Amy Garcia-Lopez: What’s your favorite thing about San Bernardino?

Robert Sanchez: My favorite thing about San Bernardino is its environment. The environment is nice. Even when San Bernardino had a bad reputation, I think it’s what the outsider says, but since I live here and I say it’s not bad.

Amy Garcia-Lopez: If you have met someone from another country who knows nothing about America, what would you want them to know about?

RS: You can follow your dreams, even though it may be hard. You can follow it, especially in America, where there are so many endless possibilities you can do, and you can go and follow those.

Amy Garcia-Lopez: How would you describe San Bernardino High School to someone who has never been here before?

Robert Sanchez: I would describe it as a very welcoming, fun, and creative school because we have a lot of opportunities and we have good clubs, good sports, and just a really good environment. So I would say it’s very welcoming.

AGL: If you were able to do anything to the school or change something from the school. what would it be, and why?

RS: I would change to have more school spirit, like, more activities, announcing that we’re gonna have it or even this coming up season. I like having more spirit going around the school. 

AGL: What one sport that you’d like to see in San Bernardino HS? 

RS: I Would say boys volleyball because I know a lot of boys that want to try volleyball, and even the coaches would like to do it, but it’s hard because they would have to go through the process of finding other schools. But I would do boys’ volleyball because I feel like it’s important too. After all, we have girls’ volleyball, and then we have other sports that have boys and girls doing it, and we are the only school that doesn’t have boys’ volleyball. 

AGL: Favorite parts of school or school hours?

RS: My favorite part of school was when I went to London because I’d like to experience that experience again. Everything was so different from here. At 12pm we had to drink tea because it was tea time and I thought that was just a joke or something but it turns out it wasn’t and I really enjoyed it.

AGL: Why did you decide to compete in this role? 

RS: I decided to compete in the Mr. and Miss Cardinal pageant because I had a previous friend who did it and watched from afar. And I liked watching her do it, and the experiences she got, and what she’s learned from it. I wanted that too, and I just wanted to have more stuff to do my senior year, and have more experiences in life. It could also look better on my resume for college. And so she inspired me. 

AGL: Did you prepare for the role of Mr. Cardinal?

RS: That I kind of did not. When I heard Jamie first tell me about it? I was iffy because I didn’t know if I wanted to do it because of my other sports and stuff. And then he told me, you should just do it. And if you don’t want you to, I’m not forcing you, you could leave. And now I did it, and I happened to like it so I decided to just stay. Now I’m stuck with competing.

AGL: What are your top priorities if you were elected?

RS: I would just want to make sure that people know San Bernardino is a good city, a good place to be, to spread awareness and positivity.  There are some positive people out there, like positivity everywhere, and to show them that we’re a place to be, it’s safe. 

AGL: How do you plan to balance it out with your academics? 

RS:I would talk to all my coaches, and I would talk to Jamie and see where everything would line up, and then make sure I would schedule this around, like my cheer practice times, or like I would have my cheer coach talk to Jamie and see what I can work out. I would just really have lots of communication between both Mr. Cardinal and cheer.

AGL: Are you still going to be captain of cheerleading?

RS: Continue? Yes, even if I’m not captain, then, with my other years ahead of me, I’ll still be doing it, because it’s something that I love, and being a captain doesn’t define you if you’re even on the team. And if you have passion for it go for it. So yes. 

AGL: Can you handle feedback? How would you use it to improve your performance in this role? 

RS: Yes, I like, I would think about it and see what I could do to help improve that. So let’s say somebody told me “Practice more to get the stunt.” I’d be like, okay, thank you. I would go back home and think about what I could do to have more time to practice and then come back the next day and I’ll just see what I can do to fix that mistake and just do it.

AGL: How will you mentor or support other students who are interested in taking on leadership roles?

RS: By showing them they are not alone doing this hard role, so by being there by their side at all times when help is needed. I feel like that would get them hopes and get them started on the right foot or I’ll say have you tried working with a team? So yeah I’ll just be by their side no matter the struggles they are facing. And by that time they would get better and better.

AGL: Describe a time when you had a tough time. How did you handle it? And what did you learn from that experience?

RS: A time I had a tough time was when we had to fundraise to go to London. It was very expensive, and it took a lot of effort, and dedication to keep pushing through to fundraise that money, to make sure I got that money on time. I didn’t get the money until the day it was due, so I got it done at the last minute. And it was just very stressful because I wanted to go. I wanted to go on that trip. And it was just a really hard time because it was hard to find that money.

AGL: Describe the time when you had a big problem. What steps did you take and what was the result?

RS: A big problem is when I’ve had this stunt and my cheer team we weren’t getting it, we weren’t hitting it, and I could tell I was getting frustrated, and my team was also frustrated, so I had to think about, okay, well, if I’m getting frustrated, it’s not going to help right now, we all need to, like, breathe for a second. So I told myself to just take a step back right now, breathe, take it slow, and think about what we could do to do better to help this stuff go up and stuff. 

AGL: How do you manage stress and pressure, especially during busy and challenging times?

RS: What I do in these stressful moments is count and I get to the highest number that I can get to. So imagine I am sitting down and we just have to perform in a few minutes. Like I am nervous and stuff so I start to count, One, Two, Three, and so on to give myself the time to get the nerves out of my system.

AGL: When was a time when you felt down, what or who was there to bring you back up?

RS: Anytime I have felt down is when…

AGL: It doesn’t have to be that personal

RS: Okay so this one time I felt down was when we weren’t getting that one stunt and there was a rally the next day so I would go to my sister because we have this brother and sister thing going on and I tell her my problem, she’s like my life savior, and if she’s not available I’ll go to my coach and explain to him the problem, sooner or later it gets solved.

AGL: What is the most important thing parents should tell their children?

RS: To keep pushing through. I feel like a lot of kids need that, that support, and encouragement from their parents for them to keep pushing through school. So I feel like that just, keep going, keep pushing through it. 

AGL: Tell me one of your favorite memories

RS: My favorite memory is when we start our meetings, like rehearsals because it’s like we’re all getting along and seeing people progress from when they first started their first rehearsal to now. It’s just really nice, because it shows how dedicated they were, they stayed through this whole thing, and it’s just been really good.

AGL: If you named a movie after yourself, what would it be called and why?

RS: If I named a movie after me, it would be Robert’s Bakery, because I like to bake and I like watching baking shows. Having one of my own would be cool. And I think I’ll be a really good baker. Robert’s Bakery. 

AGL: A fun fact about yourself

RS: A fun fact about myself it’s kinda weird, but I’m very flexible, and double-jointed in my arms.

AGL: Is there anything else you’d like to add to this interview? 

RS: I’m just really excited for this pageant, and it’s important to all of us. It’ll be really fun. I just hope a lot of people show up and they enjoy the show.