Andrea Gaona Romero

Andrea Gaona Romero is a proud graduate from the most diverse high school in Missouri, Ritenour High School. In the fall, she will be attending Washington University in St. Louis in pursuit of a career in medicine. Although she is passionate about health and helping others, she is open to exploring new, different things because she believes you’ll never know if you never try. While at Ritenour, Andrea was involved in many school organizations that allowed her to explore different interests and serve the community such as FCCLA, FBLA, DECA, Renaissance, Mu Alpha Theta, Leadership, and NHS. Her favorite organizations, however, were the school’ s Marching Band and the Social Justice Club (aka Game Changers). By participating in Marching Band, Andrea took her love of playing the flute to the next level–marching and playing is not the easiest thing in the world. Through Game Changers, she reached out to Ritenour’s elementary and middle schools to talk about equity and encourage conversations geared towards diminishing racial issues and improving the educational system. In fact, she had the opportunity to engage in a Group Model Building Workshop (led by students from Wash-U) surrounding the complex topic of student-teacher relationships and is extremely glad she has the chance to participate in yet another Changing Systems Summit.