Tavisha Patel is a senior who has been able to juggle her heavy academic workload and extracurriculars while also giving herself leisure time. By the end of the spring semester, she will have taken 12 AP and 5 honors classes. Tavisha was a 2023 National Merit Semi-finalist, which is an honor given to U.S. high schoolers who scored within the top 1% of all scores on the 2022 PSAT. Less than 1% of graduating seniors and only four other SCUSD students received this honor. Tavisha is the president of the Speech & Debate club, co-president of the California Scholarship Federation, and has been a member of the water polo and swim teams since her sophomore year. Some of Tavisha’s favorite memories at Wilcox include hanging out with her friends during breakfast and lunch. After high school, she hopes to study computer engineering. In her free time, Tavisha likes to play the piano and read.
Mark Bullo, a junior, is a passionate learner. He enjoys the majority of his classes — his favorite is AP Environmental Science because of the teacher, Mr. Vargas, and the friends he has made in the class. Though Mark has not settled on what career path he wants to pursue, his top choices were said to be nursing and aviation. Mark is the fundraising coordinator for the Filipino-American Student Association and is also an active participant in the Christian, Justice, Acts of Random Kindness, Taiwanese, and Korean Clubs. Mark recently joined his first sport at Wilcox, Track & Field, where he participates in the sprint, shot put, and discuss events. Mark is extremely grateful for Wilcox’s welcoming environment. “This campus has fostered new opportunities that allowed me to embrace myself [and] the teachers create a safe learning experience,” Mark elaborates. Outside of the classroom, he likes to walk around his neighborhood and local park as well as clean and organize his house. He also admits that he regularly binge eats Filipino food.
Drew Madriaga is a well-rounded freshman who is already heavily involved in the Wilcox community. Drew is the class of 2027 president, a guard for the freshman basketball team, and also recently joined the boys volleyball team. As class president, he has led and organized class events for Homecoming and Fantastics. His favorite class is his first period biology class with Ms. Slate. Drew expresses that so far, the overall positive environment and the countless opportunities to meet new people are his favorite things about Wilcox. In regards to his future at Wilcox, he looks forward to taking harder classes and improving in sports. Drew has not fully decided on what he wants to pursue after high school, but he is currently interested in sports medicine and motorsports. Outside of school, Drew enjoys cooking and playing video games.
