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EL CENTRO — Central Union High School had its 116th annual commencement on Tuesday night, June 4, celebrating the 2024 class of about 396 students who missed their first year on campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Students like Laryssa Delacruz and Isabella Suarez graduated from Central after spending the last three years trying to recover from the effects of the pandemic on their education.
Laryssa, 17, overcame a multitude of obstacles during her four years of high school, including two knee injuries that required three surgeries.
Laryssa has been a soccer player for a majority of her life. In her seventh-grade year, she was competing on a travel soccer team for Dynamo and painfully tore her ACL and ended up in surgery which required an entire year of recovery.
She spent the year waiting for the day she could step foot on the field again. When eighth grade came along, she decided to give soccer another chance and unfortunately ended up tearing her meniscus.
Her freshman year of high school, she decided to join the swim team as it was a sport that she had previous experience in before. Swimming was more gentle on her body, and she thoroughly enjoyed it, so she continued swimming throughout high school.
Sophom*ore year, she made the brave decision to join the Central soccer team. Even after her injuries, her love for soccer kept her going. That year, her team won the Imperial Valley League, leaving her feeling overjoyed. She continued swimming as well, and she competed on the swim team following the end of soccer season.
Junior year, however, Laryssa was playing on the soccer team, as she did every year, when she said she noticed that “something didn’t sound right” in her knee.
She went to the doctor and found out that her meniscus injury never fully healed, and she was sent to her third surgery.
She didn’t let this stop her from being involved with her soccer teammates, so she took on the role of manager for the soccer team that year and watched her team make city champs.
“Soccer was my main sport until I got hurt, it was never the same again. I went through a depression when I hurt my knee. Seeing my friends at the level, I was supposed to be in for soccer, it killed me seeing them play knowing I was supposed to be there, too,” Laryssa said.
Thankfully, her recovery was short, and she was able to continue swimming for Central that spring. Being on the swim team gave Laryssa confidence, “even though it was challenging, I was able to push myself,” she said.
Laryssa didn’t want to give up on her love for soccer, so she joined the soccer team for the last time and was able to help her team finish the season strong, competing in the CIF-San Diego Section playoffs, finishing as a runner-up. She then completed her four-year swim career this past spring and earned her lifeguard certification.
Now that Laryssa has graduated, she reflects back on her past four years and wishes she could’ve done things differently when it came to school.
“COVID really killed me because I got really lazy freshman year when it came to school, I would sleep during my Zoom classes,” Laryssa said. “I wish I would’ve been more focused, had the first year been in person then I think it would’ve made a big difference.”
After her freshman year of being fully online, she wanted to redeem herself when she started on campus her sophom*ore year. She joined Associated Student Body and served as the general assistant and sound person where she helped organize and plan assemblies, school events and more. She found that ASB helped her with her leadership skills and helped her break out of her shell.
She decided to pick a Career-Technical Education Pathway, and decided on Photography, where she was able to have the opportunity to run the CUHS athletics page on Instagram. She attended every sports event at CUHS that she could to take photos of the athletes.
Laryssa also wanted to make a change, she found that a lot of the previous photographers focused mostly on the boys’ sports teams, so she made it a responsibility to attend most, if not all, womens’ sporting events and take as many photos of the girls that she could.
This year, she decided to take on the end of the year ASB project, and chose to organize, produce and direct a Battle of the Fans video to present to the San Diego school board, competing against a multitude of other schools in the Imperial and San Diego regions. “I wanted to show people how Central does it,” Laryssa said.
Laryssa will be attending Grand Canyon University this Fall, where she will be majoring in sports entertainment management. “I have a big passion and love for sports. I could sit at a game, watch it the entire time and never get bored,” she said.
Before she heads out for college, she will be spending the summer working as a lifeguard at the Aquatic Center in El Centro, as well as working as a lifeguard for private events.
Her classmate Isabella Suarez, also 17, had a rough start to her high school career. She started her freshman year enrolled at Brawley Union High School, where she attended school fully online. Isabella struggled with online schooling and found herself failing all of her classes.
Her sophom*ore year, she was transferred to Central Union High School where she essentially had to start over to make up for the classes she failed. She had a rather heavy course load, taking both online and in person classes.
Junior year, she decided to challenge herself and took the Advanced Placement United States history class. Aside from AP testing, she also was busy taking all of the other required state tests, and on top of that she was still making up credits from her freshman year.
Thankfully her senior year went by smoother. She still had a full schedule, however she felt like she was gaining a better understanding of the material she was being taught, so it was easy for her.
“My academic journey was a roller coaster, I would definitely recommend to other people to not slack off because it will definitely catch up to you in the end,” Isabella said.
Although her school work kept her busy, she still wanted to be involved in clubs at Central, and decided to join the Pawsitivity Club her sophom*ore year, where she would volunteer at the Humane Society of Imperial County and collaborate with organizing events at Central where they bring pets to the school to serve as therapy dogs to help relax and calm students during stressful testing weeks.
She also joined soccer her sophom*ore and junior years. “I loved soccer, playing soccer opened a lot of new relationships for me because I made a lot of friends doing it. I was really closed off when I came here sophom*ore year, like many of my peers since it was the first year on campus,” Isabella said.
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Isabella became passionate about sports photography her senior year, and she began taking pictures at every football game Central played, she even went with the team to its CIF-SDS playoff game in La Jolla to serve as one of the photographers.
“I loved taking pictures for the football team, what I really liked about it was that it made other people happy, I liked how they found happiness in the photos I took. It made me feel very proud of my photography especially when they would post my pictures,” Isabella said.
She also joined Link Crew her senior year, where she was able to talk to freshmen and give them advice about what to expect throughout their four years at Central. “I constantly told the freshman I spoke to to not fall behind, because they will regret it in the end like I do,” she said.
Isabella’s current plan after graduation is to attend Imperial Valley College this fall and major in business management. She wants to follow in her grandmother, Angelina Mendibles’, footsteps after graduating from IVC and join her at Choice One Realty in El Centro.
Her grandmother has been a real estate agent since before Isabella was born. Growing up in her grandma’s real estate office piqued her interest from an early age. “Sometimes I would go with my grandma to house showings and wait in the car, I always thought her job was super cool,” she said.
After gaining experience at her grandmother’s firm, Isabella wants to move to Texas to continue her real estate journey over there.
Craig Lyon, principal of Central Union High School, provided some amazing advice to the class of 2024 during his opening speech Tuesday night.
“My advice to you is to seek out opportunities and never be afraid to challenge yourself to become a better person in life. Remember the glass is always half full if you believe in yourself,” Lyon said.
Alfred Galaviz was one of the students who spoke at the ceremony as well. He delivered a speech to his classmates, in which he stated, “I believe that the experiences of the Class of 2024 truly embodies the success and determination that makes us truly the greatest students of the greatest high school in the entire world.”
Adeline Lopez was one of many family members supporting the Central graduates at Tuesday night’s ceremony. Her niece, Amilyah Selena Lopez, graduated through the CTE Biomedical Pathway, and she also completed the Law Academy at CUHS.
“She’s an amazing being all around, she is the highlight of our family. We’re looking forward to seeing all of Mia’s successes. Mia, you are loved and supported and we can’t wait to see what you do with your future,” Adeline Lopez said.
Another supporting family member, Sydney Galloway, said some heartfelt words about her younger sister, Sage Isabella Galloway, another graduate of CUHS.
“I couldn’t be more proud of her today. During her four years at CUHS she played volleyball and her team won CIF champions her junior year. I want to give her a special shoutout for pushing through till the end and not letting any of the obstacles she went through overcome her, she stood on top of it,” Sydney Galloway said.
“The year these students started CUHS we were doing at home learning. They had a lot to overcome and a lot to adjust to when they came back. These students have persevered and excelled and we are really proud of them. They were a great class,” said Valerie Bondora, an English teacher at CUHS.
