Minerva Corona was among more than 450 Bel Air High School students who graduated Saturday evening at the Don Haskins Center. The class earned $4.35 million in scholarships.

Corona said it felt like a big accomplishment to be valedictorian. “I’ve always tried to do the best I could do in every class.”

Bound for UT-Austin, the clarinet player said she’ll miss the close friendships she made in Bel Air’s band. “It’s like a second family.”

One bandmate will also be at UT, but the rest will be harder to stay in touch with because most are staying in El Paso. Corona’s boyfriend will also remain in El Paso, but “hopefully” they’ll keep connected, she said with a chuckle.

Class salutatorian Krystal Kim will stay in El Paso this summer to finish her nursing degree. She said she’s worked hard in Bel Air’s nursing program for two years, and will be a licensed vocational nurse at age 18. “It’s very worth it. I don’t feel I missed out on anything.”

She plans to begin work as a nurse while in school, either at UTEP or the University of Miami.

“I’m not the kind of person to be relying on my parents all the time,” she said.

Jake Rollow may be reached at jrollow@elpasotimes.com; 546-6137.

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Sunday, May 28, 2006 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Scholarship. Tags: Austin, Bel Air, Bel Air High School, Don Haskins Center, El Paso, Jake Rollow, Krystal Kim, Minerva Corona, Scholarship, Student, University of Miami, Utah, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.