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PROFILE OF A GRADUATE 

Quy Nguyen, M.D. /

 

Thinker

Dr. Quy Nguyen’s guide to success is simple. “Stay dedicated. 

Stay motivated. Don’t get distracted. Find your purpose.” Do 
those things, says Quy, and the decision to stay on one’s chosen 
path will be much clearer. “There are multiple times I wanted to 
give up and I’m glad that I didn’t.” 

For Quy, the long road from Palo Duro High School to 

becoming a practicing physician was sometimes winding and 
bumpy. After graduating from Palo Duro in 2005 and earning 
degrees from Texas Tech University and the University of Texas 
Southwestern Medical School, Quy ended up at Cedars-Sinai 
Medical Center in California for residency training.  

While Quy was in residency, his father passed away. During 

his dad’s illness, Quy was torn between his responsibilities in 
California and family obligations back home in Amarillo. Quy’s 
dad urged him to stay the course with his training. “He said, 
‘What you’re doing right now is what I want you to be doing and 
I’m proud of you,’” says Quy. “It was diffi

  cult to stay at work. But 

I knew my purpose was to be successful for my family. To have 
his support kept me going.” 

Today Quy is a gynecologist 

at Rodeo Drive Women’s Health 
Center in Beverly Hills. He sees 
the skills demanded of a 21st 
century scholar in action every 
day. “Through college and 
medical school and residency, 
and in all the brilliant people I’ve 
come across, I’ve seen you have 
to be a great communicator and 
great thinker,” he says. “I think 
people who are very successful 
have all those qualities. I’m 
surrounded by people like that.” 

PROFILE OF A GRADUATE 

Ernesto Sanchez /

 

Contributor

“I don’t think there’s a kid who doesn’t want to go to school and 

be successful in life. With people supporting their dreams, giving 
them positive feedback and guiding them, I think we’ll have more 
kids going into college, getting a degree and entering into a stable 
fi nancial situation.” Ernesto Sanchez knows a great deal about wanting 
something more and the hard work it takes to achieve it.

Ernesto is a fi rst generation American; his parents immigrated to 

the US in 1975. As a student at Glenwood Elementary, Bowie Middle 
School and Caprock High School, Ernesto’s life growing up was 
modest in material possessions, but rich in what he says were more 
important things. “I wasn’t raised on luxuries. I was raised on family 
values,” says Ernesto. “I always wanted to do better than my parents. 
Not because what they were doing wasn’t good enough, but because 
you have to set goals in life and when you meet those goals, you have 
to set other goals.”

After graduating from Caprock in 1995, Ernesto enrolled at Amarillo 

College and began working at Tyson Foods. Today, he’s the plant’s 
General Manager, overseeing operations of the entire facility. Ernesto 
makes it a point to be fi rm, but encouraging, with the generations 
rising through the ranks behind him, inside and outside of the facility. 
It’s not unusual to see Ernesto at the very schools he was raised in, still 
leading by example. “At what point will I ever be at the level that I’ve 
met every goal I’ve set in life? I don’t think I’ll ever be at that point. Just 
because I have this position doesn’t mean I don’t have new goals,” says 
Ernesto, who is dedicated to making Amarillo a community where 
his children will want to raise their families. “I think we have a great 
community that supports everyone who gives back to it.”

“I don’t think there’s a kid who 
doesn’t want to go to school and 
be successful in life.”

“Stay dedicated. Stay 

motivated. Don’t get 

distracted. Find your 

purpose.”