WELLINGTON, Fla. — Spending time together is a priority for the Castellanos family. It’s what got Logan through virtual classes when the pandemic started.
"I really relied on my family to have that human connection this year," said Logan. "I would say appreciate your family for that because at first, you know you're like oh my gosh I am spending all of this time home, but you need that human connection if you are not getting it from school."
The valedictorian will soon be off to college.
She has advice for future graduates.
"My advice is to find something that you are interested in," she said. "Within high school, I played volleyball for the school, I did varsity weight lifting which was out of my comfort zone, and wasn't necessarily good at it, but it definitely kept me in shape. and I played flag football my senior year."
Even finding time to help a friend start an after-school club.
"So, over the summer my friend Martin Blanco reached out to me and he was starting SSA students for sexual assault awareness and he himself is a survivor and realized we don't have a club like that at our school or any school around here."
Logan said you should make time for yourself.
"Because I know for me this year has probably been one of the hardest and for everyone else too," said Logan. "And at some point, I was like I can't do this anymore and I realized you know what, I can just stop and I can take a break and I can go to the beach and sit for 30 minutes and have some time to myself."
She's thankful to her teachers who mentored her.
"My fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Zangen, was the one who taught me how to write and I use her writing skills in my senior thesis and essays and everything to this day," she said. "And I also want to say thank you to Ms. Dooley, my sociology teacher who really showed me that everyone isn't just a number on Earth and we are all interconnected and everything matters."
"It's been such a blessing to watch her and her friends grow up," said Logan's mother, Jaime Castellanos. "We live in Wellington and a lot of these kids we have known for 15, 16 years. And to see them moving along into the next part of their adulthood education is really impressive.”
Logan's father Milko is equally proud of her.
"We are very proud of her going to Georgetown, she's a very hard-working kid, always been honest we've always been proud of her and she's done nothing but always exceed our expectations," said Milko.
