Seizing endless opportunities in the Socorro Independent School District has given Olivia Sierra an edge over the competition. An eighth-grader at SSG. Manuel R. Puentes Middle School, Olivia has already distinguished herself as a straight A student, published poet, and saxophone soloist at one of the nation’s premier conferences for band and orchestra.
“I really want a music scholarship, and I want to be an all-stater in high school,” Olivia said about her future goals to win an all-state band competition in high school and attend college.
With outstanding support from her teachers and her parents, Olivia is well on the path to making her dreams real.
In seventh grade, Olivia was the only middle school student to perform a saxophone solo with the Pebble Hills High School band at the 2022 Midwest Clinic International Band, Orchestra and Music Conference. This past summer, she was the first chair in the Texas Tech University Band Orchestra Camp middle school band. At Puentes Middle School, her belief in her bandmates talents inspired her to work with school administrators to start a jazz band elective this year.
“I really like the fact that by the time that I'm going to be in college, I'm going to have so much on my resume, and it just brings so many opportunities,” Olivia said.
In recognition of her outstanding accomplishments, Olivia was selected to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the Socorro ISD’s Board of Trustees regular meeting in December.
Socorro ISD's strong fine arts programs have allowed students like Olivia to showcase their talents at state and regional conferences and competitions and earn top marks in music, theater and art. In 2023, the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation recognized SISD’s Fine Arts department with a Best Communities for Music Education award for the seventh consecutive year.
That was one of the reasons her father Maximo Sierra, who is the Pebble Hills High School band director, was excited for his daughter to attend SISD and follow in his footsteps and her two older siblings, who have also played in the Pebble Hills band. Maximo Sierra has seen Olivia's hard work pay off in her music, grades, and impact in Puentes' saxophone studio.
"I'm happy for her that she's with me in the Socorro district," Maximo Sierra said. "There's a lot of opportunities that they provide for her, and there are great teachers in the district, so she's getting an excellent education."
Knowing when to take advantage of her school's many opportunities has been critical to Olivia's success. Aside from playing the saxophone, oboe, and piano, Olivia expresses herself through writing. Since sixth grade, her poems have been published in the 2022 and 2023 Rising Stars Collection by Appelley Publishing and the American Library of Poetry 2022 student poetry book Resilience.
"I think I get it from my mom because she's a speech-language pathologist," Olivia said. "She's always helped me since I was little, and I've been blessed with really good teachers who have taught me along the way."
Olivia credits teachers like Paola Llamas in Puentes’s Gateway to Technology class for introducing her to new opportunities in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) through the Technology Student Association. This year, her team placed first in TSA's regional contest for forensic technology, medical technology, website design, and their architecture project titled Off the Grid.
“Olivia's passion for the forensic science competition and her dedication to her studies are truly commendable,” Llamas said. “With her intellectual progress, social skills, and empathetic nature, Olivia is undoubtedly a shining star.”
Despite her music accolades, Olivia said she enjoyed TSA the most because it was her first time in the competition, and she got to see what she and her teammates could accomplish when they tried something new.
“We've been introduced in eighth grade to these endorsements and classes that you take,” Olivia said. "I was like, there are a lot of opportunities to see what you like and what you don't like, so I'm thinking I want a fine arts endorsement, or maybe I'll go into STEAM or biomedical. I don't have to know right now; that's what my parents tell me, but I definitely want to get a music scholarship.”