Beach & Bay Press held a Q&A with Mission Bay High School valedictorian Tetsuro Escudero and salutatorian Zander Caufield. They discussed their high school experience and upcoming college transition, their generation, role models and the future. The MBHS commencement ceremony was held June 11. BBP:\u00a0What\u2019s next for you after graduation?
\nEscudero:\u00a0I\u2019m attending UC Berkeley and plan to major in some kind of biological science like integrative biology or data science or computer science, though I\u2019m undeclared right now. But the general direction is technology, biology or math. I hope to create something like algorithms for hospitals to determine diseases or tumors.
\nCaufield:\u00a0I love playing volleyball and that\u2019s one of the main reasons why I chose to go to UC Santa Barbara, though I got accepted at both UCLA and UC Berkeley. I plan on majoring in environmental science, perhaps minoring or double majoring with geology. I plan to become an environmental engineer. BBP:\u00a0What did you like\/dislike most about high school?
\nEscudero:\u00a0I didn\u2019t like the lack of sleep because of all the homework and projects. But I survived having a job as a math tutor and played a sport, volleyball, on top of that. What I enjoyed most was the social aspect. Most of my friends I met from high school. Being an international baccalaureate student, I had a lot of the same classmates in multiple classes. That\u2019s bad because it segregates you. But is good because you get to spend a lot of time with your close friends.
\nCaufield:\u00a0I do regret spending too much time focusing on school, and not enough time with friends out of school, except for sports. One of the best things for me was playing volleyball. I met a lot of interesting people, and it was a really enjoyable experience that was helpful in relieving stress from schoolwork and testing.\u00a0 BBP:\u00a0Tell us about the state of your generation during these turbulent times?
\nEscudero:\u00a0Ours is one of the most vocal and outgoing generations. There are more kids in high school and college becoming activists than at any other point in history. Here at MBHS we\u2019ve protested for gun control and had the entire school walk out to demonstrate their right to protest.
\nCaufield:\u00a0With our generation there\u2019s so much more easily accessible information out there than there was with previous generations, for better or worse. You\u2019re exposed to a lot of misinformation. But there\u2019s also a lot of people out there finding solutions to problems, like a company that is growing mushrooms in the shape of bricks to help construction become sustainable and biodegradable. BBP:\u00a0Are you encouraged or discouraged about the future?
\nEscudero:\u00a0“I\u2019m extremely discouraged by the future, but I\u2019m extremely encouraged by the people of this world. There are so many bright ideas, like one from a Scandinavian engineer who\u2019s doing a contraption that moves along the ocean tides independently picking up micro plastics along the way.
\nCaufield:\u00a0“I\u2019m kind of in the middle. It\u2019s difficult to convince people (of things they should do). One example is we know electric cars are less polluting than gasoline cars, but it\u2019s hard to convince people to give up their gasoline cars. I want to create solutions that are not only environmentally friendlier, but also better for economics.” BBP:\u00a0You both have to give speeches for graduation, how is that going?
\nEscudero:\u00a0“I have not started but I\u2019ve been doing a lot of brainstorming. I\u2019d like to incorporate what we\u2019ve learned in school to actual world events, like relating “The Handmaid\u2019s Tale” book I read in English class to what\u2019s going on in Alabama.”
\nCaufield:\u00a0“I\u2019ve already written my speech, but will probably edit it once or twice before I give it. I\u2019m just going to be a little lighthearted, a little funny.”\u00a0 BBP:\u00a0What advice would you give to those filling your places in the future?
\nEscudero:\u00a0Don\u2019t prioritize academically. Most prioritize academics, their work, their careers. What you need to do is prioritize first your family and what makes you happy. If you don\u2019t do that, you don\u2019t have a life to begin with.
\nCaufield:\u00a0Don\u2019t procrastinate. I almost never procrastinate, and I\u2019ve always had time to do what I wanted to do. Take things one at a time. It helps.” BBP:\u00a0Who are your role models?
\nEscudero:\u00a0I like Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla. He\u2019s brilliant and a little crazy, but that\u2019s OK. He wants to send people to Mars by 2050. Albert Einstein, just because he had a way of expressing unbelievably abstract ideas so people and scientists could understand them, and eventually prove his theories.
\nCaufield:\u00a0My dad, who also went to UC Santa Barbara and majored in the environmental sciences. I\u2019m following his legacy. He was on the board of I Love A Clean San Diego and he was a volleyball coach because he loves the sport. I hope I can be like him someday.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beach & Bay Press held a Q&A with Mission Bay High School valedictorian Tetsuro Escudero and salutatorian Zander Caufield. They discussed their high school experience and upcoming college transition, their generation, role models and the future. The MBHS commencement ceremony was held June 11. BBP:\u00a0What\u2019s next for you after graduation? Escudero:\u00a0I\u2019m attending UC Berkeley and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":281518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Mission Bay High valedictorian and salutatorian ready for new challenges","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}