Miguel Salas, 16

Why Nominated

“Miguel is delightful and respectful,” wrote his grandmother Dora Martinez. “He has been on student council for the last seven years, he is involved in sports. He is dedicated to his school and friends. Miguel has never missed a day of school since he started in 1997. He is an honor student. ... He has been involved in debates. He is truly a joy to be around.”

Q&A

Is it true you’ve never missed a day of school?
“Yes.”

What about when you’re sick?

“I really haven’t gotten sick. Usually when I do get sick it’s on a Friday or Thursday, and I can just deal with it for one day.”

What kind of grades do you get?

“I have pretty good grades; I have like a 3.7 GPA.”

What sports do you play?

“I play baseball. I played football my freshman year; I got a little too small for that. I’m wrestling right now.”

What’s your favorite sport?

“Baseball is my favorite sport. I like watching and playing it. I like playing football with my friends on the weekend.”

What is your position on the student council?

“I’m just a junior rep (representative to the junior class). Next year’ I’m looking to run for a cabinet position.”

What are your duties with that position?

“We set up dances. Juniors are in charge of prom, which is in May, and then we also do assemblies for our school. We do things like act things out — do skits — during assemblies, make it funny.

“We do this harvest of love thing. It’s a food drive and all the junior reps, actually every rep, has to raise $500 for Care and Share.”

How do you raise that money?

“We stand outside Wal-Mart, or stand outside Salvation Army (collecting donations). Or — we call it the boot, where we stand outside the school” as cars pull in and out of the parking lot.

Is the drive still going on?

“This year it already ended. It starts right after Thanksgiving, and it’s three weeks long, and you have three weeks” to raise the money. “This year was really tough just because a lot of people are getting tight on money.”

What are your hobbies?

“Just hanging out with friends — go play basketball, go play video games. Just being with friends. Hanging with my family.”

What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?

“‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.’”

Did you like it?

“Oh, yeah.”

What do you want to do after high school?

“I want to go to college, but I’m not sure really what college, or where, or really what I want to do. So I’ve got to figure that out.”

Does your grandmother who nominated you live near you?

“She lives about 20 minutes away. … I go visit her every two weeks if not every week. And I talk to her on the phone a lot.”

Siblings

A brother, Ryan, 12. They live with both their parents in Colorado Springs.