By Christine Garcia
When Senior Donavin Luong isn’t creating something delicious in the kitchen, you can find him capturing action shots on the football field for Baron Banner. He brings the same flair to his work for Baron Banner, as he does with his fashionable outfits.
Luong became interested in joining Baron Banner because of Leroy Tran and Jayden Nguyen—both Baron Banner members—who he both met during his time on the wrestling team. Nguyen and Tran are close friends of Luong. Over the summer, he and tran spent time exploring different locations and experimenting with photography.
“The friends I made [on the wrestling team] were some really fun friends, and we did all sorts of random things like when we were bored at tournaments and stuff,” Luong said.
Outside of photography, Luong has a love for cooking. During his junior year he participated in a Statewide event in Los Angeles organized by ProStart. The competition brought students together from across California to show their skills. Luong got a glimpse of the professional culinary world when he competed at that level.
“It was like a statewide competition. So, we went to LA and we saw a bunch of kids from all over the state to come compete. [The venue] was a bunch of tables and like a big ballroom with a bunch of like students competing. It was really cool, but it was really nerve wracking, because there were like five to 10 judges on us,” Luong said.
His passion for cooking soared at home when his mom started to introduce him to family recipes.
“My mom, she teaches me all of her recipes for the soups and stuff,” Luong said.
Creativity for Luong doesn’t stop at food and photography. Music has also been part of his life, like guitar. Learning the skill has been a passion project for him that traces back to Middle School, after his parents enrolled them into piano lessons.
Looking ahead, Luong hopes to attend community college before transferring to a culinary school to refine his craft and in hopes of opening his own bakery or restaurant.
As he prepares to graduate, he reflects on the lessons he learned throughout High School. More than anything, he realized the importance of perseverance and hard work. For him, success doesn’t come in shortcuts but from dedicating time and effort.
“A lesson I learned in high school [would] probably be that there’s no there’s no easy way out. You just got to sit down and do some stuff,” Luong said.