Dreams to SucceSS

By Lydel Maldonado

Elijah Echeverria is a YB teacher for his second year of teaching and one thing he does is helps his students get an education for the future and he listens to his students problems whenever they are down.

Echeverria: “When people are struggling i like to just listen sometimes when somebody is struggling they like to give them advice talking you should do this you should do that and sometimes its not very helpful you know maybe when people ask for it, it would be good but really just having them open ear and have them tell you all the different things their going through because some people just need to let that out”

Before Echevarria became a teacher, his dream job was to be a biologist.

Echevarria: “My dream career was to go into medicine specifically an anesthesiologist which is the people that put you to sleep before surgery or things like that i kinda figured that out in highschool when i went through this survey thing for part of my avid class and looked at    different careers that might be good for me and i looked into it and so it was super interesting it was my first option that the survey gave me and i kinda just ran with that”

Echevarria went to college and graduated when his family never went to college and that he was proud of himself

Echevarria: “I think one of my favorite memories would be graduating from arizona state I know that i come from a background where my parents didn't go to college their parents didn't go to college and my parents had me when they were in high school their parents had them when they were in high school and so they were able to say that i was a college graduate i was really impactable for not just being but for my family as well and being able to see all those different faces coming together and be there for me at my graduation and it was meaningful.”

Echeverria wanted to let us know that to be comfortable when you don't feel comfortable.

Echevarria: “Learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, basically just meaning being able to find peace in yourself even though your in a situation that might be a struggle for you or might be new to you just learning how to accept that you are in that spot and experience it for all that it is, you know, its okay to be afraid it's okay to be nervous, anxious all these different things as long as your acknowledging that that's what you are and have a plan to move forward and kind of like i said to be comfortable in that state it kinda gives you this fearlessness to take of anything that you put your mind into.”

As a student in Echevarrias class I like to enjoy the time that he is teaching us because it is interesting and he is a cool/chill person.