ORANGE : El Modena Student Wins New Honor

It’s the sort of program the young Bill Clinton might have attended--102 high school students spending a week in Williamsburg, Va., discussing such pressing national issues as the environment, health care and multiculturalism.

And at the end, one student is chosen America’s Top Student Leader by the organizers of the Century III Leaders national conference and receives an $11,000 scholarship and an introduction to Secretary of Education Richard Riley.

This year, the honored student is Nick-Anthony Buford, 18, a senior at El Modena High School and lifelong Orange resident.

“It was exciting to meet the other students (in the program). Each person achieved an enormous amount,” Buford said. “I felt many of these people would be the movers and shakers of the future.”

Buford, El Modena’s senior class valedictorian, has garnered an impressive list of credentials. He is a National Merit Scholar and a National Hispanic Scholar. He was also among 10 students chosen nationwide to receive full tuition, room and board from the AT&T; Engineering Scholarship program for four years at the college of his choice.

Moreover, he spent part of February in Washington, as one of two California students selected to participate in the U.S. Senate Youth Program. He spent the week learning about the functions of the U.S. government and meeting such luminaries as Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California and John Glenn of Ohio.

“It’s not that I’m outstanding,” Buford said. “I just filled out over 80 scholarship applications this year. I’ve a younger brother and sister, and I couldn’t use all my parents’ money on myself.

“I didn’t even win near half of what I applied for,” Buford added.

But Buford’s teachers beg to disagree with their student’s modest self-assessment. “He’s definitely one of the finest students to go through El Modena High School,” said Principal Gail Richards. “He already has a global sense of involvement and responsibility. He really wants to make a difference.”

Buford attributes his interest in current events and world affairs to his family background. His mother is Cuban, and he grew up speaking Spanish, learning English when he began kindergarten.

“I couldn’t count past four in English till I was 7 years old,” Buford remembered. “My grandparents lived with us, and they couldn’t speak English, so there was no reason to speak it.”

Buford, who plans to use his scholarship money to attend Harvard University in the fall, hopes to work for the U.S. government, perhaps as an ambassador to a Latin American country.

“It’s my heritage. I think there’s a part of me down there,” Buford said. “But there seems to be so many problems in our society. I’d like to go where I’d be most effective.”