BEST & BRIGHTEST: Fountain Valley senior enjoys forays through time

At 18, Sophia Nunez has already been to more countries than many people will visit in a lifetime.

Those trips to Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Japan, Australia and Guatemala provided her with a wealth of experience she draws upon daily.

Nunez calls those travels "experiential education" and wrote they "brought lessons inaccessible through textbooks - a feeling of tiptoeing through history and bathing in another culture, from the geography to the food."

It's no surprise, then, that one of her favorite hobbies involves a different kind of traveling - through time. For the past two summers, Nunez has volunteered at Rock Ledge Historic Ranch and Museum. She dons a 1880s-era dress and petticoat and shows visitors how chores such as making butter were accomplished before the advent of electricity. She gives tours of the home built in 1874 in Garden of the Gods and doles out historical facts.

"It's nice to step away from our modern ways for a time," said Nunez.

The Fountain Valley School senior's travels haven't taken her from her academic studies. She's ranked at, or near, the top of her class for all of her high school career and is a member of several honor societies.

Nunez recently found out she earned an academic scholarship to Washington University in St. Louis.

"Taking on the most rigorous classes that our school has to offer, Sophia's unrelenting work ethic, in combination with her immense intellectual capacity and her insatiable curiosity for learning, led her to the rank of number one in our senior class," wrote her friend and classmate, Stacia Koster.

Being the oldest of four children in her family has taught Nunez patience, which also translates into her helping classmates with their studies.

"I've learned during my high school career it's important to go and seek help, but it's just as important to be able to offer help in return," Nunez said.

With her passion for singing and acting, combined with her academic skills, Nunez is ready to travel into the next stage of her life: adulthood.


SOPHIA NUÑEZ
Fountain Valley School

Parents: Grace Blea-Nuñez and Dr. Michael Nuñez

College plans: Washington University in St. Louis

If you had a million dollars, which philanthropic organization would you form and why?

"I would like to do a project supporting conservation, especially recycling, in developing countries. When I visited Guatemala, a volcano there was one of the most beautiful places I've been in my life. But it was sad because trash littered the paths going up the mountain. I don't know if they had many opportunities to conserve or recycle."

Other details: National Merit Scholarship finalist; Boettcher Scholarship finalist; Froelicher (honor) Society; Dean's List; Hispanic Honor Society