NHI honors 2025 High School Student of the Year, College Students of the Year, and Citation of Merit winner

Drawing upon a tradition that harkens back to the National Hispanic Institute’s annual awards accompanying the annual Celebración event, we’re pleased to announce the latest round of honorees for 2025. Though the award winners have made consistent contributions to NHI over the years, they distinguished themselves in 2025 as especially valuable in advancing NHI’s mission, nominated by NHI staff members, board members, and volunteers. 

In this first of two stories on NHIMagazine.com, we recognize winners of the High School Student of the Year, College Students of the Year, and the Citation of Merit awards. 

(You can also read about the High School Officials of the Year, High School of the Year, School District of the Year, and University of the Year in our companion article.)

Manuel Treviño, High School Student of the Year

Prepa Tec Campus Santa Catarina (Santa Catarina, Nuevo Léon, Mexico) 

“2025 was starting from scratch … starting something brand new, and then leaving a legacy behind,” said Manuel Treviño, reflecting on what has been a momentous year not only for himself, but for the new NHI project he headed up in Mexico’s second-largest metro area. 

The Monterrey students came together to form a team that competed at the Texas Great Debate — the first time that a Mexican team has ever done so — with some of the students crossing over to experience the LDZ in 2026. He notes that those students expressing interest in LDZ also want to engage in training the next group of Great Debate students. 

Treviño sees that as creating a leadership pipeline that will allow Monterrey to flourish as an NHI region even when he enters college. Though he’s going to remain in his city as a Tecnológico de Monterrey student, and plans to be involved in some capacity, he’s already arranged for the next head coaches to step into that key role he held in 2025. 

Throughout the process, Treviño learned about his leadership capacities. 

“Starting all of this, I saw numbers,” he said. “I saw I have to meet this criteria … but at the end, I just saw the students that I worked with. I saw their stories. I saw their passions. And it made me realize that leadership is more about communicating with the people that you’re serving, the people that you’re working with, rather just seeing numbers, seeing outcomes, seeing projects, seeing events.

“That allowed me to see my leadership more as, ‘Am I connecting with people? And how are they connecting with me?’ rather than ‘How can I influence them? How can I invite them or make them join?’”

Julie Tomasino, College Student of the Year

University of Texas at San Antonio (San Antonio, Texas)

While NHI alumni in college do take on leadership roles, it’s rare for them to act in project administrator (PA) roles for a region — especially one as big and as storied as San Antonio. But Julie Tomasino, now a senior at UT San Antonio majoring in business management, worked closely with a friend who was an assistant PA, and felt supported to take on a huge role, thanks to NHI@SA’s infrastructure. 

“We talk about it a lot,” she said. “It’s a really big legacy. I know we’re one of the biggest regions, and I think one of the oldest as well … I get a lot of support from our senior staff and our board members. That’s another thing that keeps me coming back, wanting to carry on that legacy and wanting to help this region grow and continue to be sustainable.” 

Finding the experience relevant to her major, she notes, “Being a PA, it’s more than just training the freshmen to compete at the Great Debate. It’s also getting to train the staff and then making sure everybody’s working well together, and that if there’s a lull, or if meetings aren’t running as efficiently as they can, delegating resources … solving problems as they come up.” 

And though she’s invested in seeing students progress, she’s focused on seeing the staff step up over the past year. 

“We all set goals at the beginning of the year, so I’m personally trying to make sure that I help the staff grow into their goals, so that they are starting to get that not just they’re getting more from their leadership journey as well, so that they’re understanding how to set and accomplish those goals,” she said. “So I get a lot of fulfillment from seeing the debaters grow and then seeing our staff grow and become stronger leaders each year.” 

Ramon Enriquez, College Student of the Year

Washington University (St. Louis, Missouri)

Over the last few years, New Mexico’s return to the NHI fold has been one of the organization’s feel-good stories, and Ramon Enriquez — who grew up in Las Cruces and attended Gadsden High School before taking on a leadership role with the Dennis Chavez New Mexico LDZ program — has become part of that story. 

“New Mexico is so unique in the sense that there’s a unified identity when it comes to what it means to be a New Mexican,” he said. “Just being able to be surrounded by so many people who have that pride in them is definitely rewarding.

“I relate with so many different people, whether it be a rural or an urban experience, [who] see the benefit and the magic that happens within the state of New Mexico,” he added. “Being able to realize that there are so many bright minds here … it definitely creates a space where people grow their confidence, grow their efficacy that they’re able to achieve these amazing things.” 

Annalissa Garcia, part of the organizing team for the New Mexico LDZ, praised Enriquez’s work in developing NHI in the Land of Enchantment. 

“Whether collaborating with school counselors or engaging with local school districts, Ramon has gone above and beyond to establish and expand NHI’s presence in New Mexico. His efforts have ensured that students in his community have access to transformative programs like the LDZ and the CWS,” she said.

Now a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, double-majoring in Political Science and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and minoring in Public Health and Society, Enriquez — who is a first-generation college student — said that being part of NHI has inspired him to pursue a career in community organizing once he gets a Ph.D. in political theory. 

Thinking back to his NHI experience in 2022, he says he started the week with “self-doubt” among students he recognized as smart and talented. But, by the end of the week, he realized, “I’m supposed to be with the rest of these leaders within my state, making these amazing changes, these proposals that will enhance and center the lives of the people within our community.

“I want that same experience for the people who come after me, where they’re able to recognize, this is a place that I’ve belonged in this entire time,” he added. “I’m not an outsider. I’m not someone that’s constantly working against the system. I’m someone who can change the system, someone who can be a voice within the system.” 

Margarita “Maggie” Olmos

Policy Advisor, Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus Foundation, and Project Administrator, NHI Midwest 

Margarita “Maggie” Olmos began her NHI journey in 2005, and it’s been impactful in both her personal and professional life. She met her husband, Michael, at the National LDZ program in 2006, and though she’s invested in her work as a policy advisor for the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus Foundation, fostering the next generation of Latino leadership while advocating for the state’s Latino community, she also serves as a project administrator for NHI Midwest.

“Both of us had many mentors who have helped shape the people that we are today,” she reflected. “We feel a responsibility to give back by continuing this mentorship in our community and creating opportunities for families to both experience and belong to the NHI community.” 

Olmos says that in her work with individuals and organizations throughout the Land of Lincoln, the NHI Fundamentals factor into the approach she takes to building bridges and uplifting the Latino community. 

“I really have been able to integrate a lot of the fundamentals, first and foremost, because I work with the community, I work with a lot of nonprofit organizations, and those fundamentals are really important to be able to establish trust,” she said. “Currently, in this climate, there’s a lack of trust from organizations, from community members when it comes to government entities … but, at least here in Illinois, we’ve been able to do so much work with the community … NHI has influenced the way in which I work with my neighbors.” 

She also notes that inquiry-based learning (IBL) — a cornerstone of the Collegiate World Series program — has also been instrumental in her work. 

“A lot of the policy advising that I have to do is thinking ahead of situations,” she said. “How is this policy going to affect the community? It [looks] great on paper, but is there anything that we may be missing? Who have we not considered in the past?” 

She adds that IBL has helped her “make sure that future policies are created so that we are as inclusive as possible. And specifically, working for the Latino community, we want to make sure that the Latino voices are included in policy and in our lived experiences, and what really is at the root of a lot of our concerns as a Latino community.”