The road leading up to Andrea Meza's high school graduation was not an easy one. She was bullied when she first moved to Shafter from Mexico in sixth grade.
"Every time I would try and talk in English someone would make fun of me or they would laugh, so I was really embarrassed to speak," Andrea said.
But that didn't hold her back. She graduated eighth grade with honors. In high school, she started running track and cross county, took advanced placement classes, joined the engineering program and ASB.
"She was a good student, who worked hard to do what she was supposed to do," Shafter teacher Jordan Lewis said.
Andrea's final year in high school proved to be the most challenging though.
"I was going to sleep around 12 or one, sometimes three doing homework. Sometimes I would just be like I can't, I just need some sleep," Andrea said.
"She had to deal with things that kids probably shouldn't have to deal with, not have any time for themselves," Lewis said.
All to make her mother proud.
"She had to sacrifice everything for us. Everything she sacrificed, I want to repay her," Andrea said.
Andrea is set to graduate from Shafter High School on Wednesday night, with a 3.9 GPA. She will be studying Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California Merced in the fall.
