The Path Ahead : RHS Class of 2024 Senior Decisions

With the Riverbend High School graduation already almost a month in the past, the new alumni have bright futures ahead of themselves. The desired futures of the student’s at Riverbend are extremely diverse, as each student follows the path that they see best fit for themselves, and that brings them the most joy. 

While there are countless amazing students at Riverbend, here are a few who are well-worth highlighting! 

Dimitrii Alvaro Encinas

Dimitrii Alvaro Encinas plans to continue his passion for music as he joins the Marine Corps as a band member. Dimitrii has been involved musically for 10 years, and has been a fundamental part of band for 7 years, as he is a multi-instrumentalist playing tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, and the bassoon.

In order to become part of the Marine Corps band a recruiter will assign potential recruits a piece of music that they must perfect and then must submit both a video of the performance as well as partaking in an in-person audition. Once accepted, the students will go through bootcamp, followed by schooling at the Naval School of Music. Then, between the 10 different Marine Corps bands, they travel around various places both in the U.S. and beyond.

When asked what he is most excited about regarding this next chapter of his life, he says, “Being able to play all sorts of music with like-minded people.” He goes on to say, “My ultimate career goal is being a performer even then being a music teacher is an option, too.”

Emma Lohr

Emma Lohr has achieved big things already throughout high school. She plans to continue these achievements as she will attend Brown University in the fall to get her bachelors in international relations and French.

Her ultimate career goal is full of ambition and passion, as she wishes to work through the U.S. State Department as a diplomat for a Francophone country. 

Emma says, “I have always loved learning about different languages and cultures around the world so when I discovered that I could study this at college I was super excited.” She goes on to say, “ I think that the different ways that countries organize their government is fascinating and I would love to be able to experience that in the real world. “

Jonas Taylor

Jonas Taylor is committed to Hampden-Sydney college to continue his football career, major in business, and minor in rhetoric. Jonas plans to go into sales after college, all with the goal in mind to, “...be placed in a leadership position and make a great living for myself and my family.”

Jonas will be receiving an academic scholarship of $25,000 for each of the four years that he attends Hampden-Sydney. He displays his excitement about going to Hampden-Sydney because of its small and intimate campus with only 900 students. He says, “I am most excited for the connections that I'm going to be building in college, not only with my teammates but my fellow classmates.”

He concludes with fervor, saying, “I am already very close with the other Hampden-Sydney commits and look forward to meeting the rest of the team!”

Puerto Sainz Alzueta

Puerto Sainz Alzueta is an exchange student from Spain, who has spent her senior year living with a host family in Spotsylvania, and attending RHS. Puerto plans to continue her education in Spain, double majoring in business and big data at Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid, Spain. Puerto’s ultimate career goal is to work for a large business company such as Apple or Ford. 

Puerto comments about her opportunity to live in Madrid, saying, “I am really excited about going to Madrid because living there has been my dream since I was very little.”

The college selection process in Spain differs from that of America, in that each student must take a series of final tests assessing them on the topics from the previous 6 years of school. In order to qualify for a specific area of study, there are certain score requirements the student must meet on this test that is scored out of 14 points. 

Lastly, Puerto conveys her enthusiasm saying, “Meeting new people makes me so happy about going to college.”