Student Spotlight: Junior Andrea Iturbe

Top 10 student is former District Spelling Bee finalist in elementary and middle schools.

Parents: Bertha Aguirre and Edmundo Iturbe

Previous schools attended: Olmito Elementary and Resaca Middle School

Colleges considering: Texas A&M University or The University of Texas at Austin

Major considering: Biology

Career considering: Teacher or university professor

Class rank: Top 10 student in Class of 2022

Extracurricular activities: Band (3 years), DECA (2 years), NHS, UIL Literary Criticism, and Prose, Color Guard

Previous activities: Runner-up in Los Fresnos CISD Spelling Bee in 5th, 6th, and 8th grades

Inspiration for academic success: My parents have encouraged and inspired me since elementary school to try my best in school instead of only half-trying, which helped me to keep my grades high and strive to be better. By the time I got to middle school, academics began to be competitive with the idea of the Top 10 students and I joined clubs that enticed competition as well. At this point, my inspiration stemmed from the possibility of recognition and personal merit, and knowing that I have the capability to always improve and be better than the previous year has driven me to keep practicing and studying so I can earn better grades and perform better than ever.

Challenges overcome: One of the biggest challenges I’ve had to overcome has always been perfectionism. I always want to be the best at what I do and get the highest grades and be perfect at everything, but realistically speaking it’s just not always possible, and it’s taken me a while to learn to be okay with that. I still struggle quite a bit with the idea of not getting something 100% right the first time and I place a lot of pressure on myself to have everything I do be at the highest caliber, which unfortunately spirals into stress, anxiety, and overworking to compensate for what feels like lost time.

Band activities: I love the band and the progress I’ve made throughout the years to get to where I’m at today; the experiences I’ve had and the people I’ve met are irreplaceable and I wouldn’t give them up for anything else. I did, at one point, consider music education as a career but be taking a different path in college. However, I still do not want to let go of music entirely and I hope that I can still hold onto it in either a formal concert setting or just as a personal hobby to keep track of my own improvement.

Balancing school activities and academics: I try my best to dedicate as much time as I can to practicing and improving my skills in academics and extracurriculars, but sometimes I need to dedicate maximum time to everything at once and that’s when prioritization and time management come into play. I typically dedicate certain times of the day to certain activities and try to do as much as possible in that chunk of time so that I can make more progress on other activities at a later time. I’ve also recently adopted a habit of writing due dates out in a planner so that I can visualize my time and prioritize my workload to still be able to practice music and compete in UIL.

Possible careers: I think I decided on the education career path because it’s something I’ve been doing almost my whole life. When I learned English in Pre-Kinder, I began helping others learn the language, and more recently in AP Physics and Pre-Calculus, I’ve helped other students with the concepts as well. Teaching and explaining come easy to me when it’s a subject I’m well-versed in and I find so much joy in being able to help someone understand a topic that may not have made sense before. I find biology and genetics fascinating because I like understanding how and why we exist the way we do, and I hope that one day I can share that knowledge with other people, too.