Ms. Hollman

Ms. Hollman was a first generation student, who was born and raised in San Diego, and most people don’t know or believe that she is bilingual, but her first language is Spanish.

Ms. Hollman wanted to become a counselor to be the support that she didn’t have. She wanted to help students navigate high school, get into college, and provide resources to students who were in a similar situation to hers. She has been a counselor at Hoover for 10 years, and works with the students in the SABE academy. She has worked with the San Diego Unified School District for 20 years now. Her favorite thing about SABE is how creative the students can be. She shares how the students are logical with their courses, and how they implement the different things they learn in their math and science classes into their woodshop class. She commonly hears from students how they now realize how math and science are used in the “real world.” Her favorite part of her job is spending time with the students and the daily interactions she shares with them.

Ms.Hollman values how the students always keep it real. She is grateful towards all the students who open up to her and trust her. She shared how there is a “whole gamut of emotions” shared between her and the students. Ms.Hollman’s most memorable memory at Hoover is watching the seniors graduate at the end of the year. She shares how she loves hearing about them overcoming their struggles and pushing through the year. Additionally, she cherishes all of the connections she makes with her students.

Since students are in their last year, she encourages all seniors to continue working hard because senior year is just as important as any other. She expressed the importance of pushing yourself, being involved, challenging yourself, and taking extra-curriculars. Her biggest message to the seniors was to not fall into senioritis, because it is not the year to relax, but instead the year to finish off as strong as possible.

Ms. Montez

Ms Montez is a counselor at Hoover High School, who deeply cares for the students and helps them through academic and personal challenges.

Ms. Montes advises students to “Get involved in school. Join programs, sports, extra curriculars, and anything to be involved in your community.” She believes that involvement helps students build connections and a sense of belonging in schools. She also encourages students to ask for help if they need it, telling them it’s a sign of strength. She believes that being engaged and involved in your community is the best way to make high school a rewarding experience.

The desire to work with children has been a lifelong dream of hers. Growing up, she aspired to be a teacher. During middle school, she would tutor children which cemented her desire to be a teacher. This lifelong commitment ended up getting her a job as a counselor, where she could combine her academics with her passion for helping students succeed.

Ms Montez is a proud first gen college graduate, this role has shaped her perspective and empathy towards students who face similar challenges. While trying to remain independent, she had trouble navigating the college system on her own. The hardships she has faced have given her the ability to connect with students in similar situations on a deeper and more personal level. She studied at UC Santa Barbara where she double majored in English and Chicano studies and minored in history before earning her master’s degree at San Diego State University. As the youngest child in her family, she had challenges but it taught her resilience and determination, which are now qualities she passes down to her students.

Outside of school, Ms Montez values her relationships with her family and friends deeply, for they are the center of her life, and she makes it a priority to hold them close. She also has a love for travel and has already explored quite a few places, hoping to one day visit Brazil. For fun, she enjoys going to Disneyland, where she is especially captivated by Star Wars, specifically R2D2 as it’s her favorite character.

Ms. Romo

Ms. Romo Ricardo is the LEAD counselor at Hoover high school. She grew up in the city of Carmount,  California, which is a humble low income community in the Los Angeles county.

She went and graduated from UCLA too get her bachelor’s degree in Spanish with a minor in education and Latin American studies. She got her master’s degree at San Diego State which was for counseling. One thing that she is very proud of about Hoover, it is a community school. There are so many programs, and people are ready to provide students with whatever resources that they need to succeed.

Ms. Romo’s parents immigrated from Mexico, and it was difficult at the time for her parents to make ends meet. Being the youngest out of four siblings, her parents made her older siblings work right after high school so that they can help with expenses. As the years went by, her siblings realized that they weren’t going to have a chance of a career. This pushed Ms. Romo to do well in school and succeed pursuing a career for herself. Her mother would encourage her  to always keep up the good work in school too make it further into education and pursue greater feats. With the support of her family all through her school years, she finally graduated high school and pursued her future job as a counselor.

Her message for the Class of 2026 is to always ask questions and not be afraid to build a relationship with an adult.  She expanded the message further saying that its always about the smallest habits. Every small decision you make every day, whether its waking up five minutes later or turning in a homework assignment even though you didn’t fully understand it, makes a great impact in the long run.

She tells students “querer es poder,” which translates to “you’re able to do it.”

Ms. Munoz

Ms. Andrea Muñoz, the head counselor at Hoover High School, is the counselor for The Academy of Health and Healthy Communities, commonly known as AHHC. With her 25 years of counseling experience, she celebrates her 13th year as a counselor here at Hoover. Surprisingly, she shares that her prior teaching experiences at Elementary and Clark Middle School don’t compare  to her experience here at Hoover which in her words is more open for opportunity alongside a level of maturity that’s far different.

Mrs. Muñoz’s reasons for becoming a counselor fall simply to a former counselor she had as a student.  She felt that she didn’t help her at all and realized she wanted to become a counselor that would help students. She stated “counseling was my calling,” words that stuck with her until this very day in her 13 years here at Hoover. However while attending college at SDSU, she had a passion to be a lawyer and  majored in law. That all changed after she fell in love with education during her time doing community service at a local school. Helping students and education is what she loves. She desires to leave behind her knowledge so that every student can use it in their future to save the earth and provide for those that are in need.

In her eyes now, “The future lies within the youth.” Mrs. Muños now takes her days more confidently and well rested, compared to her earlier schedule where she would spend 15 hours or more on campus. She does yoga and goes on runs preferably at the beach to ease her mind. Participating in Hoover events is something she enjoys doing as well. She shares her thanks to Mrs. Monte’s for her amazing plant that has kept her company for over a year.

Mr. Zavala

Mr. Frank Zavala wanted to become a counselor because when he was a teenager, other teens were making these old-head decisions that made their lives harder than needed, so he figured he’d help kids learn to make good decisions for themselves in order to make their lives easier.

Mr. Zavala is originally from Calixico. His sister inspired him to become a counselor because she was also a high school counselor. He has never been a teacher and feels he doesn’t have that type of patience. He also doesn’t have the patience to sit with 36 kids every day.

Mr. Zavala attended SDSU twice, earning his bachelor’s degree in psychology, and then returned to pursue his master’s degree in education and his counseling credential. What Mr. Zavala enjoys most about being a counselor is talking to students whether or not they’re having a good or bad day, or dealing with problems at home. Mr. Zavala likes to support students in many different ways, depending on what the student needs. Like, sometimes a student might need information, and he will be able to get back to them, whether it’s for a job, or if they need a schedule change, or even if they just need someone to listen to them.  Some might even need a work permit because they just got a job and he helps them in a bunch of ways.

Mr. Zavala’s goals for this school year are to hopefully graduate all of his seniors, or even to get to know more of the students in his academy, because sometimes he doesn’t get to know them until their senior year. Mr. Zavala wants to help students achieve their diplomas so that if they want to continue to study, they will be able to.

Mr. Zavala’s watching the Padres. Something that excites Mr. Zavala about being a part of this community is that the school has a lot of history, and he has been at Hoover since 1997 and has learned a lot about that history from older people. He also feels like he knows all the stories and all things about Hoover.

Mr. Zavala tells students, “Take care of number one. I mean, take care of yourself and look out for yourself.”