Senior Spotlight: Guillem Graña-Garriga (12-2)

Laura Shin (12-3)

Photo courtesy of Guillem Graña-Garriga (12-2)

What are you looking forward to at college? (Guillem is going to Penn).

Honestly, I’m looking forward to getting back to how education is supposed to be, which is in-person with your friends and with a teacher that isn’t on a computer screen. But I’m also excited to be part of a larger community because Masterman was such a tight-knit group, and although I found that fun because I knew each and every person, I also want to be able to meet a lot of new people, and I think Penn will help me with that.


Favorite memory from senior year?

A few months ago, for the April Fools Voices video, Noel and I interviewed Zack Wray. I thought the answers he gave us were super funny, but then afterwards Zack told us that we could not use any of the footage because he didn’t find it as funny as we did and thought that it would just be super embarrassing. But Noel ended up posting it on Instagram anyway. I really enjoyed that interview; I had a big laugh with Noel.


What has it been like leading HOLA at Masterman?

Me, Julian, and Jose have been putting in a lot of work in HOLA, like remembering to wake up around 7:30am most Wednesdays... sometimes I miss a few meetings, but that’s okay. Yeah I’m not going to lie I didn’t really do much as president.


Any highlights from your soccer career with the Masterman boy’s soccer team?

Not a highlight, but my career-ending injury was that I tore my ACL, although I didn’t realize that I had. I just kept playing because I thought I had only pulled my hamstring. Favorite moment, I would have to say, was when a freshman, Yehuda, finally scored a goal and the people on the bench, including myself because I mostly play left bench, got really hype. Soccer was a great experience because I have a special group of friends within the team, especially the seniors, who I’ve become close with over the past four years.

You also create videos for Voices. What inspired you to start that kind of journalism?

I remember back when I was like 8 or 9, my brother and I used to make a lot of videos, and he would edit them on iMovie. Then in eighth grade, I started a YouTube channel with Colin and George, who no longer goes here. In tenth grade, I was able to make a documentary for NHD about the Tuskegee Airmen with my friends, and that was when me, Kaveen, Noel, and Jacob realized that we had a real talent for making videos, and that we wanted to continue producing them, even if it wasn’t for NHD. Thankfully, we were able to come to an agreement with Ms. Gentlesk, and we started making videos about topics that we thought students would enjoy watching. I mostly edit, Jacob is our script writer, Kaveen does some editing and a lot of camera work, and Noel does a bit of everything else.


If you could give one piece of advice to your freshman self, what would it be?

This is corny, but don’t take anything for granted. Like now, I take the fact that I could walk from school to Comcast for granted- I used to be able to do that, and now all I do after school is shut down my laptop and go upstairs. It’s about the little things: try to make as many memories as possible, because these four years are going to pass by way quicker than you think they will.


Biggest Masterman pet peeve?

There was this girl in tenth grade who would always bully me. (This is a joke).


Cats or dogs?

This is kind of a difficult debate. Cats, last year, I definitely had a way bigger appreciation for, because they’re so chill. When you don’t want to be around them, you don’t have to be. They’re very independent. But sometimes they can be boring, and that’s why I think I’m more of a dog person, because dogs are always excited and I like how they get super happy and roll on their bellies and stuff. I really like Kaveen’s dog (Hunter). He’s a super chill guy.


If you could be any fictional character for one day, who would you be and why?

Jon Favreau’s character in Chef. He gets to teach his son how to cook food, he’s got a food truck that’s highly successful, and I feel like he would be on Twitter like, “We’re bout to hit Austin, TX” and get like 200 retweets and a super long line behind his truck. Also his wife is very attractive. Yeah, I just like that life. Traveling around the country, teaching your son how to cook, and making food that people love.


What would you like to see change at Masterman?

I’ve honestly thought about this for a long time, and I always think of expansion. That building right next to Masterman, the one that’s closer to 16th St, matches the architectural vibe of our school perfectly, and if we bought it and connected it to Masterman, we could accept so many more students. I feel like by expanding the building, we’d also be able to expand the options that students would have for classes, because we’d literally have room for more teachers. Like maybe add an AP Psych class or other language classes, like Japanese or Mandarin. Obviously that would take a big donation, but that’s why I’m off to Wharton. I’ll make a donation in like a decade from now when I hit it big as a big business boss.