WELLINGTON TOP GRAD BOUND FOR STANFORD
While most Palm Beach County high school students were able to establish a name for themselves starting in elementary school, valedictorian Sophia Sosa had to start from scratch. But before the Wellington High School student rose to the top of her class, she reigned supreme in the school’s chapter of DECA, a student marketing organization, as part of its marketing academy, finding social and academic success.
“My first year at Wellington, I just moved here from Long Island (New York),” she explained. “Through DECA, I made a lot of my friends.”
She would join the DECA executive board and become a chairwoman of the competition committee her sophomore, junior and senior years.
When Sosa, who maintained a 3.9 GPA and 5.3 HPA, wasn’t flourishing as a marketing maven, she was busy promoting sustainability
within her community. She’s been a member of environmental club for all four years, and as chairwoman of the community outreach committee, Sosa is responsible for documenting the school’s sustainability efforts and events such as beach cleanups, which helped it acquire the green school award her junior year.
But perhaps the teen’s most impressive outreach is as president of Feed Those in Need, a club she founded after completing the Pine Jog Fellowship through Florida Atlantic University, which required students to come up with environmentally sustainable projects.
Sosa’s concept entailed redistributing food waste, so she and several others visited Brooklyn Water Bagels every Sunday to pick up bagels and redistribute them to a children’s shelter. At her final presentation for the fellowship, Sosa announced that she’d redistributed more than 500 pounds of bagels.
After acceptance into the University of Florida, University of Central Florida, three University of California schools (Berkeley, San Diego and Santa Barbara) and Cornell University in New York, Sosa settled happily on Stanford University, where she plans to major in international relations.
Sosa admits: “A big part of it was the location ... right in the heart of Silicon Valley.” Her five-year plan includes pathways to a master of business administration or law school after college, and she would like to stay in the Bay Area for its job opportunities. “An internship at Tesla would be really cool. I am really interested in all of the things Elon Musk is doing.”
Sosa added, “My dream job would be a sales representative for a major brand like Adidas or Nike.”
Don’t worry: Sosa threw marketing manager into the mix, too.
So how did Sosa do it all? “Definitely just planning well ... time management was a big part of it,” she said. Q&A
What are your hobbies? Looking at memes, eating, going to new places, listening to music, meeting new people and going to concerts.
What would you do if you were invisible for a day?
Travel.
If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be?
Elon Musk.
What is the best advice you ever received?
“Don’t get lost in the sauce” by Gucci Mane.
What event in history would you have liked to have witnessed? The creation of the fresh avocado vine. What is your favorite childhood memory?
Bathing my hamsters.
Who is your hero, someone who inspires you?
Chance the Rapper.
What is something most people don’t know about you?
Both of my thumbs are doublejointed.
What three things would you bring with you if you were stuck on a desert island?
My phone, LTE, a boat.