Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Delinquent student is now Distinguished Scholar

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Thursday, October 26, 2000

Delinquent student is now Distinguished Scholar
San Juanita Coronado is set to do what they said she couldn't - graduate, and with good grades
By Mary Moreno
Caller-Times

David Adame/Caller-Times

San Juanita Coronado gets taped up before football practice at Mathis High School. She comes from a hard background and got in trouble early on. But she has turned her life around and performed well in school.

Since her days in elementary school, San Juanita Coronado's name was well known among her teachers, but early on it wasn't for good reasons.
   "Everyone knew her," said Anissa Ganceres, a Mathis High School counselor. "She was a very troubled child. She was very violent."
   San Juanita's delinquent deeds landed her in the custody of the Texas Youth Commission for more than two years. It's where she spent her 16th and 17th birthdays and earned her high school equivalency.
   Once she got out, she realized she had to turn her life around. The way she tells it, sneaking a smoke or conspiring to buy alcohol didn't hold the thrill it once had. She was ready for a new challenge, so she returned to high school.
   It was also a matter of pride, of being able to say she made it through four years of schooling.
   "They all said I would never make it through high school," the 18-year-old senior said. "(But) if I tell myself I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it.
   "When they ask me if I (got to college) with a GED or a high school diploma, I will be able to say I got there with a high school diploma."
   Now San Juanita is ranked 34th in her class of 128 with a grade average of 86.38 and was named a Caller-Times Distinguished Scholar in the achiever category.
   San Juanita wasn't satisfied with just coming back to high school; she wanted to make up for the time and experiences she missed while in the Texas Youth Commission.
   So she joined the football team and she plans on playing as many sports as she can. "(TYC) had no sports," she said. "I missed all of it."
   She said she chose football because it was the first sport she was able to sign up for. She also plans to play softball and basketball. And after football season ends, she wants to join school clubs. Ganceres said what makes San Juanita's success all the more improbable is she has done it on her own.
   "She comes from a very hard background," Ganceres said. "She's one of the children who does it by herself."
   San Juanita's father died when the girl was 13. Her mother remarried and sent San Juanita and her sister to live with a grandmother. Since then she has lived with various relatives. Still, that hasn't stopped from her from dreaming of receiving her high school diploma and continuing on to college to study computers.
   "San Juanita has amazed everybody," Ganceres said. "She is one of those students who is not going to give up. She is just amazing."



Staff writer Mary Moreno can be reached at 886-3774 or by e-mail at morenom@caller.com

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