PENDLETON — The ink hasn’t yet dried on Johann Valera-Vega’s diploma, but his teachers at Pendleton High School were confident about his trajectory.

“He’s going to make it,” music teacher Andy Cary said.

Science teacher Jess Cooper, who had Valera-Vega in one of his physics classes, was similarly effusive.

“He’s going to have success wherever he ends up,” he said.

The Pendleton High School senior now is planning a move to Arizona to pursue a career in neuroscience, but the public education system didn’t always have the same faith in his ability as it does today.

Born and raised in Pendleton, Valera-Vega attends church at Iglesia Adventista del Séptimo Día Hispana de Pendleton, a Spanish-language Seventh-day Adventist church. It was through church he became connected with Harris Junior Academy, a private school also affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventists.

Valera-Vega was enrolled at Harris for his elementary school years, but by the time he was ready to enter middle school, he was ready for a new challenge. He transferred to Sunridge Middle School, where he was forced to start at square one.

Valera-Vega said Sunridge didn’t account for the education he received at Harris, meaning the staff placed him in remedial courses for math and English. The placements frustrated him, but he was undeterred in proving that he deserved more advanced classes.

“I just showed it in my work,” he said.

Valera-Vega soon was moved out of those classes and developed a strong academic record, an ability he continued to demonstrate during his high school years.

But the classroom isn’t the only place where he’s shown promise.

Valera-Vega said he grew up playing the piano, but his horizons really expanded when David Payne, the late Sunridge music teacher, convinced him to take up the trumpet.

“I realized that was the instrument for me,” he said. “I stuck with it.”

He continued to play the trumpet through high school, not just performing in school but also as a member of the school’s jazz band and with the A Sharp Players, a preparatory orchestra with the Oregon East Symphony.

What stood out more to Cary than Valera-Vega’s musical aptitude was his character and drive, marking Valera-Vega as a leader in the jazz band.

In addition to the piano and trumpet, Valera-Vega also knows how to play the violin and is learning guitar in his free time. With his family originating from Venezuela and Chile, he’s even experimented with Latin American instruments, such as the charango and the cuatro.

One of Valera-Vega’s other great passions lies on the pitch.

“I’ve had a ball at my feet since before I could walk,” he said. “Soccer has been a really big part of my life. It’s definitely been like therapy for me, and when I’m going through tough times … soccer has been there for me to release my stress.”

Valera-Vega has been on the varsity soccer team since his freshman year, but the COVID-19 pandemic threw off his senior year. The state eventually offered high schoolers a truncated season, but Pendleton’s season became even shorter when a COVID-19 exposure caused the team to miss several games as the whole team quarantined.

Valera-Vega said it was a challenging year for the team, but he still felt like Bucks worked hard to compete with some of the top teams in the league.

Spending most of the year taking classes from home gave him more time to think about his future, solidifying the path he’s set out for himself.

Despite receiving some attractive financial aid offers from in-state schools, Valera-Vega is committed to attending Arizona State University. He said he has some familiarity with the university through his cousin, who attended school there. His cousin gave him an informal tour of campus once, where Valera-Vega was introduced to one of the less savory aspects of campus life.

“It was kind of funny because I think they had a party the night before,” he said. “There were tables flipped over, red Solo cups thrown all over the floor and weird stains on the wall. A microwave, just like hanging out, on the floor. It was pretty interesting to see.”

But Valera-Vega’s primary motivator for selecting Arizona State was its neuroscience program. He wants to become a doctor who specializes in treating brains, and the university’s neuroscience program sold him on moving more than 1,000 miles away from home.

Once he completes his bachelor’s degree, Valera-Vega plans on returning to his home state to enroll at Oregon Health & Science University for medical school. And to pay for medical school, he intends to join the Portland university’s Scholars for a Healthy Oregon Initiative, a program that pays for a student’s tuition in exchange for working in a rural or underserved community after graduation.

As he readies himself to move to Tempe, Arizona, Valera-Vega said it will be tough to leave his family and friends behind in Pendleton. But he plans to keep them in mind as he ventures forward on a path toward success many people at Pendleton High School feel is already there for the taking.