AVUHSD is proud to empower our students to reach new heights as they move onto their next steps after graduation! In this spirit, we are celebrating recent Eastside graduate Brenda Florencio Davalos, who was awarded a scholarship from the Migrant Education Program (MEP) Regional Office at the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) on June 17!

This scholarship is awarded through generous contributions to LACOE’s MEP Student Scholarship Fund. Brenda applied for the scholarship earlier this year, and she is feeling glad and hopeful that she won it.

Brenda has been involved with the Antelope Valley Migrant Education Program since elementary school. Through the program, she says she was able to try different activities and make new friends. It gave her a sense of connection and community.

“I’m just really grateful to everyone I’ve met in my whole years at the Migrant Education [Program],” said Brenda. 

While she was at Eastside, Brenda was involved in a number of programs such as Mock Trial, Girls Golf, the National Art Society Club, the Education and Social Service Careers Pathway, and the AV Migrant Education Speech and Debate team. 

“At school, I would do a lot of presentations, but I wouldn’t be comfortable, or I would not speak up, avoid eye [contact],” Brenda said. “With Speech and Debate, I feel like it helped me do that because I was able to learn how to speak normally without being so shy and everything in front of others, especially those who I’ve never seen before.”

Karen Rasch-Herrera, who coached Brenda and her team for AVMEP Speech and Debate, said that Brenda is a determined, hardworking young woman with a selfless and caring personality.

“When she competed as a junior in the MEP [Speech and Debate] tournament, she helped others who were competing directly against her. She didn’t care that they were competitors, she still read their speeches and gave them feedback,” said Mrs. Rasch-Herrera. 

In the classroom, Eastside teacher Robert Reynoso said he noticed her come out of her shell gradually in his AP Spanish class. She gained confidence as she began participating more. Brenda credits her time in Speech and Debate, along with her other activities, as the reason she became more comfortable to talk with others. 

In the fall, she will be studying interior architecture at the University of California, Davis. She said her interest in the field began after participating in an activity with the Migrant Education Program.

“They had like a STEM class where we would build robots, bridges, and stuff like that, which made me want to become an architect,” she said. “I obviously leaned more into the interior, but I feel like that was a really strong starting point to what I want to do.”

After speaking to a specialist in the National Guard, Brenda also became interested in different opportunities to provide help to third-world countries. This led her to enlist in the reserves for the National Guard with the hope to be able to help other regions through service. 

“I feel like that’s really cool, and I’ve always had a passion to try to help others, and I feel like this would help me do that,” Brenda said. 

Mr. Reynoso said that Brenda represents Eastside, AVUHSD, and the Antelope Valley well, and he is confident she will be successful in everything she does.

“For her to go out to a place like UC Davis where she’s going to school, for her to be a representation of our community, it just makes me so proud.” said Mr. Reynoso. “I cannot have picked a better student to go out and represent who we are, and what we stand for, and the families we have in our community.”

Congratulations to Brenda as she steps into her next chapter after AVUHSD. We are proud to have such hardworking and driven students represent our district and community!