We want to talk about a great woman whose birthday is today July, 21 th. She is 16 years old and she resides in New Castle, Delaware.
She was born in Delaware but her origins are from Puerto Rico. She is the daughter of Dialis Esther and Abner Figueroa, and has an older brother, Abiel.
Our woman is currently a junior in William Penn High School. A firm believer in the statement “anything worth doing is worth doing well”, she excels in academics and a wide variety of extracurricular activities.
In the marching band, her solo played a pivotal role in winning the 2007 Cavalcade of Bands Championship. She was a part of the jazz band which became the first ever Wildwood Jazz 2009 Champions.
As a member of indoor drumline, her flamenco dance solo was crucial in placing second at the 2009 Wildwood drumline competition. She has also participated in chorale, swimming, symphonic band, field hockey, All State Band, and All State Theatre.
She also performed in the musicals “The Wiz” and “Ragtime”, along with performing at the DuPont Theatre for the production “West Side Story”. In addition, our young woman has been accepted into the 2009 All Star Band, and was a recipient of the highly prestigious President’s Education Awards Program for Outstanding Academic Achievement in 2008.
Outside of school, she is very involved in her church, PDH Ministries. There, she plays for the band, and sings with the praise and worship team. She is a youth leader, and a member of the praise dance group. They play at many concerts much like the Katrina Relief Fund. Furthermore, She performs with her trumpets at weddings, and other social events such as “TAPS” honoring our fallen soldiers at the Veteran’s Memorial Day Service in Delaware City.
After High School, she plans to attend West Chester University to major in music and study Music therapy (helping those who have been traumatized or disabled through music). She would also like to study theology, in order to more effectively preach the word of God.
Our readers are asking themselves, “who is she?” Well, she is our July Chica de HOY: Jennifer Lee Figueroa.
As you know she is one of the candidates of the Miss Hispanic Delaware.
If she were to become Miss Hispanic, Jennifer hopes to help teens strengthen their relationships with God by providing a firm foundation, strong moral values, self respect, and guidance.
Jennifer wants to use her life’s experience to help encourage teens to empower themselves through God to get past any situation.
We said in the July edition to our newspaper readers that she was elected by all the Hoy’s team. The members -women and men- saw that she is special. When we met her, we confirmed that “she is magic.”
She combines in perfect harmony, brain, heart and beauty. She is loved by her family, teachers, friends and everybody that knows her.
This is one ordinary day in her life:
7:00am – 2:15pm Monday to Friday she studies at school
2:30pm – 5:30pm Monday to Friday. Practising sports
6:00 – 9:00pm Monday: Jazz, Tuesday Marching Band, Indoor Drumline and Drama
After school on Wednesday she is at church
Saturdays: 8:00am – 6:00pm she essays at school or travelling to participate in sports events
Sunday: She plays the trumpet at the church at 10am and 5pm.
Jennifer was the very last contestant accepted to participate in the Miss Hipanic Delaware and she had less than a week have letter of references sent in order to complete her qualifications for the pageant.
Read one of her letter of references:
“It is my special pleasure to be able to write in support of Ms. Jennifer Figueroa. She is presently a Junior at William Penn High School. I have known Ms. Figueroa for approximately three years. She is currently principal trumpet of my select instrumental course, the Symphonic Band, the Drum Major of our marching band, a member of the Percussion Ensemble, the school musical, and Jazz Band as well. In both academic and extra-curricular settings, I found her work to be above average. Ms. Figueroa is reflective and thoughtful–a serious student, who thinks carefully before speaking, but is willing to ask questions when she is not certain and not accept incomplete or superficial answers. She is a highly motivated student with a keen and genuine interest in learning. Ms. Figueroa truly is her “own best teacher” outside of the classroom. She sets high standards for herself, is a leader, and accepts constructive criticism from others in a positive spirit. Indeed, Ms. Figueroa is the ideal student—a mature individual with a keen desire to learn and a willingness to invest the time and effort necessary to achieve her desired results. Personally, I find Jennifer to be a delightful young woman. She is mature beyond her years, polite, well-spoken, and has an affable personality. Jennifer is also very active in her community and church playing for weddings, veteran’s organizations and other community-related performances. It truly is a pleasure to spend time in her company. Jennifer has worked and continues to work with purpose toward her stated professional goals, and she possesses a mature attitude toward the role of her formal education in preparing her for a professional career. There is little doubt in my mind that Ms. Figueroa will be very successful and a wonderful addition to your program. I warmly recommend her without reservation to your serious consideration.”
(Brian P. Endlein Director of Instrumental Music Music Theory Instructor William Penn High School).
Her trumpet’s teaching opines: ” I watched the child evolve into a young lady with many talents. Her musical interests have lead her to the high school marching, symphonic, and jazz bands as 1st trumpet. She also made the all-state band. She also plays both the cymbals and the keyboard with the indoor drum line. Jen branched out into choral music and musical theatre. Just last week I watched her performance in the Delaware Musical Theatre all-state performance of West Side Story. Once again, she did a great job”.
Her family says about her: “She is well-educated and obey. She would like to go to a high position and she efforts to obtain it. She has a total dedication to the school and church. She is mature for her age and she speaks like an adult.”
Her mother says that she is proud of her. She is her fan number 1!
As we said she was magic, and she gave us good luck too. One of the Hoy’s photographer took one picture of her for Chica de Hoy’s graphic report of last July that has received the congratulations of our readers and other mass medias.
Happy birthday from Hoy’s team, sweet Jenn!
(If you want to know and see more about this “angel” you can press next links
@linkhref=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO8IjZjZnE0’target=”_blank”>www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO8IjZjZnE0/link
@linkhref=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?youtube.com/watch?HETPHpmrwTk’target=”_blank”>www.youtube.com/watch?v=HETPHpmrwTk/link
@linkhref=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Xo6OQCiKk’target=”_blank”>www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Xo6OQCiKk/link
@linkhref=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXMqxvVgL_k ‘target=”_blank”>www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXMqxvVgL_k /link
@linkhref=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw5CECTVO9k’target=”_blank”>www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw5CECTVO9k/link
