Richard A. Rodriguez, 18, is your native Bakersfield Centennial High School graduate of the class of 2006, with a GPA of 4.33.
However, while in high school, he never played sports. It was not because he didn’t want to. He did, but he couldn’t because Rodriguez is a hemophiliac.
Hemophilia, according to everyday.health.com is an “inherited (genetic) disorder that prevents blood from clotting properly. Clotting means the blood thickens or congeals to form a scab, which keeps a cut from bleeding endlessly.”
According to the Web site, “In the United States, about 17,000 people have hemophilia. It is almost exclusively a male disease. Females can get it, but it is very rare.”
Being a hemophiliac can prevent an individual from doing many physical things, and sometimes can cause mental issues as well.
This is not the case for Rodriguez.
Prior to his senior year at Centennial High, he applied to many universities and colleges, such as Harvard, Stanford, all the UCs, USC, Tulane and West Point.
Many turned him down, including West Point, because of his physical ailment. Rodriguez will never be able to join any military service. When asked what would he have liked to study at West Point, he stated without hesitation, “Intelligence.”
He chose UCLA, and he currently has a GPA of 3.93 there. He is the recipient of one scholarship program, granted through the National Hemophilia Foundation and he is being considered for another scholarship from the Society for High Schools Scholarships program.
Whatever Rodriguez is unable to accomplish physically, he intends to accomplish intellectually. He is majoring in psychobiology, which is the study of the human brain, and he wishes to become a doctor.
He wishes to become a medical researcher in an effort to aid the hemophiliac population. At present, there is no cure for hemophilia in sight, but Rodriguez hopes to change that.
One of the things he has battled throughout his life due to his illness is the fact that he considers himself shy and introverted. As a child he often had to wear protective gear in an effort to protect himself from falling or other contact that could have caused an open wound.
Fluent in Spanish and English, Rodriquez said that he has obtained the image by his peers of an “intellectual,” and he thrives on that.
He is very thankful to the community in which he resides which has embraced him as a “normal” human being. He has and is continuously meeting different types of individuals. He finds a sense of gratitude and well being in the process. Because of his illness he has never dated, but he said that he plans to change that soon.
Rodriguez is diagnosed with hemophilia A. When asked about the length of life span regarding hemophilia, Richard stated, “Until 1988, the average life span for someone with hemophilia was 43. Now, due to the advancement of the AIDS movement, an individual can live a relative normal life with adequate treatment and medication.
Hemophilia A is the most common type of hemophilia, occurring in about 80% of people with the disorder. People with hemophilia A do not have enough factor VIII, which is caused by a DNA defect on the X chromosome that produces deficiencies in factor VIII.
“Hemophilia for me has not been an integral part of my nature, in fact, it has been a motivator, always challenging me to overcome many difficult parts of my life,” Rodriguez said.
“I believe now I am more of an outspoken individual with a thoughtful and provocative mind.”
At UCLA, he is projecting to graduate in 2010. He visits Bakersfield every chance he gets, and he spends as much time as he can with his mother, Lori Greene, a Crisp & Cole real estate agent.
Rodriguez wishes to “live life to the fullest every chance I get with many of my friends and family here in Bakersfield.”