Top 10 Spotlight: Baldemar Sosa Grounded to Family

by Ronnie Zamora/LFCISD

Baldemar Sosa, a Top 10 student in the Los Fresnos High School Class of 2017, is grounded in his family. He wants to stay close to them after graduation and attend The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

“I prefer living here in the Valley because I really don’t like big city life. Family is very important to me. Without my mother and father raising me like they did, and the love for my sisters, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.”

Baldemar Jr., son of Baldemar Sosa and Eglantina Guzman, comes from a modest family with an older sister who has graduated from college and a younger sister at LFHS.

He knows that attending college near home would not put a financial burden on his parents, although he is receiving a scholarship from the UTRGV Scholars program.

“I’ll save a lot of money by going to school here. I didn’t want to burden my parents with financial stress, and I don’t want to make it harder for them. I need to start learning to do this for myself and not depend on them.”

Baldemar has become independent already at LFHS, especially with his leadership roles in the RGV Lead student organization.

“I’ve learned a lot from RGV Lead. We’ve made presentations to parents, high school students, and middle school students about what students need to do to be ready for in high school. It’s helped me a lot with public speaking. I used to mediocre at it, but now I’ve gained some experience and I can speak before any crowd without much hesitation.”

He has also been involved in other UIL and other activities at school, but has a passion for another activity at home – video games.

“I guess you could say I’m kind of a geek,” Baldemar said. “Our first system was a PlayStation I. I’ve gained a liking to gaming because it was fun and I learned a few things about it.” He remembers playing Super Mario Bros., Space Invaders. “They’re classics.”

Baldemar knew when to put the games away and hit the books to study and maintain good grades.

“You need good grades for a good GPA. In elementary school when I got good grades, it made me happy and my family. I became more serious and aware of what I was doing in high school. You have to take harder classes to bring up your GPA.”

But his academic passion is science, which he hopes leads to a career as a pharmacist. “Ever since I was little, I wanted to be a scientist. As my attraction to science grew, I found things more interesting. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. I will major in either Biology or Chemistry to proceed before becoming a pharmacist. That’s the target. That is not going to change.”

Baldemar hopes that he has a positive influence on his younger sister. His advice for younger students:  “Think about the future. You’re not going to have second chances. When you make mistakes and not try hard enough, that can ruin your foundation for your future. No matter what happens, keep moving forward. Those who don’t try are bound for trouble and failure at the end, but those who try will eventually succeed.”