By Phoebe Piserchio; Editor-in-Chief
On Saturday, March 30th, Eduardo Galindo Aguilar (11) became the first Mills student to win the Every Student Succeeding (ESS) Award, given by the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) to honor students who have achieved academic success in spite of significant challenges.The ESS award has been around since 1996 and recognizes a total of 19 students every year: one pre-K to high school student for each of the state’s 17 geographic regions, plus two adult education students. As a 2024 Student Honoree, Eduardo represents Region 5, which comprises San Francisco and San Mateo Counties, or 25 school districts with over 300 schools and 158,000 students.
“I was very surprised that I won and that it was me being 1 of 19 [students] in the whole state,” Aguilar shared. He received news of the win on March 30th, but officially got the physical award on April 18th. In November, ACSA will fly him along with the other 18 honorees out to San Diego, where they will receive a generous scholarship of $1,000 at the ACSA Leadership Summit and awards ceremony.
Aguilar is very active in the Mills community; he is a writer on our very own Thunderbolt team, a lead in the Boba Bots, a member of the Dragon Team, and a member of the Longship Library Magazine. These are some of the reasons Principal Duszynski nominated him. She also noticed Aguilar’s academic growth as he progressively took on more advanced courses and wanted to find out what set him up for success. In an interview with The Thunderbolt, Duszynski explained, “We’re constantly looking for ways to get more Latinx and Pacific Islander students in rigorous courses like advanced standing, and that’s happening for Eduardo. So I was really interested in talking with him…When I learned more about Eduardo’s story and the ways that he and his family had to overcome barriers and obstacles in his path, I was really inspired.”
The award comes as a special validation that motivates Aguilar to continue pursuing his end goal: “It’s a major accomplishment for me and my family and to see where my hard work has gone.” In the future, he plans to go to college and become a mechanical engineer.
For Duszynski, Aguilar represents all students at Mills who show courage and resilience in the face of obstacles: “We have students who strive to succeed no matter what barriers are in the way for them, whether they’re the first to graduate from high school and go to college in their family, whether they belong to an underrepresented a demographic in advanced placement classes…whether they have overcome certain things like learning disabilities or English as a second language.”
On that note, it’s important to acknowledge all the students (and staff) around us who are quietly overcoming obstacles every day. Congratulations to Eduardo!
