By Jake Torres
This Hispanic Heritage Month, I’m thinking a lot about my former students. Although they’re never too far from my mind, for the first time in three years, I am not teaching during this important holiday. I graduated from SMU in 2011 and joined Teach For America where I taught high school English in Southeast Dallas. When I came to SMU to study English, I knew that I wanted to give back as a teacher and a coach so TFA a natural fit.
I taught at W. W. Samuell High School in Pleasant Grove. Although my students were living and learning just 20 minutes from SMU’s campus, some days those two worlds couldn’t seem more different. My students arrived at school with big ambitions and dreams for their families, but were confronted with the deep inequities that plague our country’s education system. More than 88 percent of my students were considered “economically disadvantaged” and rather than receiving more resources to overcome the challenges of poverty, too often they received less. Fewer than 30 percent of students at my high school were enrolled in AP or IB classes. While here in Highland Park, 89 percent of students were enrolled in “college-ready” AP and IB classes.
This disparity is staggering and all too widespread. I experienced this first-hand growing up in a rural Texas community and again while teaching in the heart of Dallas. But I also know this struggle is not unique to Texas. Millions of kids growing up in diverse communities do not have access to the opportunities that will empower them to reach their full potential. As a generation, we can choose to take action and change this for all children. Teach for America offered me the opportunity to do just that.
On and off the field, my identity as a Hispanic male teacher influenced every interaction I had with my students and their families. Being Hispanic meant we shared a common nucleus –language, food, and, of course, sports—and that my students trusted me to push them beyond their limits.
As “Coach Torres,” I encouraged my soccer boys to practice hard and prove what is possible. After a year of hard work and with the support of entire school, we finished our season 12 and 2 and made it three rounds into the playoffs. Our small, dedicated team from Southeast Dallas became a one of the top 16 soccer teams in the state –a finish that the boys themselves didn’t always believe was possible.
Back in my English classroom, I encouraged my students to work just as diligently. Some of my favorite days with my students were spent watching them read Sandra Cisneros or seeing them recite Caesar Chavez’s famous speech to the United Farm Workers. It was crucial for my students to see their culture not only reflected in the curriculum, but also celebrated in the classroom. Embracing my own identity helped many of my students take pride in theirs.
Now as I begin my first year of law school back at SMU, my students are never far from my mind. In fact, some of them have joined me on campus as they begin their freshman year at SMU—an accomplishment I’m proud and privileged to have been a part of. As a TFA alum committed to a lifetime of advocating for low-income students and families through law and policy, I am humbled to have been a teacher, and coach to students whose determination never ceased to amaze. As you imagine your own future, I hope you’ll join us.
Jake Torres is a 2011 SMU and Teach For America—Dallas-Fort Worth alum. He is currently a first-year law student at Southern Methodist University Law School.