San Bernardino High Pageant Helps Six Seniors Turn Struggles Into Leadership
4 min read
From left, San Bernardino High School seniors Andrew Godinez, Peter Diep, Christian Madrid, Lizzet Sotelo, Maria Socop and Oluwatemilorun Akinyemi gather inside the school’s Performing Arts Center at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 14, before classes began, to prepare for the 2026-27 Mr. and Miss Cardinal City Pageant. Photo by Manny Sandoval
A morning of interviews became a celebration when San Bernardino City Unified School District police officers brought doughnuts and Dutch Bros gift cards to San Bernardino High School seniors preparing for the Mr. and Miss Cardinal City Pageant.
The officers thanked the students for staffing barbecue grills and cooking for the community during the department’s recent National Night Out. The teenagers were excited by the recognition — especially the gift cards.
The Sept. 14 visit captured what the six Class of 2027 students said the pageant represents: service, confidence and a willingness to step forward. Andrew Godinez, Lizzet Sotello, Christian Madrid, Peter Diep, Maria Socop and Oluwatemilorun Akinyemi each arrived there through family sacrifice, personal struggle and ambition.
The 2026-27 Mr. and Miss Cardinal City Pageant will be held Saturday, Sept. 26, at the San Bernardino High School Performing Arts Center. Doors open at 5 p.m., and the event begins at 6 p.m.
Godinez, a football and wrestling team captain with a 4.7 GPA, learned through sports that leadership often means assuming responsibilities without waiting to be asked.
“Leadership is not easy, but someone has to do it,” Godinez said.
The pageant pushed him outside his comfort zone through public speaking and community service. Distributing toys to young patients at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital was particularly meaningful.
“It brought a smile to my face knowing that they have some new toys,” he said.
The son of Spanish-speaking immigrant parents, Godinez said he still works to communicate with them in Spanish because he is not fully fluent. After graduation, he hopes to study business at UCLA, eventually build a company and become “a man of my word” by following through on the goals he sets.
Sotello, a tennis captain with a 4.89 GPA, measures leadership through empathy. She has learned that supporting teammates sometimes requires setting authority aside and recognizing when someone needs room to breathe.
“You’re not just a leader,” Sotello said. “You’re here to lead them into a better version of themselves.”
As the oldest daughter of Mexican parents, Sotello feels responsible for embracing educational opportunities and setting an example for her siblings. She takes dual-enrollment courses through San Bernardino Valley College and participates in Students for Change, a campus organization engaged in activism.
That work has become deeply personal as classmates use group chats to warn one another when immigration enforcement activity is reported nearby.
“Instead of talking about, ‘Oh, let’s go hang out,’ we’re talking about, ‘Be careful,’” Sotello said. “Just raising our voices and being active in our community is something that may help.”
Madrid’s transformation began in the swimming pool. When he joined water polo as a sophomore, he did not know how to swim or tread water. He ultimately helped his team win a CIF Division 6 championship.
“That experience taught me that hard work can lead to something meaningful in this life,” Madrid said.
His mother grew up poor in the Philippines, pursued an education and became a college dean before accepting a teaching position in San Bernardino. Watching his parents adapt to a new country taught Madrid, who holds a 4.74 GPA, to challenge himself.
Pageant rehearsals have strengthened his public speaking, while service projects have connected him with children receiving toys, backpacks and school supplies. He hopes to become a nurse and is taking advanced and dual-enrollment courses while gaining experience through hospital internships.
Diep initially rejected repeated invitations to compete. The Cambodian immigrant worried it would be a “generic pageant” centered on choosing the most attractive contestants. He changed his mind after learning about its community-service component.
The decision led Diep, a 4.91-GPA student active in robotics, to discover he could address an audience, express himself more freely and even dance. At a Rotary gathering, he delivered an impromptu speech despite his previous fear.
“I’m finally able to express who I am as a person,” Diep said. “I’m not just a GPA. I’m actually an individual.”
Socop’s journey toward confidence began after pandemic-era isolation contributed to anxiety and panic attacks that eventually occurred daily. Breathing techniques, encouragement from people she trusted and professional help gave her tools to process negative thoughts.
“I really recommend therapy,” Socop said. “Therapy really helps, especially developing those coping mechanisms.”
Now holding a 4.73 GPA, Socop captains the varsity track and cross-country teams and has tried water polo, wrestling, soccer and tennis. The oldest of six children, she grew up with the Mexican culture of her mother and Guatemalan culture of her father. Translating for her father from an early age also helped her develop a voice she now uses publicly.
Socop hopes to become the person others can trust when they feel alone — the same kind of support that helped her move beyond her own “little box.”
Akinyemi immigrated from Africa as a child and initially believed the youngest sibling would face little pressure to support her family. Financial challenges changed that outlook, driving her to pursue scholarships and leadership opportunities that could help her parents.
She balances tennis, dual-enrollment courses and pageant rehearsals with serving as a student board member for the school district, where she has helped elevate student concerns about tardiness and campus restrooms. Navigating competing responsibilities has taught her to communicate clearly when schedules collide.
Akinyemi plans to study computer engineering and pursue a career as an information security analyst. She wants to respond whenever her parents need financial help: “You need this. Just take it.”
Together, the six seniors enter pageant night carrying far more than résumés and rehearsed introductions. They carry their families’ sacrifices, their private struggles and growing evidence that leadership begins well before a crown is awarded.
