Jose Zaragoza - Niu foundation student star

Jose Zaragoza: We don’t make the big bucks, okay, we don’t make the big bucks, but we work pretty hard to get where we’re at, and stay where we’re at. There came actually a time when the family was experiencing some financial setbacks and my father actually got laid off. It was actually a few days before Christmas. My money ran out. That was a stinger, especially when you see that diploma. I was only about a semester away from graduating. I begged, I needed help. I was asking aunts and uncles that didn’t have babies yet if they could pay me in advance for some babysitting. Diane Johnson, she helped me, she helped me, and I truly believe that lifted every rock, opened every window and opened every door to go ahead and see if she could get me some money and stay, and she did. I was going to be able to stay at NIU. I cannot explain the feeling to you, once you come out of that Convo Center, they’ve got you in a big gym, they line you up in alphabetical order, and let me tell you I scammed me some tickets, because I wanted my family, friends, just everybody to go ahead and be here. To walk out and see that big screen up in the sky, and people cheering on and clapping, it was, it was surreal. It was surreal. I’m here, I have a college diploma, I walk with more respect and most importantly my parents walk around with heads high. I’m first generation here, so I’m the first to go ahead and have a college degree and it’s a great feeling for them. They just impact me, impacted my whole family. To this day, my dad talks about me like I’m the little kid who scored the winning home run at a little league game. He’s very proud. And he’s very proud of what I’ve been able to do and he’s very grateful for that. See my dad’s one of those guys, I remember one day, was coming home from work and I was young and you know I love my dad and I was like I don’t really want to go ahead and I’m not sure if I’m go ahead and do this or do this, I want to do what you do. Mom, dad, we got a good house things are going well I want to be just like you. Man did he get mad at me. I don’t understand why. It’s like, I thought I’m thinking I want to be just like my dad. He looked at me with all seriousness and says “I don’t work every day so you can be just like me, I want you to be better than me”. And it’s like, but I think you’re great. He’s like “I want you to be better than me”. And years past by and I’ll never forget that, in reflection, it makes perfect sense. Why do we do anything? We want to do something better for ourselves or something for our future, and for my mom and my dad, I am that future. I did very well and actually got a job before I graduated. I got called from a very well respected school in Naperville here, and I’ve been teaching there this year. Learning a lot of new things. I think the part I love about it is I can go ahead and give back, which is one of the big reasons why I went in to the profession. They’ve all got their own lives and their own story, and I get to be a part of that. Cindy Stecher: Jose will do what he wants to do, and whatever he does, he will be a success because he won’t give up until he is a success. I would like to see, in maybe ten years or so, I would truly like to see Jose be one of the leaders in math education in not only just Nequa Valley, but in the state of Illinois and I think he’s perfectly capable of doing that. Zaragoza : But the thing is that I’m just one. Do you know how many other people have more potential than I do? Can you imagine if we can go ahead and help out others? You could have an army of great people. You could really go ahead and have an impact.