This week’s Wendy’s of Santa Clarita and SCVTV Student Athlete of the Week is Ryan Russell of Hart boys basketball. Ryan has a 4.2 GPA and scored 1860 on the SAT. From the moment he entered high school he knew he was laying the foundation for his future.

“I know that my future is going to be based off of what I do academically,” Ryan said. “I always took that seriously since I first started high school.”

Ryan was motivated by his mom and dad for all the right reasons.

“My parents always pushed me real hard to get good grades because they wanted the best for me when I grow up.”

Ryan has already identified civil engineering as his career choice. Whether it was legos or lincoln logs, he has always enjoyed building.

“I love math and science and I always have,” Ryan said. “(Those have) always been my favorite subjects in school. Plus, I love building and designing. So civil engineering I know is going to be the right mix for me.”

As far as college choices, Ryan is looking at USC, Cal-Berkeley, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo and UCLA. His No. 1 choice, however is USC.

“I knew a dream school like that would be awesome for me to go to,” he said. “So I knew, ever since I started high school, that’s it’s getting tough to get into college nowadays. So I knew I had to take everything really seriously, study and get good grades in order to try to make that dream a reality.”

Congratulations to Ryan Russell of Hart High School, the Wendy’s of Santa Clarita and SCVTV Student Athlete of the Week.