By Brandon Gonzalez, Fellow Class of 2018
Colorado State University
My journey to becoming a teacher began in ninth grade at KIPP Denver Collegiate High School. I was the first person in my family to have ever enrolled in high school. Before stepping into any of my high school’s classrooms, my high school took the incoming ninth grade class to Colorado State University for our orientation. We were fortunate enough to spend a week at the Colorado State University dorms. My roommate, Saul, was just as shy as I was, but we were glad we were placed together, and we are still friends to this day. After setting all of our bags down, we were taken to an enormous lecture hall in the Clark building where all KIPP Denver Collegiate High School teachers were waiting for us. When I say all teachers, I mean all teachers. They were applauding us as we came in they told us we would one day take classes in a lecture hall that big. Their words, and their belief in students they have never met inspired me.
I wanted to one day be the one to inspire the incoming ninth grade class at KDCHS the same way that they inspired me. In addition to Colorado State University we also visited University of Denver, the University of Colorado, Brigham Young University, and many others. At every university we toured I asked one question: what support does this university provide for undocumented students? Every time, I received the same response that I did not want to get. “Unfortunately, we do not have any scholarships for undocumented students and you will most likely have to apply as an international student.” These beautiful campuses we visited were places I wanted to be. I wanted to learn from the best teachers at those campuses and make my parents proud, and with that one sentence, my dreams of being a college student were crushed.
By my senior year of high school: I was no longer undocumented, I was able to receive Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) which is an immigration policy that allowed for some people brought to the United States as children to apply for employment authorization. Those of us who qualified were assigned a social security number and we and received deferred action from deportation. Having a social security number gave me greater confidence when applying to colleges. I was now eligible to be considered as an “in-state” student for all state schools in Colorado, new scholarships were being developed to help fund undocumented and “DACAmented: students fund their college costs. I finally had options.
After my sophomore year of college, I decided to transfer from the University of Puget Sound to the university where my teaching journey began, Colorado State University. I had classes in the same enormous Clark building, where all the teachers in ninth grade told me I someday take a class in a lecture hall that big.
At Colorado State University, I was able to become a teacher to my peers. My junior year, I was appointed president of DREAMers United, a group for undocumented students at CSU. In my role as president, I made contact with a well-connected professor who provided me with immigration policy updates that I would relay back to the club each week. This experience gave me the confidence to apply to be Leadership Coach during my senior year for the KEY Communities, the most diverse learning community on the campus of CSU where incoming first year, second year, and continuing students are paired with a mentor and create an inclusive sense of community. I became a mentor to 15 students across CSU ranging from sophomores to even fifth year students. I taught my mentees how to manage their social lives with their schoolwork. I also helped many of my mentees break out of their shells and join clubs they were previously too timid to consider.
After four short years, I am proud to say that I am first-generation college student!
Just prior to graduating college, I was accepted into Teach For America, and the first and only school that I interviewed was at KIPP Denver Collegiate High School to teach ninth 9th grade Algebra position. I could not believe that my dream of one day inspiring the incoming ninth grade class to KDCHS was becoming a reality. As a first-year teacher at a KIPP high school, I was overwhelmed with the amount of work I was required to complete each day, but it was very rewarding. I am now at the end of my first year as a teacher and recently one of my advisory students said, “Mr. Gonzalez, you inspire me because you have shown that KDCHS students can go to college, be successful in college, graduate, and then have a meaningful career.” My goal of inspiring students was accomplished!
