Learning from challenges, teaching others
By Eric Valentine
When Zach Sabina thinks about his hopes for the future, he looks back on his past, and that gives him an understanding of how “community” works.
Five years ago, the Wood River High School senior was a Hood River, Ore., middle schooler. Moving to Hailey at that juncture in one’s life is not easy.
“It took time to adjust to the school,” Sabina acknowledged, but “I felt the most at home when I was running, skating, and skiing, and that is how I have made my best friends.”
Teaching those skills to youth is now a passion of Sabina’s, manifested by his volunteer work with the Papoose Club—a nonprofit focused on educational, cultural and athletic growth for children in the Wood River Valley.
“I would love to travel and continue to teach things I love to the youth because it is important to me that these skills and activities I have had the privilege of learning are passed on to the next generation,” Sabina said. “I have skied and played tennis since I was very young and they are a large source of entertainment and happiness in my life.”
Sabina, whose father was a professional mogul skier, says the sports he’s been able to enjoy in the Valley have helped him develop a strong work ethic. It’s the same principle that drives him while taking A.P. Language, A.P. Microeconomics, Spanish, Algebra 2 and Band.
Sabina doesn’t have a particular school in mind yet, but he hopes to attend a four-year college and major in economics and/or computer sciences.
“I will miss the locals the most that welcomed me into the Valley so graciously when I moved here,” Sabina said while contemplating what he’d miss most about life here if school takes him outside the Valley. “I have met some of the nicest people just by getting involved and participating in a variety of activities here.”
Education available for all people, regardless of race and gender, is Sabina’s biggest hope for a better world. And he’s clear on why.
“I feel like so much potential is being lost from the millions left without education. I imagine what the human race would be capable of if everyone had an education,” Sabina observed.
Sabina’s mother lived in the Valley for 16 years before she moved to Oregon to be with his dad, who loved the steep, challenging terrain of Bald Mountain.
“I was born in Hood River but I had been visiting Sun Valley my entire life,” Sabina explained.