Gilroy’s farmland might have been diminished by development, but
the activism embodied by Cesar Chavez lives on in high school
student Jorge Lustre.
Gilroy – Gilroy’s farmland might have been diminished by development, but the activism embodied by Cesar Chavez lives on in high school student Jorge Lustre.
A 17-year-old senior at El Portal Leadership Academy, Lustre earned the inaugural Cesar Chavez Emerging Leader Award in late March. The award, part of the Mexican American Community Service Association’s second annual Breakfast Honoring Cesar Chavez, recognized the student’s contributions to area organizations and causes, in and out of school.
“It got to a point where every single activity that was going on in Gilroy, Jorge was a part of,” said Tom Hernandez, formerly a math teacher and counselor at El Portal and now principal at Academica Calmecac, its sister school in San Jose.
Lustre’s community involvement ranges from the religious to the political. He is a founding member of the Cesar E. Chavez Youth Leadership Program, which encourages teen activism, and part of People United in Prevention, which works to discourage underage substance abuse.
Lustre – who works at Gilroy Gardens – is the church youth group coordinator at the Ablc-Ace Apostolic Assembly in Hollister and volunteered for the campaign of Anna Ventura Phares, who made an unsuccessful bid for state Assembly last year.
At his school, Lustre has been a visible leader. He was both student body president and yearbook co-editor last year, but gave up both responsibilities this year to focus on his academics. He hopes to attend California State University, East Bay next year and pursue a degree in forensic psychology.
While Lustre shed these formal duties, he took on larger responsibilities – a big change from when Lustre was a freshman and could be disruptive in class, Hernandez said.
Lustre recognizes that he has changed for the better. In fact, he has incorporated this growth into his desire to help others.
His goal for the next four years: “Take some of that leadership that I’ve gotten from my school, take it with me and pass it on to somebody else.”
