This Golden Valley High grad spent summers working on a dairy. Now he’s headed to Yale

Golden Valley High graduate Joshua Perez-Mendoza feels he couldn’t have asked for a better role model than his father José Perez.

His whole life, Perez-Mendoza has watched his father work in the dairy industry, waking up before dawn and working long hours each day.

“I can’t put into words,” Perez-Mendoza said. “He’s the most hard-working person I know and admire him very much so for that. I know I’ve inherited that work ethic from him and put that into practice just working alongside him on the dairy.”

With his parents always stressing the importance of education, Perez-Mendoza and his four sisters have excelled in the classroom so they would have options when it came time to choose a career.

His three older sisters have all graduated from colleges. His oldest sister Daniela went to Stanislaus State, Marilyn went to UCLA, and Paola graduated from UC Davis.

Now Perez-Mendoza is raising the bar after being accepted into Yale University.

“My father didn’t want us to be working as hard as he does, waking up before dawn each day,” Perez-Mendoza said. “I’ve even experienced it. I know I can do better for myself. They’ve always pushed us to pursue our education because through that so many doors can open.”

Perez-Mendoza has worked part time on the dairy during high school in the summers and when he’s available on the weekend. He knows what it’s like to shovel manure in the heat.

Ending up at an Ivy League school is no accident.

At an early age Perez-Mendoza knew a college education was essential for his future. He wanted to follow in his sisters’ footsteps.

He was focused on challenging himself in school, taking high school math classes while he was in middle school. He took college courses at Merced College while he was in high school.

He finished No. 6 in his class of 482 students with a 4.5 GPA.

“I wanted to get ahead with every single requirement I could,” Perez-Mendoza said. “I wanted to do everything I could to go to the best college I could. Maybe at the start I didn’t know it would be Yale, I don’t think anybody expects to be in the position I am right now, it’s really a blessing.”

Meanwhile, Perez-Mendoza also wanted to be a well-rounded student and enjoy his time in high school. He played soccer, helping Golden Valley win back-to-back Sac-Joaquin Section championships the past two years.

He hopes to walk-on the men’s soccer team at Yale.

Perez-Mendoza also competed in track, he helped start the ping pong club at school and he was involved with a number of clubs at high school and volunteered many hours of community service.

“He’s an inspiration,” said Golden Valley principal Kevin Swartwood. “He’s so humble, you’d never know it.. .He’s never made any excuses, he’s never played the victim. He’s always been nose down, worked hard, super respectful kid.”

Perez-Mendoza grew up on the west side of Merced, just outside of El Nido.

“It’s a rural part of town, that’s a big part of my background,” he said. “I’ve grown up in the dairy industry, that’s where my father has worked for his whole life. I’ve worked part-time throughout high school on the dairy and that’s taught me the importance of hard work and it’s been a second classroom for me.”

Perez-Mendoza plans to major in chemical engineering at Yale. Early on in his research for colleges, he targeted the Ivy League campus as his dream school. When a Yale student came to talk to his AVID class his junior year, and the student was from Merced, it showed him his dream wasn’t far-fetched.

“It showed me it was possible,” he said.

Perez-Mendoza was able to get enough money through different scholarships to make his dream a reality.

Now he’s leaving in a few weeks to take two summer courses. In August, he’ll become a full-time Yale student.

“I knew school was the way to progress in society, especially as a first-generation college student,” Perez-Mendoza said. “It offers me a pathway to secure a future, not only for myself, but children I could have in the future and a family I hope to start.”

Ojo: A record-high 18% of first-year students in the class of 2027 at Yale are Latino.

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