Jose Hernandez is Bullish on the Future
Jose Hernandez is bullish about the future. The Huntington High School Class of 2012 member will attend Queensborough Community College in the fall as he begins down the road toward a degree in psychology.
Mr. Hernandez looked into attending Adelphi University, but in the end settled on Queensborough for his first few rounds of college courses. He plans to transfer for his four year degree. The new grad easily rolls with the punches and keeps an optimistic outlook on life and his future.
"Jose moved to the United States from the Dominican Republic in the middle of his junior year," said Bernadette Walsh, Huntington's college counselor. He was placed in English as a second language and bilingual classes, but quickly "tested out" and from for the rest of high school engaged in a regular mainstream curriculum.
"Jose worked extremely hard to learn English, even forgoing the opportunity to travel to his home country last summer so he could perfect his English here," Mrs. Walsh said. "Now, fluent in Spanish and English, Jose is thriving. In fact, I would say, Jose has grasped the English language better than some of his native speaking peers."
The teenager is always up for a challenge. This past year, Mr. Hernandez signed up for Advanced Placement Spanish and excelled in the class. "He actually doubled up classes in order to graduate with his cohort," Mrs. Walsh said. "Jose's transcript is certainly reflective of the hard work and dedication that he consistently put forth."
"Jose is among the brightest, most eager and hard working students I have ever had," said Mercedes Pena, who teaches AP Spanish at Huntington High School. "He demonstrated outstanding critical thinking skills whenever we had in-depth discussions about various current event topics that were in the reading passages, news articles and Internet audio resources. Jose wrote creative essays in my class that displayed his high-level thinking and writing abilities. He also enjoys writing poetry, and even had an interesting article on diversity published in the school newspaper, The Dispatch."
Mr. Hernandez earned induction into the National Honor Society and the Spanish Honor Society. He won the Triple C Attorney General's Award, Hispanic Heritage Student Recognition Award, Angelo Del Toro Award and Huntington's Spanish Award for a bilingual student.
"As a newcomer to our community, Jose challenged himself to meet people and become assimilated into the school culture," Mrs. Walsh said. "As Huntington is a diverse melting pot of ethnicities, socioeconomic strata and religious affiliations, Jose has comfortably adapted. Academically, he is a very hardworking student." Mr. Hernandez compiled an academic average above 95.
Queensborough Community College appears to be a good fit for the new Huntington grad. It is located on 56th Street in Bayside, Queens and has seen a recent surge in enrollment, which now stands at more than 15,000 students. The school opened more than 50 years ago and 62 percent of faculty members hold doctorates. Nearly half of Queensborough's students were born in another country and 47 percent speak a language other than English at home.
Mr. Hernandez has been encouraged by his friends and family every step of the way. "I can't say enough about this outstanding young man," Mrs. Walsh said. "He is determined to succeed, values education and the importance of learning and has strong values. Jose is kind, considerate, reserved and focused on his goals one day at a time. What an unbeatable combination!"