Oralia and Jorge Herrera of Fillmore have good reason to be proud.
Their son Jose Marcelino Herrera is graduating at the top of his class at Fillmore High School. In the fall, he will start studying at the University of California at Los Angeles.
As a member of the university, he will be joining his brother. And his other brother. And another brother. And yet another brother.
Jose will be the fifth and final son of Oralia and Jorge to become a UCLA Bruin. Raising five boys is tough enough. Supporting and fostering this level of consistent academic excellence is another major accomplishment in parenting.
The Jose and his parents were among 300 people attending The Star Scholar Awards Banquet on Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. The event is an annual gathering hosted by the Ventura County Starand the Ventura County Office of Education to recognize the area's top high school students.
You sense the pride as you glide among the tables set for dinner. Each of the 77 top scholars has worked very hard. That effort has paid off. Parents and educators get a chance to bask in the moment when they see their students recognized by their community. The event is the most fulfilling that the Star does all year, said editor Joe Howry.
The county's top scholars will spread across the nation after they graduate. They are headed to schools large and small.
Marie Beck, a senior at Channel Islands High School, is headed to Brigham Young University in Utah. Megan K. Baker will leave Fillmore High School for the 3,000-student campus of the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. Allyssa A. Cayago from Pacifica High School in Oxnard will study nursing at UCLA. Amaru U. Moses will trade Hueneme High School for the University of California at Berkeley.
Each will leave behind parents and families as proud at the Herrera's of Fillmore. And I suspect that those families will be looking to the future, to the accomplishments from the class of 2007.
Oralia and Jorge Herrera said they are already thinking ahead, but for another reason. They have one more child at home. A daughter.