Three Santa Fe area youths have big plans for their futures.

Sergio Gonzales, 17, wants to be a rural physician. The thought of getting paid pennies compared with city compatriots, or even with chickens and pies, doesn't bother him.

Andrea Romero, 22, has started her own health-education program — in Africa. She just graduated from Stanford University in California and will be moving to Mozambique in a few weeks.

And Ashley Jaramillo, 22, is working on a masters' degree at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University. Since her freshman year there, she has been helping Latino communities in Baltimore as well as south of the border in Honduras.

Despite their wide array of interests, they all have something in common. They've grown up in Santa Fe, are deeply motivated, and know where their current paths lie.

Sergio Gonzales

This 17-year-old St. Michael's High School student has already gotten a head start on his medical career. For the past two summers he has spent many hours at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, observing work in departments throughout the hospital — including in the Emergency Department.

He is considering attending The University of New Mexico for his medical studies and then practicing here. Working in a rural New Mexico community makes sense to him, he said, especially when he remembers that not everyone has equal access to health care. And, "I want to accept whatever (payment) the patient can give me," he said.

Gonzales is active in his community, believes in working toward a healthy environment and helped raise money for victims of the displacement and violence in Darfur. As part of the Youth Allies for Sustainability, a program of Earth Care International, he prefers to bike to school and everywhere else he can. His bike is made out of recycled parts he gathered himself. He also belongs to the Social Justice Club, a St. Michael's organization that focuses on preparing meals at home for St. Elizabeth's Shelter once per month.

Besides a full load of classes, Gonzales is part of the swim team, is learning to play three musical instruments and is a dedicated beekeeper. He decided to become an apiologist after he read about bee colony collapse disorder, which has afflicted many bee colonies in the U.S.

At his first harvest this summer, Gonzales managed to gather three and a half gallons of honey. Some he sold; he gave the rest away. He also decided to use the beeswax to make lip balm.

Gonzales's mother, Cecilia Gonzales, said nobody has to push him to accomplish anything. "This is all him, this is who he is," she said. His efforts recently won him the first Santa Fe Mayor's Youth Advisory Board Youth Award.

Andrea Romero

Three months ago, Andrea Romero received a political science degree from Stanford University, and then decided to embark on a whole new adventure. The Santa Fe High School graduate remains deeply interested in politics, but for the moment she is headed to southern Africa to start a health-education program.

After an initial three-month visit to the Mozambique city of Matola with Stanford's African Leadership Group, Romero realized the people there were in dire need of basic necessities, including health information. For example, children are dying from preventable diseases such as diarrhea, she said. In addition, Matola's nearly 600,000 residents only have 11 doctors available.

That's why, for the past two years, she has spent time developing Project Rx. This educational program aims to provide information on sanitation, maternal health, disease prevention, nutrition, family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention, among other topics. So far she has secured 10 to 15 volunteers in Matola who will help with the program in different communities.

A second component of Project Rx is the creation of a community garden that can provide food to local families. Last year, she visited the region again and secured the first piece of land at a Presbyterian church run by Korean missionaries. She has also been in touch with the United States Agency for International Development and spent the spring of 2008 conducting health policy research.

Romero has been asking family, friends and community members for donations. She wants to take as much money or first aid supplies as she can, when she leaves on Sept. 26. She also needs sponsors to cover her own living expenses. So far she has gathered about $5,000, but estimates she needs about $14,000. Highway Community Church in the San Francisco area and African Leadership have already committed some money, she said.

"I'm doing what I can for people I feel need the most," Romero said, while acknowledging that her father, David Romero, has pointed out that in this country poor people are also in need. Nonetheless, David Romero said he gives his daughter — who is the first female in the family to attend college — all his support. Her tenacity to get things done doesn't come as a surprise, he said.

"I'm doing what I can for people I feel need the most," Romero said, while acknowledging that her father, David Romero, has pointed out that in this country poor people are also in need. Nonetheless, David Romero said he gives his daughter — who is the first female in the family to attend college — all his support. Her tenacity to get things done doesn't come as a surprise, he said.

"She's convinced that she's going to do it ... she's like the little bunny battery," David Romero said. "She's going to keep pounding until she gets it. She's very motivated. She's been that way since she was young, since day one."

In her senior year at Santa Fe High School, Romero won the Los Alamos National Lab UC scholarship worth close to $70,000. It allowed her to attend a University of California school and pay in-state tuition. But she was determined to attend Stanford. She was accepted and secured a greater financial aid package.

"I am in awe of all her accomplishments. All that she wanted to do, she's done it," David Romero said.

Santa Fe High English teacher Susan McGrew remembers Romero as "one of my most promising students" and as a "good athlete and a serious student." Romero was in McGrew's Gifted and Talented Education program.

As Romero continues to raise money for Project Rx, her mother, Audrey Lopez, said she feels it's bittersweet to let her daughter go, yet she still wants her to pursue her dreams.

"I want (my kids) to follow their passion and do what is important to them," Lopez said. "I feel that if she doesn't do it now, she might never do it."

People interested in helping Romero may contact her at 505-470-6684 or aromero@projectrx.org.

Ashley Jaramillo

But during her undergraduate years, Jaramillo found time to make an impact in the local community. She started and nourished programs that focus on troubled Latino youth in Baltimore.

Many kids are getting involved in gangs "because they feel it's the only way they can fit in," Jaramillo said. "They arrive in a country that mocks their poor English skills, and many attend schools that don't make an effort to involve them in school life, which only adds to the problem."

So she decided to start a mentoring program called Mi Espacio, My Space, with the help of other college students. She also conducted research on first-and-second-generation Latino immigrants in East Baltimore to determine society's effects on their mental health.

Then, during her last college year, Jaramillo extended her help to Latinos south of the U.S. border. She and a group of Johns Hopkins students traveled to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, as a Global Medical Brigades team, each armed with $100 worth of hygiene products. For several days the students, a nurse and four medical doctors from Baltimore offered basic health screenings.

Jaramillo also helped start Project Petit-Goave to offer hurricane relief for Haiti after the island nation was struck by storm. Jaramillo and three other students, plus a volunteer and a faculty member, went to distribute school supplies, medicine and clothes.

The key to starting projects and accomplishing the goals is having determination and discipline, Jaramillo said. It's always important for students to challenge themselves by moving beyond their comfort zones or simply by taking a harder class.

"If you wake up and have an idea of what you want to do ... go to someone's office, go to your teacher," Jaramillo said during a phone interview from Baltimore. "Letting someone know where you want to go and asking for help is important."

Doug Enloe, Jaramillo's school counselor at Santa Fe High and now at St. Michael's, said that in his 37 years in the profession, Jaramillo has been one of the few students he has seen with that type of self-drive.

"Her determination and her focus and her willingness to work as hard as she could to get it done is impressive. It's obvious because of where she's at," Enloe said.

Jaramillo's mother, Karla Jaramillo, said that parental involvement is key in a child's success. Karla and her husband, Ralph, home-schooled Jaramillo and her two younger sisters until they attended Capshaw Middle School. They never missed school meeting and were always involved in school activities.

"Any kid can do it, it's just what you put into it," Karla Jaramillo said. "What you put into it is what you're going to get out of it."

Contact Sandra Baltazar Martínez at 986-3062 or smartinez@sfnewmexican.com.