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DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO –
A teenage mother who survived domestic violence and became the first of her siblings to graduate from high school and attend college. Two 17 year old transgender boys. A 16-year-old high school junior who won America’s Top Young Scientist when he was 14.
These were some of the teenagers honored Wednesday night at San Diego County’s third annual “25 Most Remarkable Teens” ceremony held in the Shiley Special Events suite on the top floor of downtown San Diego Central Library.
“The vision of the San Diego Public Library is to be a place of opportunity, discovery and inspiration,” said Misty Jones, director of the library, at the beginning of the ceremony on Wednesday. “And tonight I definitely think we have more than covered the inspiration part.”
The program is led by the Office of San Diego County’s Public Defender Randy Mize. The winners were selected by the Public Defender Youth Council, a group of committed high school students.
As assistant public defenders read a brief bio for each teenager, the inspiration Jones was referring to became clear.
There was Zane Trubick, who shuttled back and forth between foster families and a rough family life before finally living with his court-appointed special attorney as an eighth grader. Bob O’Conner taught Trubick to surf and encouraged him to join the Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps while in high school.
Trubick, 19, graduated from Point Loma High and received a Naval Scholarship to the University of California, San Diego, where he is now a sophomore in electrical engineering.
Jonathan Eppert, an 18-year-old senior at Hilltop High in Chula Vista, had to drop out of school for some time to fight Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which had created a golf ball-sized tumor on his right collarbone. Now the top-ranked student in his 416 senior year, Eppert is hoping to become a pediatric nurse at Rady Children’s Hospital – the same facility where he underwent cancer treatment.
Vanessa Russell, 18, was molested by her partner in her early teens, just six months after giving birth to their daughter. After mustering the courage to report him to the police – which resulted in a conviction – she returned her attention to the school. Although she was three years behind most students her age, she was the first sibling in her family to graduate from high school and is now attending Palomar College.
Other award winners have already gained national recognition. Kara Fan, a 16-year-old Westview High Junior, invented a spray-on dressing that uses microscopic silver particles instead of antibiotics. It’s her solution to the problem of bacterial infections becoming resistant to antibiotics and has earned her the 3M Young Scientist Challenge and $ 25,000.
Sita Antel, a 17-year-old senior at Mission Bay High, received the 2020 George and Helen Hartzog Youth Service Award – a National Parks Service award given to only one teenager each year nationwide – for her work on the Cabrillo National Monument Honoring the centenary of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote. It created a “strike garden” with replicas of real-life signs held by suffragists outside the White House during the initial protest.
After the teenagers were honored, several city and county leaders spoke, including Holly Porter, the county’s assistant chief executive officer. She led the room into a round of applause for the families and supporters of the honorees, and to those who do not have strong support, she said, “You can start your own family. That’s one thing. You will grow up, find caring people and start your own family. “
San Diego councilors, Marni von Wilpert, Raul Campillo, and Sean Elo-Rivera also spoke. Although many of the teenagers are planning or have already left the area to graduate from the best colleges in the country, Campillo urged them to return to San Diego.
“Please come home when you’ve finished studying, do whatever it is – come back to San Diego, we need you,” said Campillo. “I feel like after we’re done we would be in really good shape if some of you 25 ran for office and replaced us.”
Elo-Rivera ended the night with all of the honorees getting up from their chairs. “For the adults in the room, these may be the most notable teenagers in San Diego, but they aren’t the only notable teenagers in San Diego,” he said. “Look at who or what a remarkable teenager looks like. It’s an incredibly diverse group of people; This reflects the San Diego that we have become. “
Complete list of San Diego’s “25 Most Notable Teens”
- Jonathan Eppert, 18, Hilltop High, personal determination
- Nicole Warkentien, 17, San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, Performing Arts: Musical Theater
- Sree Kandhadai, 16, Francis Parker School, environmental activism
- Elijah Hudson, 17, Rancho Buena Vista High, community empowerment
- Rhea Chhabra, 17, of Scripps Ranch High, most enterprising
- Zane Trubick, 19, UC San Diego, Courage to Overcome Adversity: Family Situation
- Fei Chan, 17, Canyon Hills High, guided tour
- Sita Antel, 17, Mission Bay High, Community Service
- Jocorey Mitchell, 17, West Hills High, Performing Arts: Actor
- Kara Fan, 16, Westview High, inventor
- Kieran Pearson, 17, Torrey Pines High, LGBTQ activist
- Flora Yuan, 17, Del Norte High, music: singer
- Caden Barnes, 17, Carlsbad High, Creativity: Filmmaking
- Denisse Lopez, 18, UC San Diego, Civic Service
- Kellen Bynes, 17, San Marcos High, Campus Director
- Xiomara Villarreal-Gerardo, 19, San Diego State University, journalism
- Vanessa Russell, 18, Palomar College, perseverance
- Leonardo Garcia, 14, Kearny School of Engineering, Innovation, and Design, Citizenship
- Divinity Hawkins, 17, San Pasqual Academy, Courage to Overcome Adversity: Personal Situation
- Rohan Bosworth, 15, Poway High, Technology
- Wendy Brizuela, 17, Gompers Preparatory Academy, Creativity: Art
- Aidan Hallinan, 18, Mission Bay High, mental health activist
- Ilan Jinich, 17, San Diego Jewish Academy, Social Conscience
- Samira Hassan, 16, Patrick Henry High School, Youth Activism
- Stephan Abrams, 18, George Mason University, Public Defender’s Award of Excellence
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