ESHS Class of 2020 Spotlight: Christophe Charles

June 2020
Christophe Charles will be attending University of California, Los Angeles this fall as an
electrical engineering major; following in the footsteps of his parents, who are both engineers. In
addition to UCLA, Christophe was accepted to MIT, Princeton, USC, UC San Diego, and
Cornell. He has an entrepreneurial spirit and hopes to combine business and engineering in his
future career.
Christophe has participated in UCLA’s Summer Math and Science Honors academy (SMASH)
each summer since he began high school and has built up a support group at UCLA. He
completed four years of the Engineering Pathway at ESHS, and participated in the Raytheon
Engineering Games with fellow ESHS students where they placed 2nd out of 30 schools.
For his Engineering Pathways senior capstone project, he designed a soccer ball launcher. The
project was inspired by Christophe’s other passion, playing soccer. He played Eagles varsity
soccer for all four of his years at ESHS. His first soccer championship against Hesperia is a
memory he considers one of his best ESHS moments, “that championship was something truly
special and the mindset and confidence that carried us to do our best. The love and support
from community was really special.” He also played Eagles Football during his freshman year.
Christophe credits his eighth grade history teacher Mr. Eastman for becoming a mentor to him
over the years, “The way he teaches his history class has had a lasting impression on me. He
encourages critical thinking and has us look for and recognize the patterns of history as a way
to learn from ourselves, to look back and then analyze what we can do to improve things in the
future.” He went on to say, “his guidance and support is something I will always cherish.”
Christophe believes that the personalized attention he received at ESHS has prepared him for
college. "Even though we are a smaller high school, we have ‘bigger school’ tendencies such as
sports and award-winning music programs,” Christophe affirms. “But the small class
environment supports relationship building and one-on-one attention that I believe on a personal
level prepared me for college and career.”