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■(HIND THE SCENES'Most interesting man in SanTana' teaches lessons beyond classroomA friend and fan call«*d him “the most interesting man in •‘sanTana,’’ on Facets *ok. So i was honored to have the opportunity to ait with Valley High School teacher Benjamin Vazquez at downtown’* Bistro 400lastjust week.I knew' h«* had metPresident Barack (hamu recently so IJENNIFER was interOiLSON ested to contributing know w'hat,WRITER ...it anything, liad tie been able to say to the president.Benjamin is more than a teacher. He’s an eiulaxi-iment of the city. He began the annual children's march for Df» de toe Ninos, sits on the lajard of El Centro Cultural de Mexico, helps put on the Noche de Ait ares event commemorating Day of the Dead and provided the inspiration for the Don Benjamin sandwich at Cafe Calacas. Not surprising, he pul in a good word for his students and their families white in Washington, D.C.Benjamin had told Obama that he needed to inline dlately stop unnecessary deportations of undocumented immigrants. The depu tations were separatfile PHOTO Benjamin Vazquez Is a teacher at Valley Hiqh.ing families of students and making it hard for them to learn, he said. Days later, the president ordered immigration officials to review deportation practices tp see if they could be conducted in a more humane way.Whether a mere coincidence or not, I wanted to shadow' this teacher. His days are filled with not just teaching, but connecting with students and enriching their lives.HELPING STUDENTS PREPARE FOR FUTUREI took an afternoon to follow Benjamin into his classroom at Valley High School, where indeed two other teachers mentioned that in creasing number of deputations were affecting their classrooms. But the issue of deportations fell to the way-side before the learning 1 witnessed.First, I sat in on Benjamin’s Mexican American History class, where the students were learning about the Xoot Suit riots Standing before a poster of the Virgin of Cuadalup*. ( hieuno pride messages and an image of Frida Kah lo, Benjamin reviewed the Cos Angeles incident amid rising racial tensions dur ing World War 11, We then watched part of a movie, “Xoot Suit,” featuring Edward James Olmos.Modest Benjamin said he’s the same teacher he’s always been, but that his impact has tx*en greater be cause he works in a team with five other teachers. Seeing engaged students made me think the model is something the Santa Ana Unified School District should replicate manymore times. More than nine in H) of its students graduate high school.BUSINESS ACADEMY KEEPS KIDS ON TRACKBenjamin is one of six teachers in the (llobal Business Academy, one of 15 statewide model Lighthouse Academies. Director Mark Bartholio describes it as “a school within a school experience where a team of teachers, he and Benjamin among them, work closely with students.In the second class we visited, students discussed how they were going to setup businesses in which they would procure and sell bracelets, T-shirts and other items. Coincidentally, I walked in that class as my friend, Eddie Quillares, a State Farm Insurance agent, was leading a discussion as a classroom business advisor. Quillares was drawn to the class through the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, which supports the academy and five others through a foundation designed to bolster the pool ol qualified labor in the city.In a city where students deal with issues that might never 1m* ones elsewhere, like deputations, and in neighborhoods with the lowest median incomes and education levels and highest rates of foreclosure in Orange County, the classroom experience made me feel 1 was witnessing the building of something big.Student Jesus Ayala, 17, explains that “the community for teachers and students is the academy’s best asset. The teachers give us support together and they keep us on track.”Ayala is headed to Orange Coast Community College in September and will 1m* starting a T-shirt design company to pay his expenses. Fiji confident that Benjamin, Eddie and Mark will be among his first customers. And Jesus: I’d also' •like Lo place an order. ♦
Newspaper Details
Santa Ana Excelsior
Santa Ana, California, US
Fri, Apr 04, 2014
Page 431
Full Page
Clipped by
Valleyhs H.
USA 09 Sep 2024
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