It was the hardest decision Rolando Pablo Lorenzo made in his young life. At the age of 14, Rolando left his family and left his life in Guatemala for better opportunities in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came here with a dream,\u201d Rolando said. \u201cAnd to be somewhere in life. Leaving my family, I wish I could have them with me here. Supporting me. Giving me love that most of the kids need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rolando made the trek from Guatemala to California with his grandfather before eventually landing in the small community of Palcines where he now lives with his uncle. Rolando admits he struggled to adapt to his new surroundings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I arrived in California, it was different,\u201d Rolando said. \u201cVery different. The culture. The language. Traditions. Everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then there was the language barrier.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first arrived, I didn\u2019t speak English,\u201d Rolando said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know any word in English. Not even saying \u2018Hi\u2019 or \u2018Hello.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Rolando immersed himself in both work and school. He spent his mornings working in the fields and his nights in the classroom where he met San Benito High teacher Carissa Alvarez.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the first day I met him, he had that something special that not a lot of kids have,\u201d Alvarez said. \u201cHe is a worker. He just has this desire to learn and to improve. And he\u2019s got the immigrant hunger. Where I think he\u2019s seen how hard life can be and he sees education as his way out.\u201d<\/p>\n
It should come as no surprise that Rolando thrived as a student at San Benito High. Alvarez says he was every teacher\u2019s dream student.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ELD (English Language Development) teachers would joke and we would look at the rosters and we would see who had Rolando,\u201d Alvarez said. \u201cAnd we would be like, \u2018Oh man!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Joanne Kaplansky, an English Learner Program specialist at San Benito High, predicted Rolando\u2019s success from the very beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just very eager from the get go,\u201d Kaplansky said. \u201cHe\u2019s a role model for all of our students that no matter what the circumstance is, anything can be accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rolando graduated from San Benito High in June, fulfilling his dream of receiving a high school diploma.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, it was something impossible,\u201d Rolando said. \u201cBecause I didn\u2019t imagine to be in high school. To learn English. To graduate. To have a diploma.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for what\u2019s next, Alvarez says she sees big things in Rolando\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the kid that\u2019s going to roll with the adversity and he\u2019s going to overcome,\u201d Alvarez said. \u201cBecause it\u2019s just who he is. He\u2019s not going to take no for an answer. He\u2019s just going to keep pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was the hardest decision Rolando Pablo Lorenzo made in his young life. At the age of 14, Rolando left his family and left his life in Guatemala for better opportunities in the United States. \u201cI came here with a … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-old-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1089"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1573,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions\/1573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}