Hanna senior Fernando Marquez provides inspirational story

Longtime KPIX-TV anchor Wendy Tokuda came out to Archbishop Hanna High School earlier this month to shoot a human-interest piece about senior Fernando Marquez.

Fernando, 18, came to Hanna Boys Center as a freshman from Southern California. His counselor, Trish Goodwin, said that, “Prior to Hanna, Fernando’s environment was surrounded and plagued with violence and strife both in the home, his neighborhood and schools. He sought out Hanna on his own and moved hundreds of miles away to give himself a better chance and get his life back on track. This spring, he will graduate first in his class.”

Fernando is keeping busy as a star player on Hanna’s successful basketball team and waiting to hear from colleges, with UCLA as his first choice.

He currently is in the Students Rising Above program, a highly selective national nonprofit that provides students with an academic advisor, a mentor and a series of college-planning workshops.

The organization has been so impressed with him that they pitched the idea of a story on him to the local CBS-affiliate and has also provided him with a four-year college scholarship.

In her on-camera introduction, Tokuda says, “The look of determination on the face of Fernando Marquez says it all, as he drives in the ball for Hanna Boys Center. His dad is in prison, he worries about his mom who has difficulty in her job cleaning houses because of a disability. But Hanna Boys Center and Students Rising Above have helped him turn his despair into hope, and he is at the top of his class.”

His three-minute interview aired on KPIX 5 News several times last week and can be see online at kpix.com/sra.