(Alumni Highlight)

This week’s alumni is Juan Saaverda, also known as Tattoo Juan, Juan graduated from Hemet High in 2007. Juan currently spends his time working at Hidn Tattoo in San Jacinto as the shop manager. Juan loves to spend his free time with his kids and working on his classic truck. Juan is a great artist that has always loved drawing. At a young age, Juan Saaverda fell in love with graffiti type art and started practicing the style in all of his sketches. Eventually, Juan knew that he was going to draw for the rest of his life and started to learn how to draw different styles like realism, black and grey, and portraits. Juan prides himself on not only being a decent artist in one category, but rather being diverse enough to handle any kind of tattoo that comes walking through the door. 

Juan Saaverda never lost his passion for the graffiti style of art, “It’s an art form that has passion and creativity.” Juan feels like a lot of people overlook graffiti artists because their art isn’t in a form that many people in society approve of. A lot of people don’t understand the difference between Tagging and Graffiti. Tagging is the ugly stuff you see around where people are trying to mark their territory, but Graffiti art with a message is some of the most beautiful art around. 

Murals of people like Tupac and Nipsey Hussle in LA, the walls along Venice Beach, and Cesar Chavez Park in San Diego are all examples of the talent and beauty behind graffiti artists. Tattoo Juan plans on starting a nonprofit to help local kids who have a passion for graffiti. He hopes to help them channel that love for art into something positive. This nonprofit would have a piece of property where the kids can practice their graffiti freely without feeling like society is looking down on them. Juan would offer art classes to teach kids how to work with shadows, dimensions, and realistic details. For kids who have shown a commitment to the program and have grown, Juan Saaverda would like to teach them how to tattoo if that was a path they wanted to choose. 

Juan believes that if we as a society stop criminalizing these kids who have a passion for art and instead embrace them, point them in the right direction, and teach them to channel their gifts into something they can use for the rest of their lives then we can make a real difference in the community. 

Do you know someone who graduated from one of the local high schools and is doing great things in the community? Email me at VcsportsKyle.@gmail.com and tell me a little bit about them, make sure to include their contact information, a picture, and a detailed message of why they should be the next Alumni of the Week.

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(Alumni Highlight) This week’s Alumni Is former West Valley Mustang Ryan Cogdill. Ryan graduated as a member of the class of 2009. While at West Valley Ryan was a member of the football team and track team. When he graduated, he went on to MSJC to continue his playing career and eventually earned a scholarship to play football at Dixie. While at Dixie Ryan struggled to adjust, Family is essential to him, and he didn’t feel right being away from them for so long. Football helped ease his mind though, he refocused his attention on the game and was able to make it through.

It was at Dixie that Ryan feels like he found his calling. He overheard some teammates talking about what they were going to do after football, and that they were nothing without it. It was then that Ryan decided he was going to help Athletes and regular students find their paths after High School. Ryan is adamant that this world has so much to offer, but you have to be willing to fight for it, to enjoy it. Ryan came back to the San Jacinto Valley with a new mission. He started coaching at Tahquitz/West Valley to help guide his players and help them get on a good path. 

Ryan eventually found his way on to Coach Galliano’s staff at San Jacinto, He got a job as a special needs substitute which was only supposed to be a temporary position as he waited for an opportunity to open up for him to teach an English class, but he fell in love with the job and the kids. Ryan is now a full-time special needs teacher at San Jacinto High School and the Defensive Coordinator for the League Champion Tigers. 

Ryan Loves his job, I asked him where he sees himself in ten years and he was perfectly content with being in the same place he is now, being the Defensive Coordinator of the football team and teaching his special needs class. It is very clear that he doesn’t do the job because of the paycheck, but rather, he does it because he cares about the kids.

Ryan is very thankful to his parents and Family for always showing his support in every decision he has made, they have always had his back and he is very appreciative to them for that. He is also thankful for his soon to be wife Jennifer Zinn who is his backbone and puts up with him not having much time for her during football season. Soon she will be Jennifer Cogdill and Ryan can’t wait to call her his wife. 

Know a former student who graduated from one of the local high schools who is doing great things and think they deserve to be honored as an Alumni of the Week? Email me at VCsportsKyle@gmail.com and tell me about them.

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When Fiorella Graduated High School she finished with a 3.8 GPA a very respectable achievement. Fiorella was awarded the Gates Millennium Scholarship, which is a scholarship for low income, underrepresented kids. It is essentially a fully-funded program that will pay to take your education as far as you want it.

Fiorella Morales went to a military academy on the east coast after graduation, when she was done there she enrolled at San Diego State University and is currently working on her P.H.D. in leadership.

Fiorella has been working as the International Engagement Coordinator for S.D.S.U. over the past three years. Some of her job details include organizing study abroad trips for students, various international exchange programs with other institutions around the world, and accompanying students on their trips to different countries. She has already found her passion in this field of work and hopes to make it her long term career but on a larger scale.

I asked Fiorella how many countries she has been too and which was her favorite, she struggled to give me one answer, in short; she has been to “a lot” of countries and loves each and every different experience they have all offered. I asked what she liked most about traveling, and her answer was unbelievable. She said, “The more you travel, the more you realize you don’t know that much, It makes you feel so little in the world because you realize how much more there is out there.

There is so much to learn when traveling to new places.” There is plenty more travel in her future. Soon she is leaving on a trip to Europe, and in 2020 she will be traveling to various parts of Asia to further her education.

Do you know an Alumni of one of our local high schools who is currently doing cool things? Contact me via email with their name, a picture, what school they graduated from, and tell me a little bit about what they are up too. VCsportsKyle@gmail.com.

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