Woman of campus: Senior at Manteca High a champion of sport and clubs

Manteca High senior Kristine Timario is a student athlete, active member of the school’s Leadership, and a young woman who plays a key role in many clubs, including the Asian Pacific Islanders Club. (Hanna Palacio/The Tower)

By DEE MAGLINAO 
The Tower 

Kristine Timario is a student at Manteca High School, but she isn’t your regular high school student.  

She is one of the most active students on campus and she makes more of an impact than you would think a teenager would be able to do. 

The senior is a student athlete, active member of Leadership, and a young woman who plays a key role in many clubs, including Asian Pacific Islanders. 

“When we were thinking about having council members for the next year, Kristine was immediately one person that we collectively thought of,” Cedrick Maglinao, former API president said. “She was one person that emphasized the core values of kapwa (community) and kapamilya (family) that we’ve taught to many of our members, and she was immediately a person that we thought of that was going to be a leader with her experience and with her passion for not only the API community, but the entire Manteca High community itself.” 

Timario has been a council member for five different club at Manteca High. Timario is a co-president for API and she continues to think of many opportunities for API to be seen and be a welcoming environment. 

One notable moment Maglinao wanted to emphasize regarding her strong influence was their practices for High School Picnic, an event API gets invited to every year. He mentioned how hard it was to lead games practices without Timario because without her, it was hard to keep people to stay with one another and she had given a pep talk to the members using her “track persona” and convinced everyone to try their best.  

“I’ve helped people with seeing different views of each other,” said Timario, “and I’ve helped people feel more accepted and feel more welcome to be in our clubs and be more involved.” 

Another club Timario plays a role in is being president of Key Club (KC), which is a club whose main goal is to help out their community. She is also the vice president of Women of Worth (WOW), an empowerment club at MHS. The senior is also vice president for Student Cite Council. Timario also said how she is a public commissioner for the Polynesian Club.  

Timario’s plan after graduating is to go to community college before transferring to a four-year university. Although she doesn’t know where she wants to go, she does know what she wants to study. Timario is making sure she finishes her pre requirements to become a speech therapist. 

“I got to save money,” Timario said, “so I’m choosing the most financially smart route.” 

The Tower caught up with Kristine Timario to discuss her contributions to Manteca High School. 

The Tower: What inspired you to take on these activities on campus? 

Kristine Timario: I would say API inspired me to be mostly involved on campus because I just felt like API brought a sense of community, and it’s something that I haven’t experienced in a long time. To have that at school made me just want to contribute more to our school and just evolve the club as well. 

TT: Is there any specific sport you focus on more than the other? 

KT: I focused more on track because I’m a hurdler, and I’ve always loved watching people hurdle, and I just felt like it was something I was always going to be consistent in. I always felt like it’s something I would stick for four years for. 

TT: How can you say you contributed to Manteca High? 

KT: I would say that I’ve contributed to Manteca with these past four years by honestly helping out the Asian community here at school. Well, not only at our school, but in our community as well because obviously sometimes we lack the resources for Asian American education and social awareness of the people at our school and how people should treat others the way you want to be treated and not just because of your race.  

TT: Do you have any regrets or anything you wish you would have done? 

KT: I think everything happens for a reason, but if I were to change something, I would have started Leadership sooner. I honestly didn’t even know we had an API Club until my sophomore year. So, if I were to bring that back up or make my own, I would have done it if I didn’t know. But those are really the only things, but I think everything happens for a reason. So, where I am now, I don’t really regret much.