Harlingen South’s Ryans top of the class

HARLINGEN — The two Ryans.

It’s rather curious the valedictorian and salutatorian at Harlingen High School South have the same first names. However, that’s about where the similarity ends.

Ryan Mowers, this year’s HHS valedictorian, is preparing to study music and math. Salutatorian Ryan Benavides will soon begin working on a degree in mechanical engineering.

“I feel blessed because of the work and the people that have helped me,” said Benavides, 18.

Mowers is enjoying the satisfaction of graduating at the top of his class.

“Right now it feels like all my hard work has paid off,” said Mowers, 16.

Reaching this leg of the journey has given him cause to reflect on the years he’s covered so far.

“I am going back over all the things I have seen, all the places I have been,” he said. “If I hadn’t met the people I did, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Mowers was only in the first grade when he showed his intellectual talents. He hadn’t been in school very long before he was completing both first-and second-grade work.

Benavides credited his parents and other family members for instilling in him good study habits from a very young age. His father is a surgeon, his mother’s a nurse, and numerous other relatives are in the medical profession.

Overall, the family is very intellectually inclined.

“I have developed a strong work ethic just from being around them,” Benavides said.

Those strong study habits are so much a part of him that he’s achieving some unexpected results, like making salutatorian.

“It’s never been an objective of mine,” he said. “I worked at my academics.”

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