Santa Monica High School Senior Inducted Into Prestigious National Society of High School Seniors

Samantha Flores has been recognized for academic achievement by the National Society of High School Seniors.

She is an incoming senior at santa monica high school. Samantha is the co-captain of SAMOHI's cheer squad. "I and have worked for these past four years to receive as many academic achievements as possible as a "tribute" of sorts to my mom who didn't get the opportunities that I have today," she says.

Next year, she will be the first person in her family to enroll in college.

Which college is still undecided. "However after attending an intensive law and trial program at Stanford and hearing from their professors it's definitely become one of my top choices," she writes.

Samantha lives with her mom and three brothers. "I am the oldest and they are 14, 10, and 2 years old. I spend a lot of time with them because family is really important to us," she writes. 

"My mom is from Sinaloa, Mexico. She has lived in America since she was 2 years old. But she didn't finish high school because she had me when she was only sixteen," she writes.

"Since then she has worked as a fashion and jewelry designer. She's inspired me to do what makes me happy and to make the most of all the opportunities that I have," writes Samantha.

"My favorite subject is definitely English! I enjoy writing and reading so much, my mom used to make me read an hour a day as a kid and I used to hate it but now I do it for fun. "

"A teacher that has inspired me is my Junior year English Teacher Mr. Koehler, he would walk in every morning with a big smile that just really let you know that we loved what he was doing. He was an amazing teacher, I would over analyze every book and tell him all of my thoughts and we’d have real conversations about them which some teachers don’t usually care to do."

"Strangely enough this class was part of what led me to want to learn more about law. He would have us write opinion essays on current events and we even got to have small debates in class. He would always tell us to do what we love and to love what we do. When applying that to what I wanted to be I realized that I loved law and that one day I would love the change that i was making," writes Samantha.