Gonzales High student accepted to Harvard on a full scholarship

In June, thousands of students graduate high school in Monterey County and some have high hopes to attend their dream college.

Thankfully for her, Cecilia Trujillo, a senior at Gonzales High School gets to do just that. Trujillo has accepted a full paid scholarship to go to Harvard University in the fall.

The Monterey County student has been accepted to 13 universities including, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Wellesley, University Of California Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, CSU Fresno, CSU Long Beach, California State University Monterey Bay, and Santa Clara University.

Cecilia’s story is an inspiring one. The small town girl was born in King City and comes from a migrant family. Her parents speak very little English but that didn’t stop her from speaking fluent English by 3rd grade.

In 6th grade, Trujillo won the Monterey County Spelling Bee.

“As an eighth grader, I wanted to be Chualar Elementary School’s valedictorian, and I was,” said Cecilia. “As a senior in Gonzales High School, I focused on that same goal and have accomplished it as well as going to Hartnell College at night for AP advancement.”

The valedictorian will be graduating with a 4.5 GPA this weekend and has also been attending night classes at Hartnell College.Trujillo has chosen to major in Applied Mathematics at Harvard University.

“As parents, we are very proud to see Cecilia achieve academic success throughout her schooling,” said Cecilia’s mother, Veronica. “She has always been committed and driven to achieve the educational goals she set out for herself by staying at home and always doing schoolwork either after school, late at night and on weekends. We will miss her dearly at Harvard, but we know this is her calling in life and we will be fully supporting her.”