Fernando Sanchez, a sixth grader at Monroe Elementary School, is Santa Rosa City Schools elementary school student of the month for December.

Sanchez has attended Monroe since kindergarten and his grades and academic test scores have been outstanding for his whole career, according to school officials.

Sanchez is a highly motivated student who seeks out extra work and does it with a strong commitment to excellence, they said. Sanchez recently wrote summaries of all of the debates aired during the 2012 presidential election.

“He took a complicated process and verbiage and was able to distill it into simpler forms,” his sixth grade teacher Nikki Winovich wrote in support of Sanchez. “His summaries improved over time, which showed his growth in understanding. And these were extra credit assignments!”

“Fernando has a level of sophistication that is beyond his age,” she said.

Sanchez is a good citizen who is admired by his classmates, according to his homeroom teacher Crystal Tsutsui.

“He is greatly admired and respected by his peers,” she said. “That is not always the case for high achieving students. Fernando does not belittle others or brag about his achievement.”