Hezekiah Bates is no stranger on the Armijo campus. A student since August of 2015, he has been part of the Homecoming court in both his freshman and junior years; in his freshman year he participated in Cross-Country and he ran track in both his sophomore and junior years, breaking his personal record on the first race in his junior year. But in June he will leave it all behind. “I’m going to miss the diverse environment through the IB program,” Bates said.

“My favorite memory would be the Homecoming events where we all just work together and have fun,” he said. “I will miss the relationships I have forged through my time here at Armijo with my friends and the crazy debates in my HL History class.”

Bates plans to go to college to major in either computer science or software engineering with a minor in mathematics. “When I finish college, I plan to have already interned with Google and, hopefully, secure a position at Google.”

While he has his plans firmly in place, he knows that new students aren’t as sure about their future. To current and future freshmen, he suggests getting involved with something with upperclassmen “or people older than you. This will help you get an easier feeling of the school and it can really be fun and insightful to someone new to the school,” he said.

It isn’t just freshmen that could use his advice. “Even though many students think that their GPA and scores define success,” he said, “just remember that it doesn’t take a 4.0 and a 1400 on the SAT to pursue a field you feel passionate about.”

He also had some insight for some of his teachers: “I would put more emphasis on how IB (International Baccalaureate) teachers demonstrate requirements for their subjects, because it can be very vague or missed when students test,” said Bates. “This leads to low scores because of missed communication.”

Bates is one of nine children. He has six brothers (Anthony, 21; Mannaseh, 18; Edward, 18; Michlon, 14, Zion, 7, and Jesua, 3) and two sisters (Ana, 25, and Alondra, 20).