Serving His Community

By Amairany Salvador

Manuel Vasquez is a well known administrator here at Yerba Buena High School. Vasquez is a helpful, social, funny guy. But have you ever wondered what he had to go through to get where he's at right now?

Vasquez had a lot of challenges. His dad passed away at a young age and him and his mom weren’t getting along, him and his mom had a lot of differences and basically he wasn’t welcome to stay home. So he had to go with his grandma while working his way through college.

Vasquez: “I wanted to go to college; she more focused on religious stuff which I wasn’t against, but she wanted me to focus 100 percent on that. And then, a bunch of other issues—basically I wasn’t welcome to stay at home and I had to go to grandma's. And then work my way through college to teaching. So it’s been tough and I know other people had gone through more serious things, but i can relate how to be on your own sometimes.”

Even though he had stuff going on at home that didn’t stop him from pursuing his goal. Vasquez always planned on working at a high school. He wanted to get into music production, play guitar, or social work but he didn’t want to deal with stressful situations all the time, so he thought of teaching.

Vasquez: “I play guitar. You know everyone has a dream like "I wanna play guitar" or "I wanna get into music production." That was always just a little fantasy, but realistically I just always knew I’d end up at a school site somehow. That was the main goal.”

On Vasquez 's first day at Yerba High School he was a little nervous since it was a new campus and a new job. He had just come from Overfelt so he already knew how to teach and how to have a classroom.

Vasquez: “You know, with any new job you just kinda doubt yourself, but I just learn really quickly how to be me and that work it wasn't too bad.”

Vasquez says his favorite memory from working here at Yerba Buena is seeing the students graduate. The graduation is special to him because he sees them improve for four years.

Vasquez: “Every graduation is special for me because that ceremony brings up a whole flood of memories when I see people's names or— when I hear their names being read or when I see them walk across the stage, I think about just how the journey was for that student to make it there.”

In addition Vasquez had a lot of hard years working at Yerba Buena High School. He had hard years such as coming back from distance learning, and the one that stands out is the most recent [is] last year. We were short staffed and he had to handle mostly everything by himself.

Vasquez: “The one [year] that stands out is last year because at the beginning our campus monitor had retired the previous year, so we were supposed to get two. One came on board—Ms. Vanessa, and then it took a while for Ms. Sasha to come on board. And then I didn't have a co-advisor until probably October, when Mr. Cortez took the position. So, I was handling everything—well, not everything, but helping with gates, helping with safety, student crisis. I was really exhausted last year, so think last year was one of the toughest for me because of that.”

As last year Vasquez had a hard year, but this year is going more calmly and more smoothly for him.

Vasquez: “This year is a lot more calm, thankfully. I feel really hopeful that the year will be a lot calmer than the past couple years but we’ll see.”

Vasquez has been working at Yerba Buena High School for 13 years since 2011. He wants to continue helping the community and has no  plans to retire anytime soon.

Vasquez: “It's too soon to retire, Ari. I'm in my thirties. I have at least twenty-something more years to go, so I don't have any immediate plans to retire.”

Vasquez’ favorite part of working at Yerba Buena High School is being able to see students improve in their academics and behavior.

Vasquez: “I get to see students improve, whether it's academically or with behavior. I get to know them as they become young adults, ready to graduate. I saw how they started and I see how they matured and I'm able to let their parents know something good about them. So thats the best part that comes to mind.”

Vasquez was inspired by his teachers growing up since they were someone he can rely on when he had stuff going on. Similar to getting support from teachers, he also got lots of support from his grandma and uncles. They helped him get to where his at today. He wants to pay it forward and help his community and be someone people can rely on.

As a YB student I'm glad to have someone I can check-in with, someone who can encourage me and is very helpful to the community like one of our advisors, Manuel Vasquez.