While Abel Villa, an 18-year-old senior at Sedona Red Rock High School, plans to enroll at Northern Arizona University in the fall to major in elementary education, you might be seeing him on a Sedona-Oak Creek School District campus again in the near future.
“I see myself coming back to [SOCSD] just so I can support those students that struggle like I used to and being able to cause a change within my community and the future of others is a big goal for me,” Villa said.
English is Villa’s second language, in which he did not achieve fluency until he was in seventh grade. He said English was often challenging to learn because his family would bounce between the United States and Esqueda, Sonora, Mexico, for a year at a time.
“I didn’t even know that my name was ‘Abel’ in English on my first day of school,” Villa said, commenting that the Spanish pronunciation of his name sounds more like “avail.” “So I know, like, what it feels like to struggle and not know what people are talking about and, like, what they’re saying … Just being able to be there for those people and cause a change, like teachers that I had done for me, is just a goal.”
Villa spent some of his time on the soccer and baseball teams translating for other students not fluent in English.
“I’ve always seen translating for others as a blessing,” Villa said. “If I know both languages and I can do something with that, I’ll take it and I’ll embrace it wherever I go. Since I was younger, I would always translate for my mother. If we went to a store or a restaurant, I would always be that person that would make my mom feel like she could go out and do something instead of seeing English as holding her back.”
Villa, the middle child of three, was raised by his single mother, Angelica, and has two sisters.
“I saw my mom’s determination and [her] goal to help us succeed from a young age,” Villa said. “That’s always been my biggest goal, to make my mom proud, because I’ve seen all the hard work that she does for me and my two sisters. That’s mainly what gets me through every day, and [to] keep pushing and take every opportunity that I have and take it and make something out of it. Because I know that not all people have the same opportunities that I do.”
Villa wears that desire on his sleeves by having his mother’s birthday tattooed on his skin. While he doesn’t currently have future plans for additional tattoos, he said there is a compelling case for getting the year “2025” permanently etched since it’s already been the best year of school filled with the best memories and friendships.
“Every time I see Abel, I salute him and say ‘senator,’” Superintendent Tom Swaninger, Ph.D., said. “He is built in a way that he is going to lead wherever he is.”
Villa said he was proud of having been the senior class president, the Valley Academy for Career and Technology Education class president, the Schools USA president, Skills USA Photo Club president and the president of the newly-formed senior club.
“He’s got a great eye for photography,” SOCSD digital photography teacher Cindy Wilmer said. “He’s heading toward being a teacher, and he’s been working with the VACTE program with West Sedona, and he goes over there a couple times a week, I think. If [teaching] is his chosen path, he’s going to be very, very good at it.”
Villa is student teaching in Joanne Duncan’s sixth-grade class at Sedona Red Rock Junior High School, on the SRRHS campus, and previously taught in Patty Falsetto’s first-grade class at West Sedona School with VACTE.
“[Villa’s] innate motivation to succeed and be the best he can be exemplifies why he is a winner both academically and socially,” Duncan said. “He consistently presents with a spirit of positivity and perseverance. Abel has worked with a class of sixth-graders this semester and the students adore him. There is no doubt that Abel is destined to be a dynamic teacher as he is not only confident to design and conduct lessons, but more importantly, Abel strives to connect and build a trusting relationship with students. Throughout our middle school, Abel is well known for his stellar character and his kind, compassionate nature.”
Villa has received a three-year, $2,000 per annum scholarship from Sedona Area Veteran and Community Outreach to further his career plans. In March, he received a gold medal from an organization, the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, for a multicultural diversity lesson plan with three teaching strategies, and in July, he will be going to Florida to be an Arizona state delegate to the organization’s conference with fellow SRRHS students Jaden Kuhn and Jubi Dominguez.
“Every opportunity I get is a chance to make a difference, not just for myself, but for the community that has supported me,” Villa said. “I want to be the teacher I needed when I was younger, someone who … understands their challenges and helps them believe in their potential.”
