Riviera senior graduating with associates follows siblings footsteps

Graduation is at the end of this week for seniors at Riviera ISD, but for some students, this will be their second graduation this month. Eleven Kaufer High School seniors will be graduating high school with their Associate Degree from Coastal Bend College. This is the most early college graduates in the school's history.

Layla Cantu is a senior at Kaufer High School but already has one degree under her belt. She is one of the seniors who graduated from Coastal Bend College with her Associates Degree on May 10.

“I’ve knocked out Psychology, Music, Biology, Geology, English, College Algebra, ” Cantu said.

Cantu said she was heavily involved in school clubs and organizations on top of taking college courses. She said the hardest was College Algebra, but she stuck with it in hopes of getting used to some of that college workload.

“I feel like I’m better prepared now and that I can take on and handle a lot more in college,” Cantu said.

Layla is following in her two older siblings' footsteps. Her older brother and sister Gianna also graduated from Kaufer High School with their Associate and are both up at UTSA, where Layla also plans on attending. Her older sister Gianna said earning an Associate during high school saved her time and money, and she is now considered a junior in college, despite graduating high school last year.

“The work is so much harder in college, and I feel like if I hadn’t taken any college courses, I definitely would’ve been scared. All three of us have worked so hard our whole lives. Our parents always said if we work hard, good things are going to happen, and I’m very proud of all three of us,” Gianna said.

Kaufer Early College High School Director Elias Arredondo said they’ve seen a steady increase in students earning an Associate each school year, and the Cantu siblings are a testament to that continued growth.

“I don’t think this is a lofty goal for our students anymore. It’s expected. I don’t think that we’re missing out on anything, being from a small town. I think that the work ethic that our families have locally, folks that work in agriculture or the refineries or restaurants, their kids have inherited that work ethic and have applied it to their studies and that’s why we’ve become so successful. That’s the reason why this program is going to do big things for us. It’s just going to grow momentum, and we are only going to get better,” Arredondo said.

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