HARLINGEN — They’ve been friends for years and have helped each other along the way.
They are Valedictorian Dylan McNutt and Salutatorian Danielle Del Bosque at Early College High School.
Danielle could do well in public relations.
She writes well, has good communication skills and conveys a friendly presence.
Danielle has a love for PR and working with people in general. However, she recently had one of her out-of-the-blue aha moments and decided to pursue biochemistry.
“For me, the interest is wanting to understand things at a basic molecular level,” said Danielle, 17.
She and Dylan, 18, spoke at length about their years at ECHS.
“We have always been as supportive of each other as we could,” said Danielle, who plans to study public relations and biochemistry.
“I think we both know we will be friends after high school,” said Dylan, who is getting ready to earn a degree in biomedical engineering.
Danielle, who was born and raised in Harlingen, described herself as sort of a “spur of the moment” person. A perfect example of this quality is her decision to attend ECHS after having been at IDEA Academy-San Benito for three years.
“I’d heard about it,” she said. “It just popped into my head.”
Another “spur-of-the-moment” decision, which can more easily be described as a sharp intuition, was the change in her career plans. She’d been on the fast track to study communications and pursue a career in that field.
“Something just said, ‘Nope, that’s not where I want to go,’” she said.
What she wanted was the opportunity for analytical problem solving, activities available in the world of biochemistry.
“It’s interesting for me to see how things work at that level,” she said. “I guess I have always been that way, problem solving.”
During her tenure there, she and Dylan earned college credit from Texas State Technical College while working for their high school diploma.
They did more than earn a few college credits though. They recently joined 53 other classmates in a ceremony in which they graduated with a two-year college degree before even finishing high school. They were in the same graduation ceremony as their older TSTC classmates at Yeckel Auditorium on the Marine Military Academy campus.
While Danielle sometimes acts on “intuition,” Dylan is more specific and calculating. He becomes absorbed in his studies and takes few breaks.
“I tend to sometimes overexert myself with academics,” he said. “It can be very overwhelming. With friends you have support.”
“Dylan gets very stressed and he’s by the book,” said Danielle. “We are like a cohesive pair.”
They put their experience here to use by mentoring new arrivals to ECHS as senior mentors.
“We tutor students to provide guidance,” said Dylan, president of Senior Mentors. “It helps them adapt to the rigor of the academics.”
“Temperament adjustments,” said Danielle, a slight edge in her voice now.
She is currently the secretary in Senior Mentors, still using her communication skills to assist others. She may want to continue helping others with her education and proceed to medical school.
