Pajaro Valley High’s ‘spirit of the school’ graduates after four years of leadership

Senior Jonathan Escobar was a quiet and shy freshman when he started out at Pajaro Valley High School. 

“Throughout middle school I was bullied a bit,” he said. “So I was kind of scared of high school.” 

Fast forward four years and he’s just finished up being class president, organizer and emcee of school rallies, and a competitive cheerleader on the Watsonville school’s squad.

To top things off, he’ll deliver a speech during the PVHS graduation ceremony on Wednesday. And this fall, he’s going to UC Davis to pursue either a career as a surgeon or a degree in political science. 

“I was able to just find people that were accepting and welcoming and made me feel safe,” he said. “I found a passion in doing community stuff, being social – it helped me a lot with coming out of my shell.” 

Friends, family and teachers at Pajaro Valley High say Escobar is leaving big shoes to fill. As class president or vice president during his four years in high school, he took on the role of organizing and emceeing school activities such as fundraisers and pep rallies. He was also a performer, with the cheerleading squad, in one of the school’s folklorico groups and in this year’s performance of “Zoot Suit.”

Teacher Tamela Harkins called him “the spirit of the school” for all the extracurriculars he excelled in and the atmosphere he created in school events. 

“He could be mayor,” she said. “He’s a “Renaissance man.” 

Born to immigrant farmworker parents from Mexico, Escobar grew up in Watsonville and attended Pajaro Valley Unified School District elementary and middle schools. After having endured bullying in middle school, he didn’t know what he would encounter in high school. But he quickly found encouraging teachers, supportive classmates and seniors, like Karla Leyva, whom he felt inspired by. Leyva played soccer, took Advanced Placement courses, was class valedictorian and is now at Yale University. 

In examples like Leyva, Escobar saw fellow Latino students who weren’t afraid of who they were and where they came from and were very active in school life.  

“I saw her, and I saw someone who looked like me, being regarded in such a high way, and I had never seen that,” he said. “I thought, if she can do it, then maybe I can too.” 

On Friday after school, Escobar and his friend Monique Ayala worked on a mural of farmworker advocate Dolores Huerta. They designed the mural to have a younger version of Huerta adjacent to an older version of her, which Escobar said shows how she stayed true to her values throughout her life.

Ayala, class vice president and salutatorian, said Escobar was the one who first encouraged her to be part of the high school’s leadership class and to be an officer.

“Jonathan’s the most ambitious person I think I’ve ever met,” she said. “He has these big ideas, and he’s so good at reaching out and getting people to contribute to these ideas.” 

Ayala said for this school year’s homecoming rally in October, Escobar suggested that they organize a glow-in-the-dark rally – something they’d never done before. She said he was unwavering in his idea and helped make it happen. 

Escobar reached out to donors to fundraise for the rally and he figured out where to find black lights, ultimately getting a company to provide them at a discount. He and the officers then organized the rally’s activities, which included a dance competition, folklorico performances and a sumo ball contest. Sumo balls are large inflatable balls people wear and then bump into each other. 

Ayala said Escobar was always on top of everything, checking in with the performers, asking for the songs they were dancing to and making sure people were ready. Escobar says the rally was one of his favorite high school memories.

“It was just such hard work and everybody worked on it,” he said. “I had so much fun performing, talking during the rally and then just seeing like other kids having fun.” 

Friday was the last day of school, and Ayala and Escobar, like many of their classmates, spent a lot of the day going classroom to classroom asking fellow students and teachers to sign their yearbooks. Escobar said he wasn’t feeling very emotional at all about finishing up his high school chapter because he’s really looking forward to his next one at UC Davis. 

He wants to explore becoming a surgeon because he likes the idea of having new problems to solve every day. Escobar also sees it as a challenge to thrive in a place where a lot of people don’t look like him.  

“I want to be in a place where I can hopefully inspire other kids like me,” he said. “Whether that be someone who’s Mexican American or whether that’s somebody who is part of the LGBTQIA+ community, to be seen and recognized.” 

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