Jun. 12, 2026
Andy Salvatierra, 18, has been all about helping his community, changing conversations around mental health and fighting climate change.
It was in eighth grade when Andy Salvatierra finally broke down.
His Guatemala-born father had been deported a few years earlier, then was fatally shot trying to cross the border and get back to his family in LA.
That day, his mother put an arm around him as he sat in his room sobbing. Six years later, as Salvatierra, 18, prepares to head to Yale University, he recalled how that gesture from his mother taught him to lean on the people around him.
“I needed that support so much,” he said. “It’s OK. I can have somebody else look out for me.”
Salvatierra graduated Thursday and, along with a handful of classmates, left an indelible mark at Alliance Judy Ivie Burton Technology Academy High School by shifting the way the campus talks about mental health, substance abuse and grief.
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