Student Spotlight: Elk Grove senior launches higher education journey at Harvard
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District 214’s emphasis on “Redefining Ready” means preparing students of widely diverse talents and interests for success after high school in scores of different ways. It doesn’t necessarily mean preparing graduates for success at an Ivy League university - but occasionally it translates into precisely that.
So it is with senior Daniel Salgado, soon to graduate from Elk Grove High School and launch his higher education journey at Harvard College. If ever a student has devoted his District 214 experience to proving that he’s ready for such a rare opportunity, it’s Daniel.
Elk Grove High School Principal Paul Kelly describes Daniel as “razor sharp” and hungry to learn everything -- the kind of student whose interests are so expansive that he’s angling to take classes that simply cannot be shoehorned into his jam-packed schedule.
Daniel credits his eagerness to learn in part to his parents, neither of whom completed school beyond the sixth grade. In Mexico, his father worked in the fields; his mother took care of Daniel’s siblings. In the U.S., both found work, his father as a custodian, his mother in a factory.
“Because of that, they insisted on us pursuing education,” Daniel said. “Their support comes from the fact that they didn’t get that opportunity and really wanted me to do that.”
Daniel describes his parents’ support as unconditional. They didn’t question the value of Daniel participating in debate, didn’t blink at his brother’s pursuit of a degree in art, didn’t object when Daniel remained at school until 6 p.m. every day to engage in additional study or extracurricular activities. “They didn’t have preconceived notions about school,” Daniel said.
Daniel’s own academic record is so impressive that he earned admission to the Boston-based SCS Noonan Scholars Program, whose mission is to “help high-achieving low-income underrepresented students get into and graduate from top colleges equipped to achieve their full career potential.” This involved an intensive, six-week summer academy and will continue with support as Daniel finds his footing at one of the nation’s premier universities.
“I want a job where I’m constantly learning and am pushed to do something different”
For Daniel, the objective beyond college is a career in political science, a conclusion he reached by sampling District 214’s rich variety of courses. “Before I decided to pursue political science, I did some engineering courses and realized it was not for me,” he said. “Then I got to take constitutional law and AP government, and that helped me figure it out.”
While Daniel will utilize his college years to refine a career choice, he likes the idea of foreign service. “I want a job where I’m constantly learning and am pushed to do something different,” he said. “I like the idea of every three to four years, going to a different country, doing new research, figuring out what's going on and how it affects the U.S.”
That versatility to experiment and try something new has been on display throughout Daniel’s high school career. His passion for serving the community through initiative and intervention stems from personal experience. He was in the eighth grade when he learned that Elk Grove teacher Ricky Castro was planning a summer camp program for Oasis Mobile Home Park, where Daniel lives.
“We don’t have access to a local library because Oasis is not in an incorporated area,” Daniel says. “So, growing up, I was not able to get books or join summer activities.” When he heard about plans for a summer camp based on high school students serving younger children living at Oasis, Daniel sensed an opportunity.
“I remember as an 8th grader, I asked to join. Mr. Castro said sure; it was mainly for high schoolers, but I could join. I fell in love with that.” So much so that he took advantage of Mr. Castro’s approach of entrusting students with leadership positions to stake out a lead role in planning the camp. Daniel heads up the camp’s STEM art activities, gathering and organizing materials and leading activities during camp week - including ever-popular slime and solving puzzles utilizing binary code.
“I love it. You really see the impact of what we’re doing,” Daniel said of the Oasis Park work. “Kids are having fun; they're doing something valuable. I love the last day of camp. All of the students and parents bring food or drink or snacks. We have a party celebration.” And Daniel recognizes the longer-term value of building community connections. Days and weeks later, younger children approach Daniel in the Oasis streets and thank him for summer camp experiences.
Daniel’s initiative - as an eighth grader - to ask a high school teacher to participate in a project designed for high school students, offers a glimpse of the way Daniel views his teachers: as invaluable resources to be utilized. “I guess I’ve been mature for my age,” he reflected. “I’ve never felt like, ‘Oh, I can’t talk with teachers.’ If I want to start something or if I need assistance or guidance from a teacher, I’m never afraid to approach them. They are so willing to be accommodating.”
As for Daniel’s extracurricular work, it does not stop with the summer camp. He excels in both debate and extemporaneous speaking - remarkable because the two competition formats call for entirely different skill sets - one requiring deep mastery of prepared points and the ability to make counterarguments, the other requiring the ability to prepare and deliver, on the fly, a thesis built from source materials on virtually any topic.
Daniel is adventuresome. He was among seven students who started a Mexican Folkloric Dance Club at Elk Grove even though, in his words, “I never considered myself a dancer.” But his friends’ interest sparked his own, and a choreographer helped the club’s 20 members learn a variety of dances that they have performed at the Elk Grove talent show and for a middle school audience.
How does he make all of his academic work and extracurricular activities work in one schedule?
“By staying flexible, working around schedules,” he explained. “If two commitments are scheduled at the same time, I had to develop that flexibility, being very honest, telling friends that I can’t serve in this way, but maybe I can help in other ways.”
Underpinning all of Daniel’s work is a commitment to the importance of family within the Latino community, as he expressed last year in a powerful Cinco de Mayo speech.
Of this emphasis, Principal Kelly describes Daniel as “the embodiment of a guy who aspires to lift up his own community from within and use his talents to make the world a better place while celebrating his own identity and heritage.”