Mingus Union High School Valedictorian Coco Zuñiga heads to Oregon medical school
Coco Zuñiga and her older brother would always fight when one got more A-plusses than the other.
Her father, Carlos Zuñiga, said it wasn’t something he or his wife taught them to do, they were just competitive.
Coco, the Mingus Union High School Class of 2026 valedictorian, said Mingus helped fuel that competition, which she said she plans to talk about in her speech at graduation: Altruism overcoming competition. Ironically, she is last MUHS graduate due to alphabetical order.
“I was for the kid who was placed as No. 2,” she said. “Competing a lot, which has been amazing, definitely does push me. But then, sometimes I just have to realize that sometimes it doesn’t really matter as much as how you treat others.”
Extracurriculars
Coco was a captain on the girls tennis team and went to state with her doubles partner, Lana Booth. So, she said she knows all kinds of competition.
Her favorite memories are late night drives home after away games, stopping for food with her friends.
Coco was a busy student, either playing tennis, working on homework, volunteering or participating in National and Hispanic honor societies’ events. Even on vacations, her dad said she and her brother both always brought laptops to finish schoolwork.
Tennis, which has been her favorite part of being at Mingus, is where she was able to hang out with some of her best friends and get away from academics.
“I’ve definitely learned how to lose gracefully,” she said.
Academics
With a GPA of 4.2678 as of the fall semester, she doesn’t lose much academically. Final GPAs will be calculated after graduation. She’s taken seven Advanced Placement courses, and just took the AP U.S. history, biology and computer science tests.
Weighted AP classes allow higher than a perfect 4.0 GPA.
“I’ve always loved science,” she said. “It’s just been a subject that has challenged me.”
She will be studying biochemistry at the University of Oregon in the fall with a Stamps Scholarship.
“I’m very excited to engage in these clinical experiences during my undergraduate years, so I can get an idea of what I want to specialize in,” she said. “I’m leaning a lot towards internal medicine or endocrinology.”
She has some medical experience through the school’s sports medicine program.
“I’m interested in clinical and biological physiological research there,” Coco said. “Definitely want to join a cultural club during my time there. I’m interested in volunteering as an EMT. Gaining overall clinical experience is really attractive to me.”
Her dad said she naturally strived for everything she accomplished.
“If there was something she tried and didn’t do, it was probably impossible,” he said.
