create a supportive, nonjudgmental that was important and special. When David Reynaga interviewed Mr. Jovanelly he heard the kindest thing you can say to a student and that was “I have 2 young daughters, one is 1 year old and the other is about to be 5, I want them to be like someone like her, that’s how I feel about her, she’s like providing a sample of what I would like to see for my daughters”.
The Graduate
As 3 o’clock hits on May 18th, 2024 adult life of Karla begins and her future is waiting for her. Karla has provided “I am attending the University of Arizona in Tucson, majoring in civil engineering and sustainability and water resource, and also plan to do an internship and study abroad in my sophomore year of college and from there get a high pay job”. From Mr. Jovanelly and Ismael Mata, they both agreed that Karla will do great and they both wish the best of luck to her.
