‘A’ Student Puts Super Spin on ‘Achievement’

Joseph LoDuca is almost too good to be true--which is to say that the Mira Mesa High School student destroys all the negative stereotypes of teen-age youth so prevalent these days.

He’s not only an academic honors student, president of the student body, founder of the school’s community volunteer program, a nationally recognized junior hockey player and an award-winning summer lifeguard.

He’s also an early recipient of one of President Bush’s “Daily Points of Light” for his public service--one of only 21 teen-agers so recognized last fall during the program’s first year.

On Tuesday, at a special assembly of cheering peers, LoDuca received a $10,000 scholarship from the Amateur Athletic Union and the Mars Corp. candy maker as one of eight outstanding high school seniors throughout the nation honored for their scholastic, athletic and community service achievements.

He remains eligible as well for two national scholarships, each worth $40,000, that the AAU will award at a New York honors dinner in April.

Not bad for the soft-spoken, sandy-haired, compact 18-year-old San Diego native who strongly credits his parents and teachers for motivating him to work hard, remain focused on sports and academics, and to try always to do his best.

“My feeling is, if I don’t try as hard as I can, I let myself down. . . . I feel guilty,” he said Tuesday.

So last fall, when he was commuting every weekend on “red-eye” flights between San Diego and Detroit to play in national Junior Olympic development hockey games, he still carved out time for all the homework demanded in his advanced placement English and government classes, and in physics and trigonometry.

Because he had no computer on those flights, he disciplined himself to waken early enough on Monday mornings to type the final drafts of essays or polish math problems done on the plane or in the locker room between games.

“They just don’t make kids like Joey every day,” said Mira Mesa principal Jim Vlassis, whose only criticism of LoDuca is that he needs to “slow down and relax a little” during his last months as a senior. Vlassis was pleased that LoDuca “was enjoying himself at the school’s ASB Ball the other weekend. . . . He deserves some of that.”

Vlassis, in setting LoDuca as a good example for other students, told the assembly that the senior has proven that students can have fun as they work hard.

LoDuca cited childhood experiences with his grandfather, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for almost a decade, as shaping both his willingness to help others and his career hopes to become a doctor. He helped dress his grandfather daily and took walks with him.

“I saw how much he loved life and how he tried to live it to the maximum, even after he was diagnosed, and I thought about all these people who have life and health and throw it away with drugs or alcohol,” LoDuca said. “Just to see him smile really made me feel good, and now I like it when a senior citizen or someone else I’ve helped smiles.”

Added LoDuca: “My grandfather obviously affected my outlook, to live day-by-day as best I can, and set high goals that I can attain, not because I’m the biggest or the best, but because of self-discipline and desire. . . . A lot of it is inside the heart.”

LoDuca plans to attend either Notre Dame, Cornell University or Middlebury College in Vermont next fall as a way to play hockey and prepare for a medical career.

“I always want to look for the positive,” he said. “I owe a lot to my parents, who always stress doing well, who have supported me in school and in hockey, who asked me about how I was doing in school, and who have really cared.”