Meet Joanna Molina, a superb scholar at Granite Hills High School

Joanna Molina is an outgoing 17-year-old senior pathway ambassador for the Computer Operations and Development Education (CODE) Pathway at Granite Hills High School.

Molina was born and raised in Porterville and lives with her mother Alma Molina, and her siblings Jennifer, Arisbeth, Mauricio, and Alison. However, she spends holidays and summers with her dad Omar Molina in Michoacán, México.

She is very much involved at Granite Hills as she participates in many clubs and extracurricular activities. Her hard work is inspiring to many around campus.

Molina says her favorite subject in school is science since she has always been fascinated with aspects of chemistry, biology, and physiology. She wants to go into a science- and technology-based field and aspires to be a pediatric oncologist – a doctor with specialized training to provide treatment for cancers in children and young adults. She decided on this career because she wants to make a momentous change in the world, especially after witnessing some of her family members pass away from cancer. 

“I have always had an interest in helping others,” Molina said. “I saw how much they suffered and [cancer] took the spark that they had.”

She is enrolled in dual enrollment calculus and declares it as the toughest subject because of the amount of effort and hard work she has to put into the course. Of course, she knows she can get the work done and still maintain a good grade. 

“I really like the courses that I’ve chosen for my senior year but there are times where I do wish I would have taken another class that was more involved with the school like GTV or yearbook,” Molina said.

Staying busy 

Molina is an active part of the school community as she is involved in numerous clubs and extracurricular activities at Granite Hills. She is the president of Z-Club, which deals with helping domestic violence victims and homeless adults and children by setting up food drives, making blankets, volunteering, and many other organizations. She formed the Cancer Awareness Club last year in August, advised by Ms. Dara Schieler, to spread light on the seriousness and effects of cancers by collaborating with different local medical centers for events. She decided to create this club in honor of her family members who have passed away from cancer and to show overall support for those with cancer. She has met many adults and kids who have been diagnosed with cancer and has established donation drives where she collects donations of clothing, hygiene products, and toys to provide for the Roger S. Good Cancer Center in Porterville. 

“My only hope for creating the Cancer Awareness Club was to get smiles on people’s [cancer patients] faces, at least with donating a scarf, a beanie, or simply being able to be there to cheer them on and support them,” Molina said. “I wanted to show them that Granite Hills always gives back to the community and tries to make people’s days better.” 

For October, the club is following the “On Wednesdays we wear pink!” motto from the movie Mean Girls to show support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The club is also holding donation drives for basic necessities. In conjunction with that, the club will be placing jars in classrooms for students and teachers to donate to with the proceeds being donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Roger S. Good Cancer Center. Pamphlets with critical information about cancer and pink ribbons will be given out to students during activities created by the club. One activity she mentioned the club was doing this October was having students write positive messages for cancer patients to put up around the campus.

“Joanna is truly one of the most driven individuals I have had the pleasure of teaching,” Ms. Schieler said. “As the founder of the Cancer Awareness Club, she demonstrates exceptional leadership and compassion, always striving to make a positive impact on, not only herself but others as well. Her passion for raising awareness and helping those in need reflects her deep commitment to personal excellence and community service. I have no doubt she will continue to accomplish anything she sets her mind to, always with the intent of making the world a better place.”

A similar event they also have planned is labeled as “love notes around the world” where they will draw a large, pink heart on top of the Granite Hills pyramid and have participants write heartfelt messages on sticky notes to send out to the Porterville Roger S. Good Cancer Center. The Cancer Club is focused on selling items and baked foods to donate the money made to cancer centers and maybe even research labs. For the next few months, the club plans on implementing candy grams during the Winter and had the idea of carrying out an event called “Fitness for Cancer” where contributors will hike a hill near Granite Hills. Information will be given out at resting points about cancer patients and will ultimately motivate participants to reach the end of the hill to demonstrate that obesity and having an inactive lifestyle is a risk of developing cancer.

“We should not wait to be able to say we made a difference. We could start now, instead,” Molina said. 

The LOVING Hands project was also started by Molina, where she and her members hope to donate items to communities in poverty in the United States and Mexico. In addition, Molina is a commissioner for Link Crew, a club dedicated to showing Granite Hills spirit to the underclassmen, and they help with upcoming school events such as football games and in-school events. She is also the secretary for the Rotary Interact club, which plans events such as the Special Needs Program and many cancer run events. Another leadership role she takes part in is being the president of the California State Federation Club, where scholarships are provided to a Life Membership or Sealbearer of CSF. This scholarship is one of the most prestigious academic honors awarded to high school graduates in California. She is a member of Project Aware: Youth Advisory, which advocates for mental health awareness and finding resources to help one struggling to attain a positive mindset. She is huge on breaking the stigma of not speaking openly about mental health since she knows many people are afraid of how others might view them if they converse about their mental health. 

“I like to spread awareness on mental health to break the stigma since many kids and students struggle,” Molina said. “For example, feeling depressed, having suicidal thoughts, or just having a negative mindset. I feel as though if they see youth leaders on campus speak out about it, they believe they can too.”

Molina had the opportunity over the summer of 2024 to go to the American Legions Auxiliary Girls State Program to represent Granite Hills. She learned about how the government operates and embodied what students from Porterville can accomplish by presenting meaningful projects. As for being a pathway ambassador for the CODE Pathway, she is very comfortable with speaking to large audiences and genuinely loves to spread her knowledge on the pathway. She has networked with many Porterville Unified School District staff members and other sponsors of events to further educate herself on STEM-based areas. 

“I’m really big on getting girls into the pathway since many girls feel coding is for men only since it is mainly male-dominated and they come with that fear,” Molina said. “I always say ‘empower women in STEM!’ since I know how scary it can be since I am Latina and there’s not many girls like me in STEM.”

According to the Society of Women Engineers, only about 8 percent of Hispanic women represent the STEM workforce. Many factors like economic challenges, limited outreach and role models, and cultural and societal biases can contribute to why Hispanics are underrepresented in STEM fields. 

Molina has participated in various community service opportunities. Some include volunteering at the Family Crisis Women’s Shelter, presenting and creating the Clean Up Campaign for the Porterville Unified School District, helping with Porterville Annual Cancer Runs, and volunteering at H&R Block, a tax preparation company. 

An internship she has obtained includes interning for the Porterville Police Department for a year until May 2024, where she assisted the Information Technology Analyst and officers with technical issues, computer set-ups, and Mobile Data Terminal set-ups (communications devices in police cars). She also interned for the PRO-Physical Therapy: Clinical Observation internship where she gained healthcare knowledge by observing physical therapists and shadowing staff. Molina has helped many younger students by attending the Animatronics Camp where she assisted sixth graders in creating animated projects, and interned at the Future Ready Lab for Qualcomm Agricultural Technology and Technology For Good. During the Agricultural Technology internship in Summer 2023, she aided high school students by using STEM-related concepts in crafting possible agricultural inventions. For the Technology For Good internship, Molina led middle school students through the engineering design process to help them create a project while using coding and circuitry. Last but certainly not least, she was an intern for Raytheon Technologies where she created and presented a “handy-closet”, an engineering project that helps handicapped people. As you can see, there are copious amounts of experiences she has obtained and gained from volunteering and accomplishing internships. 

“A lot of the leadership roles I have are connected so I am able to use skills from one club and apply it to another,” Molina said. “All clubs and activities I’ve done connect in some way. The main goal being giving back to the community since Porterville has shaped me and has given me so many opportunities since I could remember.”  

Hard work gets recognized

Because of all the hard work and effort, Molina has earned multiple achievements and recognitions. She has received an award for science from the Porterville Unified School District Award Foundation, an award from the ALA Girls State Program of 2024, a 2022 Tulare County Character Counts award for the pillar of Responsibility, multiple Principal Honors awards from Granite Hills High School, and many more. 

Molina owes most of her inspiration to her mother, who is her biggest role model. Mrs. Molina always aims for her daughter to reach and fulfill her dreams even when it gets difficult and Joanna hopes to one day be as good of a woman as her mom is.

“A lot of the achievements I have made are also partially my mom’s achievements because she is the one who has always supported me,” Molina said. “If I ever need something, even if it sounds crazy, she always says ‘Okay well, let’s try it out.'”

A teacher who has really motivated Joanna Molina throughout her years in high school is Mr. Cody Diliberto, a CODE Pathway teacher at Granite Hills. He has presented many of the opportunities Molina had the chance to participate in and she is super thankful for him letting her show her skills to significant people. 

“When I was a freshman, he gave me the option to present at the Porterville Galaxy Theatres for the PUSD Pathways Experience event, which is usually done by juniors and seniors, and he also gave me my first internship at Qualcomm for AgTech and Tech For Good,” Molina said. “So, I am always going to be thankful for him.”

Another teacher role model Molina has is Mrs. Tiffany Ross, who is a science and Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) teacher at Granite Hills. She eats lunch almost every day in her classroom and Molina describes her as her school mom who she can seek advice from. She can truly be herself around Mrs. Ross and never feel judged.

“She’s someone that I like to share my laughs with,” Molina said.

Ross has nothing but praise for Molina.

“Joanna has great enthusiasm for life and a love for learning,” Mrs. Ross said. “As I’ve had her as a student, she always asks me questions on what she learned after class to further her understanding on the topic, and not all kids take the time to do that. I also like her passion for community service as she got into Z-Club her freshman year, and she really stuck with it.”

Lastly, Ms. Schieler is an inspiration to Molina since she believes in her and has helped out so much with the Cancer Awareness Club. 

“She has been there for everything and motivates all of us in the club,” Molina said. “I have lots of respect towards her since she always checks if we are good and pushes us forward.”

Personal life 

Baking is one of the ways Molina releases stress after a long school week. She also attends bible study and church as often as she can. She likes to have fun and enjoys going to the bailes and jaripeos. On a regular school day, she arrives home from her YES Program job at Roach Elementary, eats, studies for a few hours, and ends her night with a warm shower. She also works on her side projects as much as she can and is mostly always busy. 

“There is always something to do. It can be exhausting at times since it can keep me from doing other things but, I know everything will pay off at the end of the day,” Molina said. 

Her  favorite quote is by Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” This resonates with her deeply, considering all the goals and achievements she has accomplished that make impactful differences in her community. One of her dream places to visit is Spain since she has been learning a lot about the history of the country from her Spanish teacher, Ms. Filomena Lewis. Another place she would like to visit is Venice, Italy before it sinks, she said.

Molina’s best friend is Grace Gonzalez, who has always been there for her since elementary school and is someone she can relate to a lot, especially having similar academic goals. She has many friends at Granite Hills and even friends outside of school that she likes to catch up and hang out with. She is open to making new friends whenever she gets the chance and is pretty active on social media. She has Instagram where she posts photos of herself here and there and spreads informational posts for advocacy on certain topics.

Despite facing difficult challenges like her father not being with the family in the United States since she was in middle school, and becoming anxious from too much procrastination, Molina pushes through knowing her loved ones are supporting her all the way. Having people motivate her to accomplish things is what gets her out of her more negative moods. She really wishes her dad could be in Porterville with her family since she is graduating this school year but is not sure if he can make it to such a special day. She misses him dearly but she understands his circumstances and that his love for her is immense. 

Leaving high school at the end of the school year is going to be a bittersweet moment for Molina. She recalls high school as a moment for students to grow and learn from their mistakes and is mostly excited to finish this milestone in her life. 

“I’ve grown really close to some of my peers and it is sad that we are going our own ways by attending different colleges but, I hope we can still make the effort to stay in touch,” Molina said. “I’m definitely trying to make this year memorable by getting more involved, outside and inside school.” 

Molina plans to attend a four-year university in the Fall of 2025, either at UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Johns Hopkins, or Stanford. In 20 years, she sees herself returning to the Central Valley from her studies to provide for Valley Children’s Hospital as a pediatric oncologist since she takes pride in giving back to a community that has presented her with many opportunities she is grateful for.

One final piece of advice from Molina.

“The only competition you have is yourself. Do not try to compete with others or you will knock yourself down,” she said.