Gift to the Future

HARLINGEN — Don’t let that casual demeanor fool you.

Oziel Landaverde is one high-powered gift to the future who interviewed Monday night with Rice University — at Starbucks.

“I didn’t show I was nervous but I was really nervous,” said Oziel, 18, a senior at Harlingen High School who was on his way out of the cafeteria to his next class.

He spoke with great exuberance about the interview.

“He asked me about my Thanksgiving and we just talked about things,” he said of the local attorney who conducted the interview.

“He just said, ‘Tell me about myself,’” and so he did.

There was plenty to tell.

“It was very conversational,” he said. “We started off with him asking what clubs I was in. I told him I was in Rotary Interact and he asked what that was and I said it was a community service organization. He asked what I did in community service.”

Oziel, who is in Linda Salinas’s web technology class and works on the Cardinal Current newsletter, is a busy young man.

He’s a member of the National Honor Society, Advanced Placement European History Service Learning Club, Theatre Club and Speech Drama and Debate. He’s president of the Business Professionals of America and vice president of the Future Business Leaders of America. He’s also an Advanced Placement scholar.

“If I put some thought into it I would say that my favorite subject that I like doing is English,” said the son of Maria Gonzalez.

“It’s probably one of the most challenging subjects,” he said. “When I was little, I grew up speaking only Spanish. When I went to school that was the first time I ever spoke English. Since then it’s always been one of my hardest subjects to do because it’s just been a challenge for me language barrier wise.”

He’s always pushed himself to improve his language skills and become bilingual and his work appears to have paid off.

“I got a five on the AP exam last year on the English language and composition on a scale of one to five,” he said. “I was really happy about it because it’s a difficult test.”

Not surprising, then, that he’s on the English Language Learners Peer Support, along with Upward Bound Math and Science and the Masterminds Team. He also competes in mathematics UIL.

“I’ve always liked numbers,” he said. “There is just a variety of different subjects of math, like algebra, geometry, calculus. There’s a wide range of mathematics. I would say mathematics is the most challenging because you have to learn a lot.”

So, what would he like to do after high school?

“I’m thinking of STEM subjects,” he said, referring to science, technology, engineering and math.

“STEM subjects have always been one of my stronger subjects,” he said. “I’m pretty quick at math and science, so I’m thinking about biochemistry, something like that.”

But ….

“I know I want to have something to do with business, business administration, or communications, something like that,” he said, seeming to suddenly switch gears. But not really. With such a broad capacity for varying fields of study and profession, his interests and opportunities are vast at this moment.

“Everything in the world has to do with business,” he said. “I just don’t know what type of business.”

As for his Rice application, it’s wait and see. The interview, he said, is the final process. He’s also applying to the University of Texas as well as colleges in California.

Wherever he goes, he’ll have a head start with a substantial load of college credits already completed.