Harlingen South top grads heading to Boston and West Point

HARLINGEN — Meet Abigail Garza.

She plays piano and marimba and guitar, and she’s valedictorian of this year’s graduating class at Harlingen High School South.

“It feels nice to know that all my hard work over the last four years has been recognized,” said Abigail, 18.

Her friend Robert Villarreal revealed the same sentiments about him achieving salutatorian.

“It feels very rewarding because it took a lot of hard work, staying up late nights doing homework and not going out with friends so I could catch up on assignments,” said Robert 18.

Robert says he used to play jazz with Abigail but after his freshman year he pursued athletics, playing football and basketball and running track.

The music stayed with him, though, and served him during his long, solitary hours of study.

“The best thing that helped me persevere through a lot of it is just listening to music,” he said. “A lot of my study habits honestly just consisted of me putting on my headphones, turning on noise canceling, working as hard as I could until I just felt like I couldn’t work anymore.”

This kind of mettle and perseverance will service him well when he begins his studies as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He plans to major in pre-med and eventually go to medical school to become a physician.

Abigail likewise exercised strict discipline in her study hours.

“I shut off every other electronics that I have, and I just focus on whatever I need,” she said. “I burn a candle and as soon as the wick goes out I stop. I’ll set a timer for myself or a candle.”

Another challenge Abigail faced was working on her time management skills, balancing extracurricular activities with her academics.

“I was one of the drum majors for marching band,” she said. “I’m also in the jazz band and the Salsa band and the Mariachi band and the concert band.”

Whew!

How …

“I dedicated a lot of time to my studies and making sure that my statistics were good,” she said. “I had a lot of support from my family and friends.’

She plans to pursue a degree in jazz performance with the bass guitar at the Berkeley College of Music in Boston. She’d like to become a recording artist or a bassist with a traveling music group.

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