Los Lunas High School student wins inaugural ‘Youth of the Year’ Award

LOS LUNAS — Los Lunas High student Diego Varela Armenta said winning wasn’t on his mind in mid-September when he attended the “Phantom’s Masquerade,” H2 Academics’ inaugural 2025 Valencia County Youth Leadership Awards gala.

“My sponsor, Jessica Baldonado, was the one to inform me that I was being nominated for one of the awards,” he explained, “so I knew about the first award, which was the Leader in Humanitarian Causes. I just didn’t know about the Youth of the Year one. So that was a total surprise to me.”

Diego, a junior at LLHS, became the first-ever winner of the Youth of the Year award after two school years full of activity to benefit others. He said it never crossed his mind that he would win the honor.

“When I got announced as Youth of the Year, I couldn’t believe it,” Diego said with awe still in his voice. “I was really excited and it was something that, you know … I just had a lot of emotions for it. It was hard to believe at first. It was like, ‘Wow, like someone actually recognized me for the stuff I’ve been doing.’”

The project that got Diego recognized was “Kindness Week,” which he said he organized at Los Lunas High the last two years.

“I first started off in a service learning class where I started a capstone project,” he said. “It first started off as a bullying campaign, and then it turned into Kindness Week.

“My goal was just to make students at Los Lunas High School feel welcome and feel engaged with the community, and make them feel like coming back to school.”

In his sophomore year, Diego started a new project, “Fun Fridays,” which he described as a continuation of the spirit of Kindness Week.

“Everyone was telling me, ‘Hey, you know, I really like your kindness week, are you going to do it again this year?’ And I was like, ‘Yes.’ So I got with my sponsors and said, ‘Hey, how can we expand this to something even bigger to the school?’”

With their input, Diego started Fun Fridays, which consists of activities on two Fridays out of the month. Held during lunch, Fun Fridays concentrated on “fun activities for students to get engaged,” he said.

The celebration eventually included six-week celebrations to show appreciation to students and their academic accomplishments.

“It’s just where we got and said, ‘Hey, how about we reward kids for the good grades and their attendance,” he said. “It’s something to keep motivating them to come to school and keeping those good grades.”

Diego modestly said he feels he can’t take full credit, though.

“I mean, I guess I do have a part in it, because I did take action, which was something that, you know… it was kind of scary, but at the same time, it was something that I knew was going to not just benefit me, but benefit my community and, you know, the school.”

Diegosaid the support from the “Lending a Paw Club, a LLHS student group, and his friends was key to his success and was an inspiration to him. The Lending A Paw Club, which focuses on community services, has been active for eight years.

Among the many projects they’ve sponsored and completed at LLHS were getting ramps installed for the disabled.

“We’re always trying to help our community,” he said. “Our motto is, our motto is changing the world one service project at a time.”

With graduation on the horizon, Diego said he plans on going into nursing. He plans to attend the University of New Mexico and is already taking classes at UNM-Valencia.

He is in a personal care attendant classes currently and plans to take a certified nurse assistant classes as a senior next year.

“I hope to keep helping my community, even though I have different goals, like in my career-wise,’ he said. “Nursing is something to go into to kind of give me that joy of helping people.”

Each categorical winner received a trophy, a check for $50 and the nonprofit of their choice also received a $50 check. The Youth of the Year received a $250 check and the nonprofit of choice also received a $250 check.