Though most students reside within city boundaries, sophomore Gigi Thao dwells upon a 25-acre farm in Sanger with her family. Despite a daily 40-minute commute to school, Thao strives to balance her education along with rigorous work on her family’s vegetable farm.

Unlike the majority of students, Thao labors on her family farm year-round, which serves as a full-time job. In order to profit from the vegetables that Thao has grown over the months, her family must gather the produce, consisting of eggplant, various peppers and beans, squash, herbs and Asian greens, and travel to markets in San Jose.

“We get up early in the morning and have to pick everything we have,” Thao said. “With the large assortment of produce, it’s very hard to manage enough time to pick everything. All day I’m surrounded by strangers, but because I’m so used to this atmosphere, it has become natural.”

While gathering the produce, Thao must work throughout the week in order to collect enough for sales. During the school year, Thao farms 34 hours a week and increases her hours to 78 during the summer.

“I think we work as hard as professionals do,” Thao said. “It’s really hard because we only have so many hours in the day. With all the stuff we have, it’s almost impossible to get everything.”

Despite this time-consuming job, Thao maintains a 4.2 GPA as a result of her hard work ethic and time management.

“Everyone has goals, and even though I’m continually busy, one of my goals is to do well in school,” Thao said. “It doesn’t take much, just careful management of time and the strong will to do school work.”

Though the work necessary to balance school and a job may be difficult, Thao’s experiences growing up on a farm have helped compel her to accomplish greater dreams. Thao realizes she must work hard in order to achieve the goals she has.

“My mom always says, ‘[Farming] is not a want, it’s a must,’ which has taught me to make the best out of situations,” Thao said. “I think that by working on a farm a person develops diligence, an appreciation for what they have and a good work ethic. The whole point of working on a farm is to develop a goal that stretches beyond the horizon that we live on.”

Thao’s brother Kevin, ’13, recognizes the character Gigi exhibits as a result of her hard work on the farm.

“Gigi is a very hard worker and a role model through her work ethics,” Kevin said. “Our younger siblings look up to her because her determination is outstanding.”

After toiling on the farm with her six siblings and parents for most of her life, Gigi claims that this work has shaped her past as well as her future.

“The farm has become my childhood life and isn’t really another job, but rather a lifestyle, and although I don’t hope to continue it as my career, farming is something that, metaphorically, runs through my veins. It has become the reason why I wake up so early in the morning and why I try so hard to keep my grades up,” Thao said. “In the future, I hope to pursue a degree in the medical field and farming has put me into the mindset that I have to accomplish something better than how I live now, and for a better purpose.”

For more student profiles, visit the April 7 article, Robbins pursues acting dreams.