Student of the Month
Patricia Cavero
November 14, 2023
To be Student of the Month, a teacher must recognize a student who is excelling in their class, their kind contributions, and being a good role model to their fellow peers. As the school year progresses, Ms. Shardonnay Macias, an English and elective teacher at Seaside High, picked a student that she wanted to highlight, Ulises Reyna Martinez, a junior at Seaside High School.
When Macias was interviewed, she had so many things to say about Ulises. “He’s an underdog..” she described. People often count out Ulises’s capabilities before speaking to him. “And when you do speak with him, he has such a rich perspective in life and projects and his academic opinions,” Macias continued.
Ulises Reyna Martinez, 11th grade
Currently, Macias’s AP Language class are completing a seven page essay analysis about the film, Get Out. A lot of students are struggling with the material and when there’s 30+ students and one teacher in a class, it can be difficult to manage. Ulises helps with this problem by assisting his fellow classmates, sharing his own analysis about the movie.
Something that surprised Macias about Ulises is his level of deeply understanding the topic. “We tend to box people in our minds and are quick to assume their persona based on their appearance, but he surprised me by being one of the top student in my AP class,” Macias stated. She finds it humorous when his peers are constantly blown away from his knowledge.
When I announced that Ulises got chosen for Student of the Month, he did not seem surprised. “I feel like I deserved it, I feel good,” he said. Other than being an outstanding student in class, he is also in a soccer travel team called, Monterey Condors. Alongside being a varsity soccer player here at Seaside High and juggling school and sports, he also has a part time job. “I manage to balance this stuff by having a discipline schedule and keeping things on time,” he explained. In a typical day, this is what he does first, go to school from 8:30-3:25. Right after school, he would go straight to the gym until 5:45. Just about time to arrive at practice at 6 pm then gets home at 8:30. He would then shower, eat and whatever extra time he has, he will do some of his homework. Time management is very important to him. He doesn’t like going out a lot since he prefers being at home.
With all these commitments and responsibilities, it would leave him often stressed out. If he would miss an assignment for a class, he would communicate with the teacher to let them know ahead of time that he would need an extension. His time management also plays a huge part in his schedule.
Ulises during his soccer game, #14
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Something Ulises struggles with is being a student as well as his social life. “People are scared of me, they have a wrong image of me. It impacts my social life. Also with teachers, they have an image of me too. A negative perspective of me as a student,” he stated. They think of him as a bad kid. Often, his schoolmates are afraid to go up to him because they think that he has a mean look. Some teachers don't give him the same privilege they would give to their other students such as going to the bathroom as a result.
His favorite teachers are Ms. Macias and Mr. Esaki (an MPC U.S History and AP Government) whom teach at Seaside High. Ulises is one of Mr. Esaki’s MPC U.S History students. Most student finds this course difficult but for him, he sees it as fun and challenging. He holds Mr. Esaki in high regards due to his excellent teaching methods. “He really gets the thought and the images in your head, very detailed and straight forward and serious,” he said. As for Ms. Macias, Ulises sees her as someone he can go to whenever he needs to talk to. Ms. Macias is very popular among students here at school. Yazmin Velasco, an 11th grade student also one of Ms. Macias’s students said, “Ms. Macias is always there for her pupils. You can really tell that she likes to teach and she pushes her students to reach their full potential.”
We all have someone who inspires us to do better in life and Ulises looks to his mother the most, her perseverance and determination inspires him to do the same. “I see her working very hard and it makes me wanna be successful. Especially coming from a different country, my mom is strong. I see her as a warrior and I aspire to be as hard-working as her,” Ulises explained.
In the future, he wishes to be a professional soccer player but as second option, he’d want to join the navy and then become a software engineering. His goals including staying close to God, happiness and content. His advice to his peers is, “To better yourself, stop being lazy and put the work in and to just do better everyday.”
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