Alum Spotlight: High School and College Advice to Parents and Seniors
Meet Leslie Hernandez, an Ednovate graduate.
Here at Ednovate, we are so proud of all our students and our graduates. Our alumni in college provide a particularly inspiring voice for our team and students to remind us of the importance of the work we do on a daily basis. Additionally, we hope their wisdom can help inspire future high school students to look forward to what college holds in store for them.
We are pleased to introduce you to Leslie Hernandez, 2017 USC Hybrid High College Prep graduate, focused at USC on making positive multigenerational change through her college degree.
Leslie and her family at USC’s Parent Weekend. Leslie is currently a junior at the University of Southern California.
Tell us about your experience at USC Hybrid High School.
USC Hybrid High College Prep was a complete game-changer for me. I have always been the student to strive for the best, but that wasn't always possible due to the resources we had in my elementary and middle school. Hybrid High understood, from day 1, that every student, no matter where he/she came from, wanted something better, even though sometimes as young teenagers and adults we had not realized it yet. Hybrid High said, "You can do better" and not only expected to us to do better but HELPED us get there.
How did your experience in high school prepare you for college?
Hybrid High provided us with personalized learning and ways for students who were behind to catch up and students who were ahead to feel more challenged. I was able to take AP Calculus, AP English, and AP Literature because I wanted to challenge myself. Projects like the junior and senior thesis allowed me to expand my writing skills, research methods and bringing it all together in a concise long (very long) paper. Now that I am in college, I can see how these types of projects prepared me for the writing classes I took during my Freshman year. I was expected to do outside research and type more than 3-page papers (single and double spaced), which I could complete a lot easier because of the projects I had done at Hybrid.
What advice would you have for students about to start high school?
Advice - DO NOT settle for less, ever! give it all you got. School and college are not the only options to be successful in life, but they work as a foundation for anything you want to do in the future. It is something that can open doors for you in the field you are interested in. Without it, life can be a lot more difficult.
In high school, have fun, enjoy it, but do that while working hard in your classes. Always push to do more than what you finish or know you can do. If a teacher says finish this math problem and you do it with ease, push yourself for another problem or challenge yourself with another concept you might not understand. If a teacher says to do research then start that early - do not leave it until the last minute. It is important to start pushing yourself now because in college you might not have a teacher that will push you or a group of best friends that will want the best for you - YOU HAVE TO START WITH YOU! Make it a habit of taking on the challenge of pushing yourself because I know you can do it. Your family, your mom, your dad, and/or your legal guardian believes in you! And the Ednovate family, we believe in you!
What advice would you have for parents who want their students to have a great college-prep high school experience and then go to college?
The same way I advise students to push themselves and the same way you might expect your students to push themselves, you should always do your best to be there for your kids (emotionally, physically, and mentally). Many parents may have not had the opportunity to finish school and many of you had the opportunity to go to college - What matters is not that, but the amount of support you give to your student.
My parents were not always financially stable, but one thing that I am grateful for is that they always made sure to talk to me and ask me how I was. They would call me at random times during the week because as college students we feel so overwhelmed that we don't call our parents sometimes. They would ask me what I was up to and how I was doing and they would always say I am proud of you, we want you to finish strong so tell us how we can help. These types of conversations sometimes made me feel like I had more pressure but the fact that they would say I am proud of you and how can we help makes it so much better. I hope that as parents, no matter what college they go to, that you support them as much as possible. No matter how old we get or how many weeks go by that they might not call, they will want to know that you are there for them. Be their number one fan! That will go a long way.
Leslie’s Ednovate family is her number 1 fan! We hope hearing a bit about her journey inspires you to make the most of your time in high school and beyond.