Central Union High School valedictorian on to Brown University

One Imperial Valley high school valedictorian will be flying across the country to embark on her collegiate journey after being awarded various scholarships toward college.

Erica Leon, an El Centro native and recent Central Union High School graduate, is on her way to Brown University in Rhode Island after her 4.6 grade-point average enabled her to win a Bill Gates Millennium Scholarship and the sole Southern California Association of Governments scholarship in the Imperial Valley.

Though modest, 17-year-old Leon also has a few other academic achievements to boast (or not boast) of.

Leon received an award for being the only Central junior to achieve a 5.0 GPA last year, was a student of the month and placed third in a post-regional Greater San Diego Engineering and Science Fair. She helped her school’s Academic Decathlon team place first in Imperial County the past three years and first in the overall team super quiz category at the state competition the past two years.

Neil MacGaffey, who Leon said was one of her key influences in high school, said Leon’s achievements were well deserved.

“She’s a very hard-working, very self-motivated student who is very bright,” MacGaffey, Central’s Academic Decathlon adviser, said. “She’s always pushing herself to do more and be involved in a variety of things to challenge herself,” he said.

Though, as MacGaffey said, Leon always knew what she wanted in high school, Leon said that’s not the case as she gets ready for college.

“I have so many things that I like, I just don’t know what it is I want to do,” she said. “I pick the classes the day before they actually begin but, honestly, I have absolutely no idea what I want to major in yet,” she said.

And even though she doesn’t expect to be at the top of her class at Brown, she does expect to “do well, get what is required of me done and ultimately go to graduate school (on the East Coast),” she said, adding that she also wants to end up back in the Valley due to family ties.

“She’s just a student that any teacher would like to have,” MacGaffey added. “She’s a joy to teach,” he said.