Age: 12
Parents' names: Alfonso Sanchez and Eva Gallegos Sanchez
Favorite class: Alfonso enjoys math and says his favorite part of school is MathCounts because "it makes you mostly think outside the box. It makes you think very hard." MathCounts is a national foundation that promotes math and sponsors an annual math problem-solving competition for middle-school students.
Activities in school: Alfonso is a sweeper when he plays soccer and loves math because "once you get it, it makes you feel better."
Activities outside of school: Alfonso likes to play soccer with his friends and walk his dog, Coco, a brown mixed-breed.
Whom would you have lunch with if you could have lunch with anyone? The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "I would like to ask him what inspired him to write the speech, 'I Have a Dream.' " Alfonso said he admires King because he helped black Americans achieve equality. King inspires him so that "maybe I can do something to change the world."
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What books are you reading now? "Clockwork" by Philip Pullman.
Whom do you admire most? Alfonso admires his dad the most because he inspires him to enjoy math and "on his days off he helps me review."
What's your favorite song? "Dream On" by Aerosmith.
Plans after high school: Alfonso would like to attend Harvard or another Ivy League college to study math.
Dream job: Engineer
Dream car: Lamborghini
Favorite place in Tucson: He likes to hang out at Jacobs Park, where he plays soccer.
Hidden talents: He can build things, like a cabinet, from a blueprint.
Vouch: "It is very unusual for a sixth-grader to be taking high school algebra and even more unusual for him to make the MathCounts team from our school," wrote Karla LeVeque, Alfonso's MathCounts teacher and coach. "But also what we appreciate about Alfonso is that he's a very nice student who tries to do his best. And his best is great."
