WATSONVILLE — Karina Gonzalez said she has a dream of becoming a neonatal nurse, because she “loves helping people.”
The Pajaro Valley senior was on the receiving end of some help last week.
Gonzalez, a multi-sport athlete for the Grizzlies, won the San Francisco 49ers Bay Area All-Star Scholarship on Tuesday afternoon.
A multi-car entourage from the Bay Area football squad surprised Gonzalez in leadership class with the $5,000 grant, a custom jersey and some one-on-one time with linebacker Eli Harold. Gonzalez said she was “stunned” she had beat out dozens of other applicants from 23 high schools across the Bay Area.
“I had no idea,” Gonzalez said. “My teachers knew about it and they all hid it from me.”
The scholarship is one of seven given out by the pro sports teams in the Bay Area. The Golden State Warriors, Oakland Athletics, Oakland Raiders, San Francisco Giants, San Jose Sharks and San Jose Earthquakes also honor a Bay Area high school student with a scholarship. Along with the $5,000, Gonzalez will also receive tickets to a game for each pro sports team participating.
In order to apply for the scholarship, a student had to be a college-bound senior, have a minimum grade point average (G.P.A.) of 3.0, and demonstrate “leadership qualities in and out of the classroom.”
Gonzalez easily exceeded the minimum qualifications, holding a 4.2 G.P.A., serving as a Pajaro Valley A.S.B. secretary and volunteering at multiple organizations, including Pajaro Valley Loaves and Fishes and St. Patrick’s Church, since her freshman year of high school.
Pajaro Valley guidance counselor Ximena Ospina nominated Gonzalez, and wrote her letter of recommendation.
“She’s a doer. She doesn’t leave things for later,” Ospina said of Gonzalez. “She follows through. She gets things done.”
Gonzalez played varsity volleyball and basketball for Pajaro Valley this school year.
She said she started playing sports in sixth grade, because she was bordering on “obesity.” She followed one of her best friends to volleyball tryouts, and was thoroughly intimidated when the coach said if they were simply there because of their friends then they should, “leave now.”
“I was thinking I should probably get out of here, but I started playing and I started liking the team,” Gonzalez said. “Not only that, but I was getting healthier and I was getting more in shape. That’s something I always wanted to do. After that I started going after more sports.”
Gonzalez said she has a short list of possible colleges which includes Santa Clara, where her sister, Evelyn, a 2015 Pajaro Valley graduate, is currently attending.
“I’m still deciding where to go,” Gonzalez said, “but Santa Clara is near the top of the list.”
Gonzalez said her strong work ethic and love for academics came from her parents, Irma Lopez and Carlos Gonzalez. Immigrants from Michoacán, Mexico who dropped out in middle school, both her parents urged Gonzalez and her siblings that education was the key to their future.
“They would always tell us that, ‘if you work hard enough in class, you can be successful, you don’t have to be in the fields like us, and you don’t have to be away from your family as much’” Gonzalez said. “That really pushed me to get an education so that I can be successful and I can help my family and my community.”
Gonzalez said she picked Harold’s brain about school, and explained that the 49ers linebacker opened up about his childhood. A highly-touted recruit out of high school in Virginia, Harold told Gonzalez about losing his mother to cancer as a junior, and how he always “wanted to make his family proud.”
“We bonded over that,” Gonzalez said.
