Jasmine Tostado

When she first came to Eastside in middle school, Jasmine Tostado was nervous and excited because her sister had studied here and she heard it was challenging. Plus, English wasn’t her first language, so as a native Spanish speaker, she found it harder to communicate.

But that didn’t stop her from being persistent. 

“When I was applying to Eastside, my application was bad,” Jasmine  said. “It was embarrassing, but I had my sister there to help me.”

History Teacher Jasmine Kelly-Pierce and Creative Writing teacher Tina Ehsanipour, cherish memories of Jasmine from those middle school years. 

From the first middle school camping trip, it became clear to the teachers that Jasmine liked her life to be in order, and needed to be organized.

“Jasmine loves rules and structure, and she needs to know what is happening,” Jasmine K. said. “When she was planning out her snacks, I thought it was the most hilarious and relatable thing I’ve seen.”

Tina taught Jasmine in middle school, and again in Creative Writing this year, where Jasmine’ stepped out of her comfort zone and realized she can really push herself. 

 “At first she was afraid of taking academic risks and wondered if she was doing everything right,” Tina said. “She values challenging herself and learning.” 

Her determination helped her win a 2022 Excellence Award for her work in SRI. She developed a love for computer science over the summer before sophomore year and since then, she has joined the Robotics Club and gone on to take AP Computer Science. 

Jasmine  will miss Eastside and her friends as she heads off to Stanford University where she plans to continue on the STEM path, concentrating on Computer Science and Engineering.