Wahluke grad honored for overcoming obstacles

MATTAWA — A Wahluke High School graduate was recently honored for his determination and community engagement by Community Health Plan of Washington.  

Haziel Sandoval-Gatica received CHPW’s Power of Community Perseverance Award, a $1,000 scholarship. 

Sandoval-Gatica, a 2024 graduate of Wahluke, overcame significant obstacles including poverty, family displacement and a language barrier to graduate with a 3.3 grade point average while playing varsity soccer and engaging in his community, according to CHPW Regional Manager Daniel Smith. 

“I came across Haziel through our relationship with the Migrant Education Program leadership,” Smith said. “There was so much to be inspired about, just remarkable achievement that Haziel has done in his life.” 

The Migrant Education Program is a federally funded program that aims to ensure high-quality education programs and supplemental support services for children who have not completed basic education and have moved within the last three years crossing district boundaries working in agricultural or fishing industries, according to CHPW’s announcement of the award. That describes Sandoval-Gatica’s situation. 

Sandoval-Gatica has shuttled between Mattawa and Mexico his whole life, he said. He was born in the U.S., and when he was 6 his family moved to Sonora, in northern Mexico. He stayed there until he was 12, at which time he came back to the U.S. where he lived with his uncle. Two years later, Sandoval-Gatica returned to Mexico, and came back to Mattawa for his senior year of high school. Because his time in the U.S. has been so spotty, Sandoval-Gatica isn’t very confident in his command of English, he said. 

“I have really (only) a little bit of time here,” he said. “I was 12 years old (when I came), and then I stayed in the United States for two years, and then I (went) back to Mexico. And then I came here last year, because my goal was to learn English, and I'm trying.” 

While he finished school at Wahluke, Sandoval-Gatica said, he stayed again with his uncle and worked to pay for his clothing and school supplies, and still sent some money back home to his parents. His counselor put him in touch with CHPW to apply for the scholarship, because his school transcript from Mexico showed mostly A’s with a few B’s. 

“(I thought) that's great because I really want to go to college,” he said. “I don't really have the money or the things for college. And then my English, it’s bad, you know?” 

Sandoval-Gatica plans to start out at Columbia Basin College in Pasco to study business, he said, and then make his way in the business world. 

“First of all, I want to work for a company to learn, to have experience, to ask questions, to see what’s going on,” he said. “And then to build my own company.” 

“(Sandoval-Gatica’s story) just really resonated with our organization's commitment to do whatever we can to build partnerships, to empower young people and to remove barriers so that they can continue to excel despite (them),” Smith said. “Every obstacle that might seem like it's in front of them, and Haziel just stood out as a remarkable achievement. I mean, he had a choice. He didn't need to go back to school. He didn't need to put in all the work and do all the things that were necessary to be successful. He chose to do that and to us that (shows) the real power of both the community that's around him and his own family.”