Leader. Musician. Social worker. Advocate. These are some of the words that describe Jesse Guasch.
Guasch is the vice-president of the Latino Student Union (LSU). “I’ve led people in volunteering events,” Guasch commented. “I’ve also connected with other organizations for events and I’ve planned meetings.” Guasch said he believes his largest achievement was the impact he has had with LSU “because I’ve helped educate a lot of people.”
While Guasch’s role in leadership is incredibly important, he is more than just a leader, he is also an advocate. He has spoken out to defend school social work programs in the whole district. Guasch wrote and presented a speech to fight against cuts to the School Social Work Program in the Edmonds School District to the Edmonds school district board of directors.
Guasch is a musician as well, playing trumpet for Jazz 1 Ensemble. He has played trumpet for nine years. “I’m really proud of winning the Newport Jazz Festival superior soloist award at Newport High School. I won top soloist in our (3A/4A) division,” he said. Guasch has continued to enhance his musical abilities throughout his senior year as well. Jazz 1 has had an excellent year, winning the Sweepstakes award at the Newport Jazz Festival, as well as the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. He has also played at Hot Java Cool Jazz.
Guasch is also an aspiring social worker. “I have volunteered at several community organizations throughout the years. Most of it was through the LSU community service events. The most notable organization is Washington Kids in Transition.” At the Latino Educational Training Institute, Guasch held the job of Community Driven Outreach Specialist.
Guasch said that the person who influenced him the most was Miss Victoria. “She was the LSU adviser last year, and she was the school social worker at our school before she got cut. She was a huge, huge inspiration to me because she helped me discover my passion for social work and she was the first real school social worker I met and worked with. I discovered my passion through her.”
Guasch is planning on attending Western Washington University. “I’m really excited. I think I’m just going to continue with the same kind of thing [I’ve been doing at Terrace]. I’m going to focus on jazz. I’m going to join the jazz band at Western. And I also plan on pursuing social work or law as my major.”
Talking about the advice he would give to new high school students, Gauch said, “I guess my advice would just be to enjoy it and at the lows. Don’t be too hard on yourself. I think you just got to understand it’s part of the process and the highs you got to enjoy. And at the end of the day, once you graduate, you’re not really going to be thinking about all the negative stuff that happened to you, and all the bad stuff, and all the hardships, and all the stuff that you had to go through. You’re just going to be thinking about your friends and everything that you’ve built and all your accomplishments and everything that you’re leaving behind. So yeah, I guess it’s not that deep. Just don’t take it too seriously.”
