Sonoma senior Luis Esteva is headed to Harvard

“I still don’t 100 percent believe it,” says Luis Esteva, reflecting on his recent acceptance to Harvard University. The Sonoma Valley High School senior will be the school’s first student in 14 years to be accepted to the college and, with classmate Toby Ford-Monroe, the first in the past seven years to be admitted to an Ivy League university.

Esteva’s mother, Theresa, pulled out her phone and began recording as he opened his acceptance letter. “Boom, there it was!” His family was thrilled, if not a little sad at the prospect of him heading to the other side of the country to study.

Esteva’s family is accustomed to big changes, however. When he was just 5, his family moved to Sonoma from Cozumel, Mexico when the category five Hurricane Wilma devastated the small island off the coast of Cancun. Esteva’s grandmother had a home in Sonoma, and the family came to stay with her while Esteva began attending Flowery Elementary School.

Since then, Esteva’s father, Fernando, has returned to live in Mexico and Esteva started a tradition of visiting him there every summer. That international perspective helped shape his decision to put a school like Harvard in his sights. “Since I was born in Mexico, and have moved around a lot, I didn’t really grow up feeling like Sonoma was the whole world, I’ve always understood that there’s a much bigger world out there,” he said.

Nick Lopez graduated from SVHS in 2006 and headed to Harvard that fall. He now works in development for the Petaluma Health District.

He said he is looking forward to having a frank conversation with Esteva to help prepare him.

He described his transition from Sonoma to Harvard as “a shock” but remembers vividly how many people both back home and on campus were genuinely rooting for him to succeed.

“I’ll give Luis the same advice that former Sonoma Superintendent Barbara Young gave me,” said Lopez. “If you need it, don’t be afraid to ask for help.’”

But he added that, “it’s OK to also allow yourself to be a little uncomfortable, as that’s what will lead to growth.”

Esteva already has some experience moving back and forth between two very different worlds. Navigating American culture and his Mexican heritage was a challenge growing up, says Esteva, who actually returned to Mexico for two years with his family at the start of fourth grade. When he returned, he felt like he had to re-adjust to his American surroundings yet again. This cultural background, however, is what Esteva thinks made him strive to be a community leader as a teen.

Last year, he was elected as Sonoma Valley High’s “Student Voice.” In this role, he attends every school district board meeting and he has stepped forward to conduct census outreach and even register voters in the high school.

“We have had an accomplished set of students serve as Student Voice over the past few years,” said John Kelly, the school board president who sat in on meetings with Esteva “but Luis stands out even among that very strong group.”

Sonoma Valley High Vice Principal Shawna Hettrich is quick to agree.

“This year in particular, I saw Luis show up in so many ways to support his fellow students during times of struggle as well as during time of celebration,” said Hettrich.

Esteva also receives unanimous praise from his teachers.

“Luis is one of the most driven students I have ever met,” said Andrew Gibson, Esteva’s AP U.S. History teacher. Craig Tierney, the AP Government and Economics teacher describes Esteva as “relentlessly curious” with an “unwavering commitment to success.”

Esteva’s involvement in the community, however, is what he thinks made his application to Harvard really stand out.

“My SAT was far from perfect,” he said. “I was not in the top 10 as far as GPA in our school. What really set me apart was my willingness and enthusiasm to change the world.”

He was especially passionate about a service trip he went on with the organization Seeds of Learning in Nicaragua and was inspired by how the program bridged American and Nicaraguan cultures.

Bringing people together is something that Esteva aspires to do later on in life, possibly through holding political office. Harvard’s connection with the political world is the main reason why Esteva chose the school over West Point, the United States’ oldest military academy, which had long been his top pick. Esteva was attracted by West Point’s motto of “Duty, Honor, Country”, and the school’s values of “dedicating your life to U.S. honor and being willing to put yourself in tough situations,” he said. “Choosing between the two schools was the hardest decision of my life.”

Instead of military training at West Point, Esteva will participate in Harvard’s Army ROTC program, which trains on the MIT campus. He says he hopes to do military service after college, possibly serving in active duty and on commission as an infantry officer.

In some ways, Esteva sees himself as following in the footsteps of former presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg, one of his political role models. He’s even developing a knack for foreign languages just as Buttigieg has become one of America’s most famous polyglots, reportedly fluent in seven languages. In his spare time, Esteva has taught himself Portuguese on the language app Duolingo. He chose Portuguese as it was the language that his late grandfather spoke, but he isn’t ready to stop there. He’s determined to keep studying and has his sights set on mastering French and Arabic, with the help of Harvard professors.

Though Harvard still seems a ways away as Esteva quarantines at home with his family, he says one plus is that “there’s so much more time to do Duolingo, and my Portuguese is coming along nicely.”

Due to the coronavirus, it’s unclear whether Esteva will do his annual summer trip to see his father in Mexico. He sees the bright side in staying in Sonoma, however. “I’ve never spent a summer with my friends, I haven’t spent time here for a Fourth of July,” he says. Though everyone might need to stay six feet apart, this might just be the first year in a while when he gets to celebrate the national holiday with his family in Sonoma.

When thinking about what he will miss most when he eventually leaves to start freshman year at Harvard, Esteva cites Sonoma’s tightly knit community, its central Plaza which hosts farmers markets and city parties but, most of all, he will miss the warm weather.

“As a boy from the Caribbean who grew up in California, Boston is not going to be easy,” he said.