Each month, the principals of Live Oak and Sobrato High Schools choose a total of four students (two from each school) to spotlight. Sobrato senior Tommy Yath, 18 is this week’s Student of the Week.
What inspires you? My inspiration is my family. My parents have endured a very difficult life after immigrating to the United States from Cambodia during the Kmher Rouge Regime and I want to maximize the opportunities they have given to me by living the life they do.
Favorite subject in school: My favorite subject in school is Physics. I have always been attracted to science classes and Physics both satisfies my curiosity about how the universe works as well as prepares me for my future in engineering. As a bonus, my Physics teacher Mr. Yav always makes the class interesting with interesting demos and fun labs.
If you had the power to change one thing in the world, what would it be? With the power to change one thing in the world, I would increase the empathy of all people in the world. People have so much power to change the world, even with the small things, but are limited by their priority to take care of themselves first. Community has power, but people just need to be more comfortable with putting others above themselves just a few times, hopefully creating a cycle of kind acts that improves the lives of anybody surrounding.
If you could go anywhere, where would you go? I would love to go to Japan or Scotland. Japanese culture has always been fascinating to me and the Japanese food is definitely a cultural experience I would love to enjoy and could never be tired of. Scotland has always appealed to me with their history and the beautiful locations, as well as the great accent.
Name one big challenge in your life right now: A big challenge in my life right now is time management. I’ve stretched myself pretty thin with 5 AP classes, Track and Field, community service, the Robotics club, and my family, but I can’t imagine my life without the fun and success I feel in each.
Dream job: My dream job would to be a mechanical engineer. I was always that kid who watched Sci-Fi shows with robots like Transformers and played with Legos all day. I love making things, especially robots and mechanical projects, making mechanical engineering my dream career.
If you were stuck on a deserted island, what three things could you not live without? I always hate being asked this question. There is always a conflict for me between being practical with stuff from survival shows like Man Vs Wild or Survivor Man, as well as the personal, meaning objects. But I would bring a survival kit, a lifetime supply of Japanese food and the “Harry Potter” book series.
Favorite book: My favorite book is currently between “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” by J.K. Rowling, “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern and “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green.
Plans post high school: My plan is currently to attend Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo to study Mechanical Engineering. But in the short term, it would be to just enjoy my time with family and friends before I move on to the next step in my life.
Something that makes you smile: Too many things make me smile, like taking that bite of really good food, finishing a good race, the view at the top of a high mountain, traveling to a new place and the last words of a really good book. But I guess what always makes me smile is having adventures with my family and close friends, or just having a really good conversation with someone close to me.
