GONZALES — Gonzales High School student Italia Hernandez recently placed first at the 12th Annual Migrant Education Program State Speech and Debate Tournament held in Monterey.
The May 1-2 event was organized by the California Department of Education and the Monterey County Office of Education’s Region 16 Migrant Education Program.
The 16-year-old Hernandez is the daughter of Raul Hernandez and Manuela Hernandez Valdez of Gonzales.
According to her speech coach and migrant resource teacher Lucila Perez, Hernandez is a very disciplined and hard working young lady.
“I started training Italia in January 2026 for local competitions in March and she placed in both categories, impromptu and prepared speech,” Perez said. “These wins helped her qualify for the State Speech and Debate Tournament. At State, Italia placed first in extemporaneous speech, which is extremely difficult because students only have 10 minutes to prepare the topic and present it. Italia is an exemplary student and has a combination of qualities that make her a strong and outgoing Spartan. She is very disciplined and knows that to achieve a goal, sacrifice and hard work are necessary.”
Hernandez will be a junior in the fall but will keep very busy before she returns to school at Gonzales High.
“I am currently not working for any speech competitions, but I am keeping myself busy working with the Medical and Wellness Leaders Club,” she said. “We just collected canned food and donated what we collected to Casa De Oro and also to the food pantry in Gonzales. I was voted vice-president for the junior class and I am secretary for the Journalism Club. Later in the summer I plan to go to Mexico to shadow an orthopedic surgeon in the State of Jalisco.”
