Joanna Perez-Hernandez came into her sophomore year not feeling much of a difference from her freshman year.

“I still feel like I’m a freshman a little bit,” Perez-Hernandez said.

During middle school, Perez-Hernandez was motivated to attend La Salle after a group of students visited her school. She got a sense of a welcoming and communicative atmosphere.

“Whenever I need something, there’s a lot of people helping me,” Perez-Hernandez said. “[I] feel like you’re never alone.”

Instead of taking an elective, Perez-Hernandez is enrolled in two language courses, French and German. 

Perez-Hernandez started out taking only French, but during tennis practices German teacher and girls tennis coach Mr. David Lane would joke about her taking German.

“I think I took the German joke a little bit way too far,” Perez-Hernandez said.

In addition to taking French and German, she also has grown up speaking Spanish. Because of the similarities between French and Spanish, Perez-Hernandez is enjoying French class the most.

She hopes that learning new languages will help her to travel in the future, with Argentina and Wales being a couple of the places she wants to go.

Over the summer, Perez-Hernandez got to travel to Mexico where she visited with family who she was meeting for the first time. With her mother being a child of nine, “you can never stop meeting new people,” she said.

Together, Perez-Hernandez and her cousins frequented the park and walked to the store while she answered questions such as how to pronounce certain English words.

Other than traveling, Perez-Hernandez would like to pursue a career in architecture which has roots in her love for designing sweet treats. Despite not being much of a baker, she likes to make blueprints of cake designs and decorate them.

Her favorite was one that she drew for her friend’s quinceañera. To personalize it, she incorporated butterflies and the color red.

Another future aspiration that Perez-Hernandez hopes to achieve is playing tennis at a D1 school. While not knowing exactly where she wants to go, Perez-Hernandez would like to go to college out of state so she can try something new. 

Trying new things is something that Perez-Hernandez values even though it has led her to discovering a distaste for the texture of squid.

“It doesn’t really taste like anything when it’s covered in all that seasoning and stuff,” Perez-Hernandez said. “I just don’t like that squishy feeling.”

While continuing to try new things, Perez-Hernandez wants to work hard in her current classes. “I just wanna do my best,” said Perez-Hernandez.