Good morning everybody! My name is Hugo Vega.

In the four years of attending VISA, I

am going to summarize my experience of how I have grown as student and as a global citizen.
Here at VISA, we have to meet certain requirements in order to graduate, including completing a
total of 120 community service hours to completing a digital portfolio. So how can these
requirements help us? Hopefully I can answer that question by showing you guys how I have
grown.
Let us start in my freshman year. I had to complete many writing assignments, or at least
at that time 3 was many for me, but I want to talk about an assignment that was given to me in
my Digital Literacy class by Ms. Espinoza. The assignment was to write a proposal to the
kitchen staff about how to encourage students to get the food from the cafeteria. The problem
was that 40% of the students were not eating lunch, losing about $115,000 because of it, so we
had to propose a way to solve this problem. Then the best proposal would be shown to the
kitchen staff. This was a real problem that we had to attempt to solve Mine did not get picked,
but the assignment did introduce me to taking action in a real problem. I usually had to deal with
hypotheticals before, but this was a real problem that could affect me. Now about [80%] of the
students here in VISA get there lunches, compared to [60%] in LAUSD public schools. In order
to complete the assignment I had to use formal language so my proposal could be taken
seriously. That new skill I learned helped me grow as a student, because the years after that
project I had to use this skill to complete other projects and use it in order to communicate with
other people.
Later in the year, Ms. Espinoza assigned a new project called the ISS project. In that
project, my group and I had to create an effective way to present internet safety to middle school
students. So my group decided to use a Prezi to present to the students. Before we could present,

however, we had to contact the teacher of the class to whom we wanted to present to via
telephone. To accomplish that, we had to use professional language, and proper phone etiquette,
to show that we were serious about the presentation and to show respect. When I completed the
project and presented the Prezi to the middle school students, I felt that my skills in
communicating ideas improved greatly. As now I can effectively communicate ideas to inform
my audience of a situation or a problem, and provide a solution to said problem.
Like in my VEI project with Mrs. Tupaz, my Environmental Science class teacher. In this
project, my entire class had to create a group that helped the community. My group, called the
Green Lanterns, wanted to encourage people to create gardens with irrigation systems. In the
Green Lanterns, we had two CEOs and four Departments, each with a leader. I was the leader
for the research department. My job was to get information about gardens and irrigation systems
and how the affected you. After the research was done, I had to write out a report about all the
research my department did. Then the other leaders, the two CEOs, and I had to present our case
with gardens with irrigation systems. To present I had to communicate our ideas effectively to
our audience. We used a diagram to show how the system works in a garden and we had a
presentation showing the benefits of our idea.
After the VEI project, I had to give a speech as a project assigned by Mrs. Mohr. The
speech we had to give had to talk about something relating to what we have learned throughout
the year in her class. I decided to make my speech about the bystander affect, which basically
comes out to being that the more people there are in a situation, the less it is likely they will help
since the responsibility of helping is divide up through the amount of people present. Anyways,
the speech was to be given in front a whole audience in the MPR. So to prepare for this speech,
Mrs. Mohr told us to practice and some tips on how to practice, such as practice in front of a

mirror. Though that sounds funny, it is a very helpful technique to prepare for a speech, any
speech that you may have to give*give slight cough*. All and all, the preparation for the speech
really gave me the skills that I will need not just for high school, but for my college career,
maybe even my future career!
Last year, I had a project in MR. Whitmers Computer Science class, where my group
and I had to investigate a foreign country. We had to research its history, culture, and their
economy. Then we had to plan a fictional 10 day trip to that country. My group had chosen India
as our country. My job in this project was to gather all the information my teammates gathered
and put it into a website that I had to build by scratch. Meaning I had to code it with HTML and
CSS. Building a website gave me an understanding on how websites work, which can be helpful
to me in the future. We then had to present our Country to our entire class the culture, the
economy, and the history of India. Completing this project improved my communication skills
as I had to present in front of an entire class for about an hour.
During April, I went with the Band and Orchestra to festival. Festival is an event where
both ensembles go and compete with other schools based on ratings of gold, silver, bronze, and
merit. A merit basically means thanks for coming. I have gone to festival from freshman year to
junior year and what I gain over those experiences is how to communicate to the audience with
music. Its harder than you might think, I have to feel what I want the audience to feel while I stay
in rhythm, play the right notes, and to have the correct volume all the same time. This not only
helps me with music, but in speaking in general. I have the skills to present to an audience and
have them give me a reaction. This will be helpful in my college career as I will have to present
to a class and hopefully do so without boring them to death. By the way it is all in the eye brows.

Last semester, I had a research paper assigned by Mr. Okamoto and Ms. Burnett. In this
paper I had to choose an issue that related to economics. So I wanted to research the elderly in
prisons. I wanted to investigate why the numbers of elderly prisoners were rising and why did
they cost so much to maintain. Then I had to provide my solution to the problem. Doing the
paper helped gain skilled I will need for college. Such as preparing to write a research paper,
citing the information I gathered from reliable information, and using statistics and figures to
support my idea.
This year, when I spoke with the former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Christopher
Hill, I had to use professional language. I had the opportunity to ask him a question thats to the
World Affairs Council, an organization that invites politicians, business leaders, humanitarians,
and more to give a speech and answer questions from the audience. They have a program where
students can ask questions to the speaker before their speech. I ask him a question about North
Koreas future, as he stated in an article two days before the event, to see why he stated that their
fall was inevitable. In order to ask him that question, I had to format it to make it professional
and to show respect to Ambassador Hill. I had to state my name and the school I attend in order
to introduce myself and then ask my question. My experience at the event opened me to see the
perspectives on the relationship of North Korea and the world, and to investigate why places are
as they are.
Now, my advice to you guys is to take the opportunities that are given to you at this
school. Like AP courses, SAT and ACT prep, College trips, going to affair councils, and even
going to Europe. Take advantage of these opportunities because they help you stand out from
other students. Going to Europe may affect you view on history or even current affairs and can
open you to other cultures in a foreign country. Taking a SAT and ACT prep can help you out at

getting high scores on your tests, increasing your chances to getting into your dream College or
just getting into a good one, if you dont have any favorites.
To our faculty, I advise for more diversity in subjects. I understand that you are currently
building new rooms to house new classes for new classes, but I encourage you to have a greater
selection in classes. A down side of being a small school is not having diversity in classes. I say
this because in high school, teenagers discover who they are and what they like. Having more of
diversity in classes can help your students find out what they like, and may even guide them to
their future careers.