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CHAPTER 6
The Chair Award

In my senior year of high school, the Monty High Mafia had seized control of Montgomery High School. They held key positions in high school culture. Emma Encarnacion controlled the press as editor-in-chief of the Moctezuman, the official school newspaper of Montgomery High School. Elaine DeVillena was one of her lieutenants as editor of the features section.

Members of the Mafia held other coveted positions in high school hierarchy. One Colvert Burgos, a tall athletic Filipino boy, held the vice presidency of the tyrannical school government, the Associated Student Body (ASB). His accomplice, Arnoldo “Arnie” Basallaje held the position of Commissioner of Confusion, a generic officer who carried out miscellaneous orders of the ASB under control of the Mafia. Another henchman of the Mafia included one Warren Umali, sports writer of the Moctezuman newspaper. Andy Dimacali ruled the high school marching band as drum major.

You might ask, why would anyone want to seize control of an insignificant high school near the US/Mexico border? The answer is comprised of two words: college and scholarships. All the college bound students at Montgomery High School were competing for a prestigious honor, the Chair Award. Prestige was everything among the Filipino community of South San Diego. In the late 1980s, students who graduated at the top of the class sat in front of the class during graduation ceremonies. In addition, they wore white caps and gowns while the so-called stupid people sat in the rear and wore blue caps and gowns. Montgomery High School was all about appearance.

The Chair Award in particular was always given out during the Senior Awards Assembly just before graduation at Montgomery High School. People representing colleges, universities, and other organizations that grant scholarships and other awards were present for the spectacle called the “Senior Awards Assembly”. During the assembly, graduating seniors wore their caps and gowns, white or blue as the case was, and sat in order of class rank. If a senior had won a scholarship or other award, then a representative of the awarding organization would call out the winning senior’s name and present him or her with a token of the award.

Every college bound student stove to win as many scholarships as possible. In particular, each year one or two seniors would manage to win so many scholarships that one of the scholarship presenters would say, “Joe wins so many scholarships he needs a chair up here on the stage so he doesn’t have to keep coming back.” Thus explains the Chair Award.

Keep in mind, my high school held the assemblies in the gymnasium. The stage was a platform that folded out from the wall. The seniors sat in chairs on the gymnasium floor. Scholarship presenters over the years concocted the Chair Award for the one or two seniors whose names were called frequently because of the massive number of scholarships they won.

My classmates and I all knew about the Chair Award from our first year at Montgomery High School. We had to attend the Senior Awards Assembly each year. I too fell in the mad quest to win the Chair Award. But I knew I had no chance of winning it. Someone in the Monty High Mafia would win it, I knew for sure.

The Mafia employed tactics like joining every club on campus and possibly volunteering in the community. They joined so many extracurricular activities for the sole purpose of listing their activities on their scholarship and college applications. Their participation in numerous extracurricular activities had little to do with genuine interest. It had everything to do with winning the most number of scholarships, the greatest dollar value of scholarship, and admission to the most prestigious colleges and universities.

I had a different tactic. I didn’t join multiple extracurricular activities like the Mafia did. Their idea was to see how many extracurricular activities they could join while still earning (or begging teachers for) straight A’s on their report cards. I stuck to my core activity of band while venturing into newspaper staff and volunteer work for a nature center.

I wanted to distinguish myself a different way. I intended to attend a prestigious East Coast university. So I applied for the freshman classes of 1989 at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I also applied for the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Southern California, and the University of California at San Diego. My rationale was that most of the previous graduating seniors at Montgomery High School stayed in San Diego for college, and at most attend a college or university elsewhere in California.

By winning admission to Harvard or MIT, I would overcome the Chair Award. I knew someone in the Mafia would win it for sure. Yet, I did nothing to merit admission to these prestigious institutions of higher learning. I had straight A’s, but my SAT weren’t high enough to be competitive for admission.

When my Senior Awards Assembly came two other seniors won the Chair Award: Emma Encarnacion and Marissa Dalope, who belonged to a clique smaller than the Monty High Mafia. Emma and Marissa won so many scholarships that a presenter said, “Emma and Marissa win so many scholarships they should have chairs up here on the stage.”

I finished my high school years at Montgomery High School by graduating salutatorian, or second in the Class of 1989. Marissa became valedictorian. I ended up attending UC Berkeley for college in the fall of 1989.