Valerie Rodriguez, Staff Writer
Valerie Rodriguez is a 17-year-old senior attending Birmingham Community Charter High School. She was born here in California with an inspiring dream. Her parents are from Mexico City and she has two younger sisters, one of which attends Birmingham and is just a freshman! She also has a baby sister who was born in 2020 just before the pandemic! Valerie loves her family very much and is very much supported by her family. Her parents and family are all from Mexico so Valerie can speak both English and Spanish. Valerie may hate chores but that's helped her clean around the house and taking care of siblings by letting her mom rest and go to work. Valerie cares a lot about her family because they're the ones who show interest in what she does and find it very unique.
She likes watching anime and reading manga. She finds the art in anime and manga very unique and interesting. Her favorite shows are Hunterxhunter, Tokyo Ghoul, and Demon Slayer. Valerie's dream is to be an inspiring Mangaka artist and storyteller as a career to help inspire others and allow them to watch the entertaining stories she's created. One of the colleges she wants to apply to is the California Institute of the Arts. "California Institute of the Arts is renowned internationally as a game--changer in the education of professional artist." Valerie is still currently looking for colleges, of course. She is currently in the Animation 2 pathway for her senior year to create unique short stories to animate. She also is currently trying to be a President of the Animation club to practice her social skills as well as art skills and share ideas with the club for incoming projects or events.
Valerie also struggled to do English in Middle school to the point where she had to take extra English classes which was a program. She felt very sad about that. There was always a big exam to pass that program and not take it anymore. She studied very hard and eventually passed the program and is now taking AP English which she is very happy about. She's ready for any challenges in her way. Her goals for the last year of high school are to get good grades and graduate on stage. Valerie is a very energetic and outstanding person who is not afraid to hear her mistakes but instead learn from them. She aspires to be a very helpful person to anyone. She has never taken interest in journalism but since they've put her in the class she has learned what it takes to be a writer for articles and is very much interested. She will hopefully write very interesting articles that she takes interest in.
Her favorite music is hip-hop/alternative/rock. She loves listening to music when she has to concentrate on doing homework or big projects while drawing. She believes that this year's artists and albums coming out are sounding great.
