For High School Junior, a Journey from Kindergarten at Gates Elementary to a Summer in Peru and Spain

Kaylee Yoshii is one teenager who will have stories to tell about her summer vacation.

The 17-year-old junior at Laguna Hills High School will trek through the jungles of Peru, then jet off to Europe, where she will meet the king of Spain.

It all comes thanks to her selection as just one of three students in all of the United States to receive a Ruta Quetzal Scholarship for 2011.

Yoshi, who has been part of Saddleback Valley Unified’s Two-Way Spanish Immersion Program since kindergarten at Lake Forest's , won the award, which covers the $16,000 cost of a six-week adventure trip to Peru and Spain.

Established in 1979 by Spanish King Juan Carlos I, Ruta Quetzal is a cultural exchange between Spanish-speaking teenagers from more than 50 countries. Yoshii is the fourth student from Laguna Hills High School to win the award.

“She’s so lucky she gets to do it,” said Tonya Iribarne, coordinator of LHHS’ International Spanish Academy and Two-Way Immersion Program. “It’s amazing the amount of work she did to win this award. That in itself tells you what kind of person she is. She’s very successful but quiet and unassuming about the whole thing.”

To apply for the program, Yoshii researched and wrote a 20-page paper—in Spanish—about Peruvian Baltasar Jaime Martínez Compañón, a Catholic bishop who lived in the 18th century.

“It was a lot of work,” said Yoshii, who lives in Mission Viejo. But she said she’s thrilled that her expedition in Peru will follow in Compañón’s footsteps. “He’s obscure to us, but he’s very popular in Peru. Since I researched so much about him, it will be cool to see some of the things he did in real life.”

Yoshii completed the application in her spare time, on top of taking honors course work, studying for the SATs and playing mellophone in the school’s marching band. A straight-A student, Yoshii also competes on her high school swim team.

Iribarne said Yoshii is a great example of what students can do in the district’s Two-Way Immersion Program.

 Yoshii has already passed the advanced-placement Spanish-language test. She got the highest possible score, a 5, as a sophomore.

Yoshii said one of the most satisfying things about being bilingual is how it opens doors to meeting new people. She visits a Mexican orphanage near San Vicente with a church group to do volunteer work and said the orphans remember her each year because she could connect with them.

“I was able to talk with them. That’s been the highlight of knowing Spanish,” Yoshii said. “That’s the place where I liked to use my Spanish best.”