Walk the halls of any high school and you’ll see the faces of the future. Cruise the campus of High Tech High (HTH) in Point Loma and you’ll likely bump into “Champions of Change” — students like Paloma Fernandez and Dimitri Goulas. Fernandez and Goulas were among 10 students and two administrators from San Diego’s HTH public charter school system honored last month by the White House as “Champions of Change.” The initiative spotlights ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things in their communities and invites them to Washington, D.C., to share their ideas. HTH was recognized for preparing students for new economy jobs in the Southwest border region. “We teach students to ask why and give them skills to be producers, not just consumers,” said Brett Peterson, director of the Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs HTH, where Goulas and Fernandez are seniors. The school, a 9-12 with an enrollment of 571 students, was the first HTH and was founded in 2000. Today, there are 11 HTH K-12 public charter schools in San Diego County with an enrollment of about 3,500. From project-based learning to daily interaction, HTH is unconventional with its less authoritarian and more egalitarian approach, where all voices are encouraged to contribute to outcomes. “What we teach is not about memorizing, but learning how to interact and work as a collaborative in a group,” said Peterson, who is just known as “Brett” to students (“Everyone uses first names”). And the title “director” replaces the traditional “principal,” a term that “conjures up a certain image,” he said. Fernandez, 17, exudes confidence about being prepared to step out and contribute in a grown-up world. “The biggest thing (HTH) arms us with is skills to be new world citizens,” she said. “Public speaking is the No.1 fear of most adults and we learned that right off the bat.” After high school, she wants to “literally learn everything — learn a couple of trades and keep on writing.” Fernandez and her fellow students blogged about their whirlwind trip at hthtothewhitehouse.tumblr.com, with posts on sightseeing, dining out and how they met with White House Liaison to Young Americans Ronnie Cho. While on Capitol Hill, students discussed ways the federal government can help expand opportunities in the San Diego region and economic issues along the U.S.-Mexico border. Among the business and community leaders they met with was one-time superintendent of San Diego City Schools Alan Bersin, who is now the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner. Both Goulas and Fernandez have their own ideas on what they’d do to champion change in the 21st century. Goulas, 17, who is interested in a future as a patent lawyer, a profession that will give him international viability, talks about rethinking the purpose of higher education in America. “There’s a notion that everyone has to go to college,” he said. “Education doesn’t have to do with ability. In a country of equal opportunity, everybody should be given a chance. We need a highly skilled workforce. Reform is necessary for opportunity.” For Fernandez, change means giving everyone the ability to read. “We don’t have to travel the world to be cultured,” she said. “But if we can read we can observe. You can travel the world by reading. By writing you can travel the galaxy.” A year from now Goulas and Fernandez hope to find themselves in the halls of higher education. As Peterson points out, they’re both qualified and have options. Ability isn’t an issue; figuring out how to pay for college is.