While she is neither a Country Day original nor a native Texan, Destinee Cornejo ‘18 has become a Falcon at heart; but she still holds on to her dedication to community service, family roots and traditions – and homemade enchiladas.

Cornejo was not actually born in Texas, but rather in San Diego, California.  However after just a year, her family moved to Goodyear, Arizona. Five years after that, they moved again to Phoenix. She and her family finally came to Fort Worth in 2010.

Country Day was a big change for her. While FWCD seems like a small school to most, it was huge for Cornejo – she came out of a K-12 school with a student body of 180.

“I graduated eighth grade in a class of eight,” Cornejo said.

Eight students is small, even by Country Day standards. So Cornejo has seen it all, from a big public school in Arizona, to a tiny private in Texas.

Cornejo has two siblings, including Leila, her eleven-year-old sister who came to Texas with her, and Lauren, her twenty-year-old half-sister. She is close with both of them, and even though Lauren lives in California, she still makes time to visit. It is this kind of close family relationship that makes Cornejo’s family unique. Valuing personal connection and the warmth of home, both Cornejo’s mother and her native Hispanic grandparents emphasize close family bonds. Cornejo and her siblings constantly get a tasty reminder of this from their mom’s homemade enchiladas, along with their grandmother’s tamales from an old secret recipe.

But something most people do not know about Cornejo is her extraordinary commitment to the Breakthrough program.

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“In short, Breakthrough gives academically advanced, underprivileged students access to educational resources and classes that they would not otherwise have,” Cornejo said. “Students come to Country Day for six weeks during the summer for rigorous classes and intense shortened yearlong lesson plans, receiving up to two hours of homework a night. Academically, it is a very intense program, but Breakthrough makes sure to leave room for fun activities, too,” she said.

The backbone of this organization is its volunteers, those who put in the hours to make it all work. Cornejo is not just a volunteer, but one of the most active in the DFW area. She began her Breakthrough career before she even came to Country Day in the summer of seventh grade. By the time she got to FWCD, she knew the ropes and was ready to help. This past summer working at Breakthrough, she received a total of over 250 services hours – and that is just for one summer. She works as a teaching assistant, making personal connections with the kids.

While she’s not always in the headlines or in a crowd, Cornejo has become an important part of the FWCD community after just two years in the Upper School. She is smart, dedicated, and always willing to help wherever she is needed. For those in the Breakthrough program, Cornejo provides valuable experience and unwavering commitment, while forming meaningful relationships and connecting with the students she educates. And of course, she is always in the mood for some good home-style Mexican cooking. As a school, and as a community, Country Day is lucky to have her.