Manteca High has another Stanford University-bound student.
At age 3, DeAngelo Caldera had high hopes of becoming a Cardinal.
He made that dream official on Thursday, accepting to go to Stanford during a special event in the MHS Tutoring Center.
Principal Frank Gonzales noted that Lejla Pepic, MHS Class of 2017 valedictorian, also went to straight to Stanford.
Caldera is also his class valedictorian. He’s the son of Justin and Angela Hermeski.
He credits his father for introducing him to Stanford at a young age.
“He worked as a plumber, doing maintenance at the facility,” said Caldera, who recalled his visits to the campus, in particular, Stanford Medical Center / Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
The latter is important to him. Caldera has hopes of becoming a Pediatric Neurosurgeon.
He hasn’t visited the campus since his younger days. But that’s about to change – Caldera is planning to check out Stanford in the coming days.
He also applied to Harvard but had yet to hear from the Ivy League school.
No matter, Caldera is thrilled to be attending Stanford.
He was joined on his special college-day signing by friends – namely, Josh Vega, Mitchell Davis and Runvir Chouhan, who is the salutatorian for the Class of 2018 – along with his English teacher / Academic Decathlon advisor Michael McCullough, and staff and administrators, including Gonzales and Assistant Principal Troy Fast.

To contact reporter Vince Rembulat, e-mail vrembulat@mantecabulletin.com.