Teenager Fontana, 17, earns 4 AA degrees before graduating from Los Osos High – Daily Bulletin

Joaquín Gonzalez-Salgado added a high school diploma to his academic collection this spring, adding four associate degrees.

How did the 17-year-old Fontana resident do it?

With a little help from Chaffey College's dual enrollment program.

Gonzalez-Salgado earned all four diplomas before the first day of senior year at Los Osos High School in Rancho Cucamonga, her mother Christina Gonzalez-Salgado wrote in an email.

He graduated from Chaffey Tech in 2023, but participated in the 2024 commencement ceremony on May 16 – a week before marching with his high school classmates in Los Osos on Thursday, May 23, 2024.

Gonzalez-Salgado maintained a 4.86 GPA at Los Osos High and was in the top 1% of her graduating class, her mother wrote. He also plays the flute and has participated in many campus activities.

After being accepted to nine colleges, Joaquin chose Harvey Mudd College in Claremont and will start there in the fall as an engineering major on a tuition-free scholarship.

Here are his answers to a few questions.

Q: You graduated from community college much earlier than your peers. How did you make this happen?

Each semester of my high school year, including the summer, I took about two to three Chaffey classes, and with the help of some Advanced Placement classes, I was able to earn my associate's degree in economics and three other associate degrees before I graduate. high school!

Q. What made the difference?

Planning, 100%! If you have a goal like this, carefully planning your course of action and successfully sticking to the plan certainly made the difference when it came to graduating from Chaffey College. I think flexibility is also an important factor. Since there are always things out of your control, make sure you are flexible with changes!