You may have seen her at lunch planning events to get students involved, or running track and cross country. Maybe it was showing her steer in 4-H at the fair or shooting goals in water polo. The truth is, you’ve probably seen Senior Devin Corea doing all of these activities, not to mention maintaining a 4.05 GPA and balancing two AP classes.
Sophomore year, Corea was urged to run for junior class president by her friends, and decided to run because of a single word: prom. She looked forward to the challenge and was confident that she could get the job done. When some “Prama”, prom drama,struck about the limit of tickets sold due to the venue size, she put on a brave face and took some brutal comments from students and evenparents. Prom went off without a hitch and people apologized fortheir wrong comments to her. Corea claims that all of the hard work was absolutely worth it. She got multiple compliments saying that it was the “Disneyland of all Proms”.
[blockquote author=”Corea” ]Being able to give someone the experience of prom was so rewarding and it helped a lot coming into being ASB President[/blockquote]
Corea enjoyed the satisfaction that being junior class president gave her and she decided to take on the role of becoming ASB President this year. She wanted to push herself even further and become more involved than she already was with the student body. She believes that being Junior class president gave her the skillset to be a successful ASB President.
[blockquote author=”leadership teacher Jennifer Bedrosian” ]She is respected by her peers and her teachers, she is bright and intelligent, she is like another teacher in our class, she is loving and caring, and has a tendency to recognize when people need help and then she follows through and helps them. She’s one of the nicest people I know and she is beautiful inside and out.[/blockquote]
Corea was only in the leadership class her junior and senior years; however, she thrived as a leader in many other aspects of her life.
Corea joined 4-H about nine years ago and began showing a market hog. After three years of hogs, Corea made the challenging switch to raising a steer and has been doing that for six years. Last year, she raised a replacement heifer along side her steer, doubling up her work load.
[blockquote author=”Devin’s sister, sophomore Jena Corea” ]All of the younger kids look up to her and ask for advice. She puts aside her own stuff to help. She is very easy to get along with, making being in a group and leading people much easier[/blockquote]
Corea has been a teen leader for the Santa Lucia beef group for the past three years and prospers as a leader in the barns.
“I arrive hours early to shows in order to ensure that all of the younger members and show animals are properly prepared. I feel that I have an obligation to help them the way I was aided as a junior member,” said Corea about her role as the groups leader.
Her time in 4-H has inspired Corea to be a part of the California Mid State Fair Pageant this summer. Her platform is promoting 4-H and a Healthy Living and she feels that this is the perfect opportunity to give back to 4-H and all that it has taught her in her nine years of membership. Corea feels extremely passionate about promoting a healthy living due to an injury that occurred spring of her sophomore year.
During track of her sophomore year, a pain in her foot began while running, and she had a stress fracture in her left foot. Her injury resulted in physical and emotional pain and she began physical therapy junior year in order to speed up the healing process. She was able to return to track at the final meet of her junior year; however, her times had increased drastically. Her sophomore year, Corea was the top girl runner on the cross country team, was voted team MVP, and received PAC-7 All League team honors. This year as a senior, she dropped down to the sixth fastest senior in the county. It was her leadership, however, that granted her the position of team captain this year. Throughout the year Corea was always an encouraging leader and often was referred to as the “team mom” because she always wanted to push the younger girls to be their best. She was voted for Lions club this year for cross country by her team because of her immense love towards the team.“Of course she was bummed that she wasn’t able to compete at the level she wanted to but she was always really supportive of the rest of the team! She kept a positive attitude and really routed for the rest of us. The fact that she wasn’t racing didn’t cause her to care less about the team. It showed a lot of character for her to not dwell on her injury in a negative way but to instead devote her energy to supporting her team and getting better,” said alumni Danica Boggs, who ran with Corea her sophomore, junior and senior years.
Corea ran varsity track and cross country every year of highschool and played jv soccer her freshman year. As a junior, Corea had been swimming with the girls water polo team in the mornings before school to keep herself in shape while having to go to physical therapy. She acquired real swimming skills, so decided to play jv water polo last year. She was voted for Lions club for the jv water polo team and regrets not joining the team earlier in her high school life. This year, as a senior, Corea was team captain of varsity cross-country, varsity water polo, and varsity track.
Corea’s injury wasn’t all bad, however; it actually helped her decide on a career and college path. This setback influenced Corea to aspire to become a physical therapist, in order to help other athletes recover from their injuries and get back to their sports just as she did. Corea will attend the University of San Diego in the fall to major in Biology. After college she hopes to go to graduate school and achieve her doctorate in physical therapy.
Whether it’s 4-h, sports, or leadership, Devin Corea does it all. And that’s how you master a balancing act.
