Ruben Sobreyra is not your average 18-year-old. He’s the sort of person who takes a running leap over any obstacle. Despite running into hardships this year as he finished his time as a student at San Benito High School, he is proud to be starting at the University of California, Davis in the fall.
Sobreyra’s mother came to California from Mexico when she was 11 years old. Sobreyra was born in Santa Cruz, his mother’s fourth child. Two more children would follow, making Sobreyra the middle child in a family of seven. He does not know his father, who was deported for committing crimes many years ago. “My mother has had to raise us on her own,” Sobreyra told BenitoLink, which resulted in a very close-knit family. The only downside to his acceptance at U.C. Davis is that his family cannot come with him. After Sobreyra starts school, his mother and brothers and sisters will scatter across Mexico, California and Texas.
Sobreyra thinks his siblings will need time to adjust to familial separation, but he is already used to living without the support of his immediate family. After Sobreyra’s freshman year at SBHS, he was sent to live with his grandparents in Texas. It was a difficult decision for his mother, Sobreyra says. “It was getting to the point where [my mom] couldn’t feed all of us, so she had to make the decision between potentially all of us being homeless, or sending some of us to live with my grandparents.”
After eight months in Texas. Sobreyra told his mother that he wanted to move back to California. He heard that his younger brother, who stayed behind, was getting involved in gangs. “I didn’t want to see him end up like my father,” Sobreyra said. “So I came back, and I started hanging out with him, and I started … pointing out things that he shouldn’t be saying, things he shouldn’t be around. And in time, I rubbed off on him.”
Sobreyra’s mother is unwell and unable to work, so the Sobreyra siblings earn their own living, doing what they can to earn the money that pays for rent, food, clothing, school supplies, and all the other basics. To contribute his part, Sobreyra works as a tutor for elementary, middle and high school students, which also allows him to share his passion for learning with others.
“I actually love school. My favorite thing to do is learn,” he says.
Mitch Huerta, a U.S. History and U.S. Government teacher at SBHS, says this tenacity and drive is exactly what makes Sobreyra special.
“He is a survivor and a thriver,” Huerta says. “I’ve been teaching 22 years, and you hear stories like this and you see them in Hollywood … but this is real and actually happening right here in Hollister, in the hallways of our schools and classrooms. [Sobreyra] deserves all the respect and recognition, because he has earned it.”
When Sobreyra was a junior, Huerta was shocked to learn that the student wasn’t considering college applications because the financial burden would be too much on his family. Huerta helped Sobreyra research local, state and national scholarships, and then helped him apply and meet the deadlines.
Their work paid off—Sobreyra will have nearly zero expenses at U.C. Davis. Along with managing scholarship applications during his senior year, Sobreyra also balanced four AP classes, one advanced class, and another regular class, alongside tutoring, chores, and volunteering. Sobreyra is an active member of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), who also named him their “Youth of the Year.”
At the start of his senior year, Sobreyra also found out that the house his family rents was being sold, but the family refused to give up. They worked out a deal with the landlord, who agreed to hold off on the sale of the house until Sobreyra finished at SBHS. “It’s been really difficult, but we’re basically just a really close family and we’ve always counted on each other to get by,” says Sobreyra. His five siblings and his mother will watch him walk down the aisle at graduation on Friday morning.
Sobreyra was awarded 13 scholarships at SBHS Senior Awards night, more than any other student this year. One of those awards was created by Lauretta Avina, SBHS’s Guidance Technician. She created a scholarship for students who have been affected by domestic violence, in memory of her sister. Avina says that she was moved to tears by Sobreyra’s personal essay. “One of the things I really admire about this young man is, despite the circumstances he was born into, he didn’t allow those circumstances to define him. When you’re born into poverty, you don’t always make the best choices in life, but this young man is the complete opposite.”
Both Huerta and Avina acknowledge that there are many people cheering for Sobreyra, whose drive and intellect, has been supported by a quiet, determined, dedicated network of teachers, counselors and other community leaders who recognized the young man’s ambition.
“[Sobreyra] has inspired me,” says Huerta.
Sobreyra knows that the best way forward is to continue pursuing his passion for learning. He will start as a civil engineering major in the fall, but he is already planning a double major once U.C. Davis introduces a new environmental engineering degree.
“I feel like knowing the answer to things, in a life of so much uncertainty and not knowing what’s going to happen next, really gives me a power. Knowledge is really power. The more I learn, the more I feel I have control of things.”
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