When Mayra Coronel needed advice and a boost of confidence last year, she knew just where to go. The senior at Highland Park High School sought out math teacher Luis Vazquez.
Coronel and other high school students had been selected to go on a trip to Washington, designed to introduce them to the workings of government. Coronel said she was concerned about being the only Latina student on the trip.
“I was scared to go,” she recalled. “Mr. Vazquez told me it would be a good experience. He talked me into it. So I went and had a lot of fun. I learned so much and met important people.”
Vazquez, who moved to the U.S. from Mexico 27 years ago when he was 25, knows how it feels to be in a new country, adjusting to a different culture while learning a new language. He struggled with his own period of adjustment, and now he spends a good part of each day helping Hispanic teens with their struggles.
“When he came here from Mexico, he really had to work hard to work his way up,” said Fern Tribbey, chairwoman of the math department at Highland Park High School. “He’s using that experience now, not letting these kids drop off and keeping them motivated. He has high expectations for them and the kids love him. He walks in the halls and they’re all coming up to him.”
Eight years ago Vazquez began a club for Hispanic students at the high school. The Hispanos Unidos Club meets once a week before school and gathers frequently on the weekends for social outings or public service projects.
The students have helped build a Habitat for Humanity house in Waukegan, cleaned up Sunset Park in Highland Park, assisted with cleanup projects in Highwood, “adopted” needy families at Christmas and volunteered at a senior center.
“I felt there was a need for Hispanic kids to have a place to socialize a little bit and learn more about the American system and learn the culture here,” said Vazquez, who sponsors the club with fellow math teacher Jonathan Weiland. “This is a place where they can retreat and we can give them help with problems and advocate for them.
“The kids have found that through the club, they can accomplish things together that they can’t accomplish alone. We’ve had a lot of success doing things in the community, and now these students are receiving a lot of praise and being seen with different eyes.”
Cleanup efforts draw praise
At the club’s last meeting of the 2001-02 school year, 17 students gathered at 7:15 a.m. in a classroom to talk about past projects and get dates for upcoming events. Vazquez praised the 20 students who had shown up the previous Saturday for a cleanup project along a creek in Highwood.
Then he told the group that the mayor of Highland Park, Daniel Pierce, “wants to thank you for the magnificent job you’ve done all year.” The City Council recognized the club for its community service projects at its June meeting.
One of the club’s most successful projects last year was the Hispanic Women’s Health Conference on Breast Cancer. Seven female members of Hispanos Unidos planned the event, which took place in April at the high school.
“It was Mr. Vazquez’s idea,” said senior Elsi Rodriguez, one of the organizers. “We think it was the first conference like this around here for Hispanic women, and it was really successful. We had over 100 women. It felt good to be able to create something so successful.”
Organizers made invitations that were sent home with Hispanic students to give to their female family members. They also found speakers to be on a panel, set up a lunch in the cafeteria and brought in nurses to talk to the women. Watching their work culminate in a successful event was empowering for the students, several teachers said.
“One girl was at risk for a lot of negative behaviors, and this girl has completely turned around,” said Alena Laube, chairwoman of the high school’s Transitional Program of Instruction, which gradually moves the bilingual students into all-English speaking classes. “Another girl was just very sad. She would sit in class and you would wonder, `How can I reach her?’ Luis reached her. He showed her she had this leadership ability within her.”
Sports enhance involvement
Vazquez has helped other students connect to school through sports. He has taught students to swim during early morning lessons he gives at the high school pool, and one of those students later joined the school’s water polo team. He has persuaded other students to go running with him after school, and they later joined the school’s track team.
“Through sports, kids can show their talents, make new friends and make a contribution to a team,” said Vazquez, who lives in Libertyville with his wife, Diane. The couple have two children, a son pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music, and a daughter pursuing a bachelor’s degree in bilingual education.
Vazquez moved to the U.S. from Mexico after meeting his future wife at the University of Vera Cruz. He was studying engineering; she was a bilingual teacher from the U.S., studying Spanish language and culture over the summer. Two years later they married and moved to Waukegan, where Diane Vazquez teaches a bilingual 1st-grade class.
Struggle to learn English
Vazquez knew little English. He began taking English classes in an evening program, but it didn’t work out.
“I left after eight classes because I didn’t understand the teacher and she didn’t speak my language,” he said.
Still determined to learn English as quickly as he could, Vazquez said he got a subscription to a local newspaper and spent hours reading the paper with a dictionary, making lists of words to memorize.
“Everywhere I went, I took this list with me, reading and memorizing until I started to read a little better,” he said.
After several months he enrolled in a math class at the College of Lake County in Grayslake. He struggled again and was advised by the professor to drop the class until his English improved. Determined to keep going, he continued to study English along with the math, despite not understanding much of what the teacher was saying.
He improved as the semester went on and finished with an A on the final and a boost to his confidence. He planned to become a math teacher.
Drawn to teaching
“I enjoy math, and my wife was a teacher,” he said. “And I thought this was a way I could help the community.”
After two years at the College of Lake County, he transferred to the former Mundelein College, now part of Loyola University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in education with a specialty in bilingual education.
Vazquez taught math for five years at the former Waukegan East High School, now a freshman-only campus. He has taught at Highland Park High School for 12 years, teaching regular and transitional math classes.
His teaching doesn’t stop at the end of the school day. Former students visit him to get help writing a paper or understanding a college math assignment. And current students know where they can go if they need help.
“He’s a really good person who enjoys helping other people,” said Judy Bicario, a senior. “When I have problems with homework or something personal, I go to him and he helps me.”
Luis Vazquez
Title: Math teacher and co-sponsor of the Hispanos Unidos Club for Hispanic students at Highland Park High School.
Years in field: Teaching for 17 years, the last 12 at Highland Park High.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in education from Mundelein College.
Favorite part of job: Seeing the students be successful and gain confidence, “like when our Hispanic young ladies were honored for the breast cancer conference, which was tremendously successful.”
Biggest professional challenge: “The challenge is that many of the Hispanic students have to work after school to help the family, so it limits some of the possibilities we might have as teachers and administrators to help the kids even more.”
Biggest personal challenge: “I have been very lucky. I have received support from a lot of people. But for any immigrant, it is common, having to wear this new culture on top of what you already have–it can be a challenge.”
A mentor or positive influence: “It’s hard to pick because so many people have been critical in my growth. One would be my wife, whom I have been able to lean on throughout the years for guidance. Another would be Bob Wagner, a math teacher at Highland Park who passed away two years ago. He was a role model for me in terms of what a teacher should be and what a human being should be. I carry his memory and the conversations we had with me.”
A proud moment: Watching his students receive praise this summer for their community service work from the Highland Park City Council. “It’s not every day that Hispanics get honored by a City Council. These kids were so happy and so proud.”
