Gilberto Soria, senior, was recently profiled in the Palo Alto Daily. Click here for the link to the article about Gilberto. It’ll give you a small taste of the students I work with at BUILD… And I know if Gilberto read this post, his ego would be inflated even more, but nonetheless, I”m pretty proud of him.
Fourteen acceptance letters later, Soria’s mind is running wild: the University of California at Los Angeles, or Berkeley – or maybe a chilly stretch in New England at Northeastern University, which has offered Soria a full ride scholarship.
Check out the rest of the article after the jump…
Colleges open doors to bright young CEO
Life is a little hectic for 18-year-old East Palo Alto resident Gilberto Soria.
Last year he decided to apply to 17 colleges across the country and open as many possibilities as he could.
Fourteen acceptance letters later, Soria’s mind is running wild: the University of California at Los Angeles, or Berkeley – or maybe a chilly stretch in New England at Northeastern University, which has offered Soria a full ride scholarship.
“I don’t know what to do,” Soria said. “It’s crazy right now. I have to decide by May 1.”
Four other colleges offered him partial scholarships and he is waiting to hear from several outside funders as well. BUILD, a nonprofit in Palo Alto, covered all of his application costs, Soria said.
The high school senior will likely pursue a college major in either political science, economics or both, he said. That’s a good fit, since in 2004 Soria was also named one of the top 25 young chief executive officers in the country after he launched a lip balm company with $75 through a program sponsored by the Goldman Sachs Foundation.
“He’s probably one of the most hard-working and inspirational students I’ve advised,” said Marisol Castillo, his academic adviser at East Palo Alto Academy High School.Between his job at Babies R US, occasional volunteering, such as poll working during the recent primaries, and achieving a 3.7 grade point average, it’s hard to believe Soria has time for any other activities. But when he moved from Mountain View to East Palo Alto with his family – he has seven siblings – four years ago, the change shocked him, he said.
“I wasn’t used to the crime and seeing drug deals happen on the street,” Soria said. “I wanted to distance myself from that.”
So he joined the East Palo Alto Police Department as an Explorer Cadet. The department sent the 14-year-old to the police academy, where he trained 10 hours a day once a month, for four months.
“That was really hard,” Soria said.Detective Jeff Liu, who directs the program, said his 10 cadets compete with other departments around the country, help with DUI checkpoints and go on ride-alongs with working officers.
One of Soria’s fellow cadets was on such a ride with East Palo police Officer Richard May when he was gunned down and killed in early 2006, allegedly by a local gang member.“I’ll always remember that,” Soria said.
Soria said he has watched friends and relatives fall into life on the street, which sometimes involves violence and drugs. But he has always fought his personal temptation with optimism, he said.“I just don’t want to be like that,” Soria said. “Seeing friends and other people do it just motivates me to be better and not be like that.”
E-mail Banks Albach at balbach@dailynewsgroup.com.