Gerardo Molina

 

Gerardo Molina is a student at Kelvyn Park High School. He is one of the many heroes helping to make a better community and a place for people. He helps students and his family to be successful and he learns new things from them too. He’s struggled during his high school years since he moved from Arizona, and he wants to make his high school a better school and better place for students who come or are going to come to Kelvyn Park High School.

One thing Gerardo Molina likes to do is work with LSNA. He helped people to register to vote for the election of 2012. It takes a lot of skills to do that like door knocking and going house to house talking to people that are barely waking up or basically in their underwear. It is awkward but you can’t get awkward with them cause it wouldn’t be right. Another thing he does is work with the Metro Community project that brings two different communities together--the KP community and the New Trier community in the suburbs of Winnetka. Another thing he does is work with a group of student citywide student organization that is called Chicago Student Organization which he’s part of. In CSO the work they do is to help students who have struggled in life or have problems .

Gerardo came from Arizona He graduated 8th grade and then came to Chicago where everything was new to him. Some struggles he faced as a student was being alone and meeting new friends in freshman year. He didn’t know anybody, only his cousin but she was a senior and they barely saw each other because of their grade level. The other thing was trusting people because he didn’t know them, but they were friendly. As time passed and he met new friends and they were actually nice because they accepted him the way he was without thinking bad or saying he was different. During his freshman year he heard about an organization called LSNA. He enjoyed it and it helped him because he got to met more friends and it got everyone to know each other that was in his English class. He accomplished big things in school. One was to make new friends and another for making his parents proud of him because they always told him to do good in school and he did a good job.

  Another thing Gerardo wants to change is his high school. Gerardo wants to make it a better place for students. One thing he would like to change is the students’ library and student resources because some students don’t have access to a computer at home and they need to do their homework or projects but some students who want to use the computer at school they can’t because a teacher has reserved the computer lab already. Another thing is when other schools are compare to ours, we can say we should wear uniform and have everyone wear the same thing and we will look more formal, and not wearing different other colors. Gerardo thinks having a uniform policy like this would be a good idea.

Gerardo has many people in his life that have helped him become a better person. His heroes would be his parents, his AVID teacher, and people who would try to do their best and that won’t give up. One thing that inspired him was his avid teacher. She went  through a lot.  She had a baby and afterwards she was facing a divorce, but she was still the same teacher always teaching us very well, she wasn’t pretending to be in a different level as her students. When she wasn’t feeling good or was tired she would be like, “You know guys, I am tired and I don’t want to do anything.” She couldn't fake it like other teacher. In his early age his hero was his mom. She was prepared for anything. If she had to go out of her way she would. When he had major issues she would handle it. She will never deny anything to him because she wanted to help him and the rest of the family. For his little brother and sister she wanted them to have a better future and know what’s the right thing to do in life. In order for his parents to give them a better life they had to give her kids to a better person.

What I had learned from Gerardo Molina was a lot because his story is almost like mine. He had struggles with school but he accomplished a lot for himself. I learned not to give up and that in life we have to struggle to make something work whether if it takes time to make things better because at the end you will be proud of yourself. Working with the community and other people can make you a better person and make successes for you and your future and helping communities makes your world a better place. It’s important to speak up and never stay silent because what you have in mind may be something good for your community or work you’re doing. I learned to never let people judge you because the way you are you should be proud cause you're that person and know you can be something better in life and make good decisions and always look forward never look back.