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Parent of the Year – Lorena Aguilar
Lorena Aguilar was born in Mexico and grew up in Southern California. She is a self-employed dental consultant, who has worked as a dental front office manager, dedicating more than 20 years to this field. Lorena and her siblings were instilled with a strong sense of upward mobility and education by their working class immigrant parents. She has passed on those strong values to her two daughters, whom she has raised as a single mother, with the help of her closely-knit family. Lorena studied business administration at Cerritos College and continued her business studies at Nevada State College. In supporting her desire for her children to succeed academically, Lorena took it upon herself to learn everything about the college application and admissions process, which greatly contributed to her children pursuing their university degrees. Thanks in part to this dedication, her oldest daughter, Nadine, has a Master's in Education, and her younger daughter, Justine Loren, studies Sociology and Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. In addition to her passion for supporting her children's studies, Lorena is active in the Murrieta/Temecula community, serving as a board member and President of Precious Little Butterflies, a non-profit organization that helps children in shelters, group and foster homes, who are victims of domestic violence. |
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Educator of the Year – Teresa Carreto
Teresa Carreto is the Career and College Advisor at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles. Terry and her husband both graduated from Roosevelt High and decided to move back to Boyle Heights to give back to the communities where they grew up. Teresa is a 22-year veteran at Roosevelt High where she has been a teacher, mentor and a mother to thousands of students. As the Career and College Advisor, it is her job to ensure that every graduating senior is headed to college or a technical school. Through her efforts, the school has given away over $500,000 in scholarships and she single-handedly encouraged a noted philanthropist and Roosevelt High alumnus to endow a Fulbright Scholarship at the school. Teresa also founded the "Dreams Come True" fundraiser at the school, which raises money to ensure all graduating seniors can afford the $85 cap and gown fee. Terry can always be found in her office making sure every student has the best opportunity. Terry says she works for the kids because they all deserve a chance to better themselves and their lives and perhaps return someday to mentor future Roosevelt High students. |
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School of The Year - Ánimo Leadership Charter High School
Ánimo Leadership is located in the City of Inglewood in Southwest Los Angeles. Ánimo's mission is to prepare students for college, leadership, and life through innovative instruction, a rigorous curriculum, and the use of cutting-edge technology. From the over 600 enrolled students, 97% are Hispanic, 95% are socioeconomically disadvantaged as demonstrated by their receipt of free or reduced lunch. Nevertheless, of the results from the 2012 California High School Exit Exams, 94% passed English and 97% passed Math. At Ánimo Leadership, students are required to take the SAT exam and applying for college is a homework assignment. The school provides after school programming and athletics geared toward motivating students to engage in positive activities. Through its afterschool programming the school serves approximately 114 students with nearly 50% of students participating in activities three times a week. The school has won CIF Division titles and excelled in both boys and girls athletics. Parents are also actively engaged at the school. There is a strong parent organization that meets regularly to discuss student achievement, the budget and any other concerns they may have. Some parents participate in an organizing institute aimed at empowering them to improve their community and in parent workshops that educate parents about how to talk to school counselors, how to best support their student and how to ensure their student is on track to go to college. For more information, go to: http://www.greendot.org/page.cfm?p=2265
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Volunteer/Mentor of the Year – Oscar Ayon
Oscar Ayon is President / Co-founder of Unidos Por La Música, a non-profit with a mission to provide university scholarships, medical grants and hunger relief efforts by creating musical charitable events to benefit those in need. At the young age of 30, Oscar has impacted thousands of families through his community outreach program "Bags of Hope," which provides bags of groceries to needy families. Last year this program fed 66,000 children and adults throughout the Inland Empire. He also awarded the first medical grants of $2,000 to a local single mother who is facing a critical medical condition preventing her from providing for her three beautiful daughters. Through his community outreach program, Knowledge is Power, Mr. Ayon speaks frequently to young kids and teenagers about his experiences growing up with little or no opportunities and how he overcame obstacles to build a successful life and career. He was recently invited through the Inland Empire United Way Scholars Promise to mentor various classrooms within the Ontario - Montclair Schools District about career opportunities. Oscar's main goal is to empower students to achieve all they want in life and to share his formula of success: Knowing what you want, Focus and Perseverance. For more information: www.unidosporlamusica.org. |
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Male Student of the Year presented by Toyota
Ariel Salazar
The son of Mexican immigrants, Ariel Salazar learned the values of hard work and dedication from an early age. A senior at El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera, Ariel maintains a 3.75 GPA, while he makes plans to attend UCLA. Coming from a low-income family has made Ariel work harder for himself, his family and his people. While in the 8th grade, Arial ran a 5K to benefit breast cancer and has kept regularly volunteering at his church, local community club, Salvation Army and other organizations. After seeing his grades falter due to his preoccupation with his father's illness, it was his father's words that got Ariel back on track to "make lemonade" from his troubles. He opened up to his English teacher who agreed to give Ariel extra credit to write a paper about how he dealt with his family issues, earning him an A in the class. |
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Female Student of the Year presented by Toyota
Barbie Aguilar
Barbie Elizabeth Aguilar is a 17-year old senior at Redondo Union High School. She was born in Los Angeles and grew up going to her parents' homeland of Peru for summer vacations. The experiences gave her a love for Peru and its resilient people and helped her gain a sense of how fortunate she was to live in the United States. Her dream is to attend college, and become an architect and move to Peru for a year to build homes for needy families. Barbie maintains a 3.5 GPA and is active in school clubs such as the Cervantes Spanish Honors Society Club, the Animal Club, where she volunteers at pet adoption centers and her beloved Salsa Club. Barbie credits Salsa dancing with helping her blossom and gain self-confidence. She advises her peers to do their best and set high goals in everything they do.
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