Top 10 Spotlight–Rocky Villafranca’s Future Bright

by Ronnie Zamora/LFCISD

Don’t be surprised 10 years from now that Roque Villafranca is a spy for the CIA. And don’t be surprised to find him hosting his own political show on CNN.

The son of Roque and Aurora Villafranca, Roque Jr. is a Top 10 student in the Los Fresnos High School Class of 2016 with ambitions to do something great in the years ahead.

His older sister Alexis was a Top 10 student in the LFHS Class of 2014. His mom was valedictorian in high school, his dad raised him with a military attitude and both parents are federal workers. Everyone calls him Rocky.

“My parents were very laissez-faire,” Rocky said. “They trust that I’ll do the right thing. My dad was in the Navy and was the one to discipline me growing me to make sure I was a good kid. My mom has been very supportive. When I was little, I told her that I wanted to be President. And she replied, ‘you’ll be president.’ I said Mom, I want to go to Rice University, and she said yes, ‘you’ll go to Rice.’ Now I’m going to Rice.”

He got his first taste of military life as a 13-year-old who unwillingly attended a two-week Border Patrol Explorer Boot Camp attended by mostly 16- and 17-year-olds.

“It was tough. We ran 3-4 miles every day. They didn’t go easy on me because I was the youngest one there. I walked out of it really enjoying the military culture.”

The camp convinced him that he wanted to be in the military and he joined the NJROTC in his freshman year. “I was there during last period until 6 o’clock every day and I was happy doing it. I was on every team I could be on.”

Rocky did NJROTC full-time for three years, was commanding officer during junior year. With so many other school commitments including Student Council President, he took on a consulting role as a senior to help the new commanding officers.

Because of his high academic ranking and his NJROTC work, Rocky has received the Navy Immediate Scholarship Reservation (ISR) for four years at Rice University to cover all expenses except housing, and Rice provided a housing scholarship. The total scholarship is $232,000.

“Since the Navy is paying me to to Rice, I have to repay them in five years of service. I will graduate as a commissioned officer in the Navy.”

The next nine years of Rocky’s life is mapped out, including the summers with Navy training. He has a lot of things he wants to do after his Navy commitment, including a career as an intelligence officer. “I want to be spy.”

A requirement of an intelligence officer is to learn a strategic language like Arabic, Mandarin or Russian. He chose Russian and must learn the language fluently by the time he graduates from Rice.

“After the nine years, if I want to stay in the Navy, can do three more years in Navy Reserve. If I go back to school, I want to back to Harvard Law. I would love to take a job with the CIA.”

Rocky has an announcer’s voice, and not a day goes by that someone tells him he should go into broadcasting. He has done morning announcements at LFHS for the last three years and has been asked to announce numerous school events.

“If I could, I would want to be a political correspondent for a network after I get my Navy commitment out of the way. I’m a politician at heart. I want my own show on CNN one day like Anderson Cooper.”

There’s more to Roque Villafranca. He taught himself to play the piano, guitar, ukulele and drums although he does not know how to read music. “I love music and have a good ear for it.”

He admits that he has poor study habits, although he ranks among the top five seniors. “It’s hard to explain. It might be genetic.”

His advice for younger students: “Don’t worry too much about the future. Every day, find something that you love and just do that. Whatever you found will be productive. Do what you love. If you don’t love what you’re doing, then you’re not doing anything at all.”