Student Support Goes Beyond Academics

Faustina Cuevas is originally from Boston, Massachusetts. She has ethnic roots in the Dominican Republic, which is something she is extremely proud about. She grew up in a loving, single-parent home until she was 17. Faustina then went to college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she did her undergraduate and graduate degree. There was something about who she was even as a young child that she knew would lead her to this point. She has always been good at working and communicating with other people. Even as a kid, Faustina would run up to strangers wanting to talk to them. She is an extrovert and a people person, so she knew from a young age that she wanted to work with people. Faustina feeds off other people's energy to do the work that she does, and what a good group to work with: college age students who have so much energy to give!

The Journey Begins

After getting my master's degree in higher education, I became a hall director at the University of Connecticut. I found that working as a hall director got old very fast, but I knew I wanted to work in a college setting. I decided that I wanted to do something where I was able to support students and help them with their career. After asking current academic advisors what they enjoyed about their job, I realized I was doing something very similar by working as a hall director. I was already making those connections about what was happening in students' lives and how those things were affecting their academics. That's when I realized academic advising would be a perfect job for me. 

Once I moved to Minnesota with my partner, I started searching for jobs where I could be an academic advisor, and then this job at the University of Minnesota in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) opened up.  I love CEHD and continue to love it, and I thought to myself, "This is perfect. This couldn't get anymore perfect." I took this job and I have been working here ever since. This was a huge risk for me coming to Minnesota because I don't have any family here, but it allowed me to meet new people and push myself out of my comfort zone.

As an academic advisor, I feel as though I have many roles. When working with students, I feel that I act as a mentor, counselor, advisor, mediator, and advocate. I try to advocate for students with whatever they need. For example, if they need me to intervene because they feel uncomfortable communicating to an instructor about something, I will offer to contact the instructor or give other options to the student. I try to act as a mentor whenever I can, whether that is about graduate school, current academics, or social life. Through these roles, I also work to support students in other ways beyond their academics.

Life Beyond Work

Sometimes, this job becomes so personal that it gets hard to step away from work. For example, it's very hard to detach myself when a student is emailing me in crisis over the weekend. Usually, I check my email once over the weekend to make sure that nothing urgent is going on. When working with people it is important to take them for who they are, and that is why it is so hard to separate my personal life from my work life. I believe that relationships are important, and if I constantly meet with students only in my office, it creates this dynamic where students feel they can't talk to me in other settings. Because of this, I try to and love to engage with students outside of the office. I want my students to know that I am a normal person and I am more than willing to meet with them at a coffee shop or somewhere else besides my office. One of the most fulfilling parts of my job is when I am able to interact with students on a more personal level. I love being able to talk to my students about their future and positive things, such as acing a test, getting a job, or looking ahead towards grad school. When students share these positive things with me, I feel as though I was able to help them get somewhere whether it was just listening to what they had to say or supporting them along the way.

Some of the most personal relationships I have with students are often developed when students disclose personal things to me. I have had students disclose personal things to me. I have had students who are suffering academically and finally admit they are depressed or even suicidal. Those are the kind of moments where I feel like my job is the most valuable, where I am able to intervene and say, "Let's have a conversation. Why are you feeling this way?" I really appreciate being able to have those types of conversations with my students to hopefully walk them off of that edge, literally and figuratively. In these moments, I feel I am able to greatly impact a student's life in a positive way.

Not only do I have the ability to impact students' lives, but students are able to impact my life in a positive way as well. This job has really taught me that you never know what someone's going through and you really cannot judge a book by it's cover. Once you actually live it, it becomes very real. I try to really get to meet people and learn about them in order to see who they are and what they bring to the table. It's been really cool to challenge all the stereotypes I have been built and trained with, and I have been able to dismantle some of those in mind. Being an academic advisor has allowed me to be a better version of myself.

Benefits of My Work

My favorite part of my job is certainly my students! I love meeting with students and being able to see how much passion they have for the field they want to go into. I am constantly amazed by the different stories students have as to why they are choosing a certain career path. I have had students that want to go into special education because they have a sibling with autism, or students that had an amazing teacher in their lives and want to be an elementary teacher in order to share the wealth. I also had a student that wanted to start a non-restricted homeless shelter that provides endless amenities and support to homeless people. Hearing all of those stories about what students want to do and how they want to change the world is really cool. I am constantly in this learning environment where I am able to learn about so many new things. Being around people that are constantly learning, I feel like I am constantly learning, too. I believe that students are going to be the game changers of the world, and I love being able to see them get started towards their futures.

I am really inspired by the resiliency that my students show through their academics and their lives in general. Some stories that students share are hard for me to believe sometimes. I have students that are bullied. We're in college... people are still bullying? We're talking about eighteen, nineteen, twenty year old people, and that is still happening? Those students that continue through and don't let defeat be an option are what really inspire me. These type of people are why I am here and why my students have inspired me so much. These people need someone to tell them that they matter and that they belong here. If I can be that for someone, then I'm going to be that. The ability of students to continue learning and not let anything hold them back drives the work that I am doing and keeps me motivated to come back each day. This is the thing that I take with me from my work. It's the personal information that is shared with me and really helps me bond with them, and that is why I am inspired to help anyone I can.

Finding My Calling

I believe that working with people and advising is my calling, but I would like to accomplish this in a different form someday. I love working as an academic advisor, but sometime in the future, I am planning on going to grad school to earn my PhD and become a faculty member. I believe that faculty members also advise students, but not as directly as an academic advisor does. They advise students on how to do well in the class and ways to be most effective. I am here as an academic advisor and I want to continue to do this work. I just want to do it in a way where I am both teaching and advising students on careers, possibilities, and opportunities to grow. I believe that giving advice and working with students is what I am called to do, and that is why I believed academic advising would be a perfect start for my career.

Taking Risks

You have to take opportunities. One thing I would take away from all of this is to never pass up opportunities. Gambling is scary, and that's why a lot of people don't do it, but I think you need to take risks in order to discover what's out there. This was a huge risk for me coming to Minnesota and taking this job, considering I had no family anywhere close to here and had no idea what this job would look like. I never thought I would be a risk taker because I'm generally not. Once I started taking risks in my life, it started paying off. It has forced me to meet new people and step outside of my comfort zone. In the long run, you will get much farther in life if you push yourself to do the uncommon thing. Try new things, try to challenge yourself, and be uncomfortable. You will benefit from it!

Story Facilitators: Jayden Roehl, Taylor Guckeen, Jude Ghangha

Make the World a Little Bit Better

Dr. Teresa Bisson feels she has been called to be a physical therapist.  She also believes she has other callings which include being a teacher, artist, musician, and an actress.  She values volunteering and her coworkers, who are displayed in the picture above.  Teresa is the second to the left in the photo.

Grateful

I'm a physical therapist [and] have been since 2002.  I initially thought I was going to medical school.  I wanted to be a doctor when I was very young.  I started volunteering in my local hospital, shadowing generally in the hospital.  I got a chance to observe physicians, and in that process I stumbled upon the physical therapy department.  [I] started asking questions about what that was and what the difference between physical therapy and medicine [was].  I wanted to really be able to spend time with my patients, [but] it felt like a lot of the physicians didn't get a chance to do that.  So I started shadowing with physical therapy and realized how much time they got to spend with their patients, got to know [them], and follow them through the healing process.  That's the point where I realized I need to shift over in this direction.  Being a physician just didn't fit my personality as much as physical therapy does.  I knew by the time I graduated from high school that I was probably going to go into physical therapy.

I try to provide each person with hope or a piece of information that helps them get to the next step.  Whatever small piece I can be of that hopefully makes the world a little bit better.  And I love that.  There are moments where I think about how grateful I am to be able to do all the things I am able to do.  When you see people struggle through these things that we do without thinking, you learn to appreciate those tiny moments all the more.  I would say that my work has impacted pretty much every area of my life because it just opens your eyes to what you have and reminds you to be grateful for it.

That's Why I Do What I Do

There were moments, even in graduate school, where things got really stressful and challenging and I would question whether or not it was something that I really wanted to do, whether it was worth the work.  Even in my career there have been times where my patients weren't getting well and I was starting to doubt my ability to help them, or I was just burnt out and tired.  Frankly, there were times where I allowed myself to get bored.  You really have to try to get bored as a physical therapist and I think I was trying pretty hard at one point.  But every time I come to that point in my career something happens: an experience with a patient, a colleague, [or] a student, where I'm reminded that no, I can't walk away from this.

[These struggles] taught me to persist even when things are hard.  They've taught me to value the reasons why I [chose] to go into the profession to begin with, and I think they just make you more mature and more able to face the daily challenges of life.  Every profession you go into, there [will] be elements that you don't enjoy or elements that are a struggle.  To expect that your work is going to be completely struggle free, I just don't think is realistic.

On a volunteer trip, Teresa met a a little boy
who couldn't walk, so she was trying to see
if he could move his arms to push a
wheelchair.  She was  playing Simon Says
with him to get him involved in a fun way.

I was at a rehab facility and I started off on the floor that treated patients who had had strokes.  I really enjoyed it, but I was interested in learning about other neurological conditions as well.  I had requested a move up to a floor that treated people who had spinal cord injuries.  It was a lot of fun, but I also knew going into it that there were a lot of challenges.  People warned me it [was] going to be tough because of the nature of the environment at the time.  Sure enough, when I arrived, it didn't seem like anybody on the floor was coming together to work as a team.  In addition, I still had a lot to learn about myself as a therapist and how to interact with my patients.  There was one young man I was working with who had a spinal cord injury from a gunshot wound.  Every day he would be in his bed in his hospital room [with the] sheets over his head.  He just wouldn't come down to therapy.  We made sure he had his wheelchair available so he could come down, but he wouldn't.  Everyday [I] would walk to his room, pull his sheet off his head and say, "I'm not your mom, I'm not gonna beg you.  Get up, let's go.  It's time to go to therapy."  I meant it in a tough-love way, and he understood that, but he was obviously going through a difficult time and dealing with a lot of pain.  He and I battled day in and day out and it was so frustrating.  He did okay in therapy, [but] he didn't go as far as we thought he had the capability to.

Then several months later, I was crossing the hallway to go into a team meeting, I heard someone say, "HEY!" from down the hallway.  I looked up and it was him in his chair.  He had already been discharged from the hospital several months before that.  I started walking towards him and he said, "No, no, no, stop."  And he locked the wheelchair brakes, he scooted himself forward, he stood up, and he walked to me.  When he got to me he gave me a big hug and said, "I could never have done this without you."  That was one of those moments that just... makes your year.  He overcame all this pain that he was having.  He wasn't able to walk when he left us but we knew he potentially could.  The fact that he took that encouragement when he left and was able to get to that point: that's why.  That's why I do what I do.  He taught me about perseverance, about compassion, and I'm forever grateful for those lessons.  Those are the moments that get you through all the tough times and all the times when you doubt yourself or you're not sure that this is actually what you're supposed to be doing.

Educating the Future

When I first became a clinician I never thought I [would] be a teacher, so this is a complete 180 from where I thought my career was going to go.  I just figured I would get my [physical therapy] license, start practicing, and maybe own my own clinic someday.  I worked for a private practice for a while, thinking that might help me move towards opening my own clinic, but it actually did the exact opposite and made me realize that that's not what I wanted to do with that aspect of my career.  So I went back to public medicine.

Then I was asked to give one lecture to a class of physical therapy students.  And I had a lot of fun.  It was really exciting [because it] made me do my research and be ready to answer questions.  After that my colleague approached me and said, "We need a lab assistant for this semester course.  Would you come help out?"  I said, "Sure, I want to try that."  So I did that and that was the moment I met my mentor who saw potential in me for teaching.  She said, "Okay, now you're lab assisting.  Do you want to co-teach this lecture?  Now, how about you take this lecture by yourself?"  It just kept going until I realized, "Wow, I really like this."  Eventually, three of us were co-teaching [a] class together, and I realized that I found the next step of my career: teaching.  It was completely unexpected, but I got there gradually by getting little bits of experience and then realizing that this is what I want to do now.

One of my absolute favorite things [about teaching] is to work with students.  [I love] to be able to contribute to advancing knowledge, watch them learn and ask questions, grow and develop their skills, and hear back from them after they've gone through the program.  It's a really wonderful experience to be able to contribute to that and to know that hopefully somebody's or many people's lives in the future will be that much better because I helped to educate the future of our profession.  It's fun to be kept on my toes.  Students ask me questions that I never would've thought of all the time.  It's an amazing and humbling experience to be a teacher.

Just Go Do It

Don't wait to do things with your life.  I hear that constantly from my patients, and it's really something that I've tried to live in my own life because so many of them will say "I never thought I would get in a car accident" or "I never thought I'd have a stroke."  They [also say], "I always wanted to do things that I just never did and I always put them off."  So, my advice would be: don't do that.  Find what it is that you want to do and pursue it and work hard.  Don't hold back because you're afraid or because you think it won't work out.  I could only hear my patients say that so many times before I started to listen.  My recent trip to Australia, perfect example, was one that came up last minute and was a unique opportunity to celebrate a major event in our friends' lives.  [It] probably [wasn't] the smartest thing to do financially, [but] we love to travel so we thought, "Let's just do it because this is never going to come around again."  And one of the reasons I finally said, "Let's do it" was because I was hearing my patients voices in my head saying, "If there's something you love to do, just go do it."

Teresa and her husband on their trip to Australia.

I would also advise [to] give yourself time.  People don't feel like it's okay that they don't know what they want to do with their lives.  If you have a calling, listen to that, follow that, pursue that.  But some people just don't have that and that's okay.  Some people find their happiness in other ways.  Maybe it's not one singular passion or calling for them, maybe it's something else.  So I would say if you feel like you have a calling or passion that you really want to pursue, then pursue it and don't let anybody stop you.  For me, I feel like I have more than one [calling], and I try to do something to work towards each of them every day.  Whatever it is that lights you up, figure out a way to go for it.

Story Facilitators: Val Larson, Tim McDonnell, Feiyan Feng

The Black Sheep

Heather Kim is a tattoo artist at Minneapolis Tattoo, the pastry consultant for Hola Arepa, and is currently writing a book through Capstone Publishing located here in Minneapolis. You can look into Heather's artwork and find the shop's contact information at http://www.mplstattoo.co/ 

Heather majorly does customs work, this is one of her favorites that she has created specifically for one of her clients.

I come from a very conservative, Korean Family. I was born and raised in Chicago, but my parents were immigrants from South Korea. They came in the 1970s, it's very Confucius, idealistic sort of family--no one is pierced, like they don't even have their ears pierced, much less have a tattoo. I'm definitely the black sheep of the family. They absolutely love me, but I still cover up when I go home. Even though my immediate family is less than supportive of my career, my first cousins are the most supportive. I have 36 cousins on my dad's side and pretty much the first or second week I got my apprenticeship, they all piled in a minivan and drove up from Chicago to be tattooed by me. They are awesome and amazing. But, I have had aunties calling and yelling at me for tattooing their children who are in their thirties (laughs).
   
A Mini History Lesson by Heather:
   

Post Korean war, when they were rebuilding the cities, tattoos were made illegal. The reasoning was to weed out the yakuza, which is like South Korea's mafia. They are all heavily tattooed in order to show their ranking within their crime family. So the South Korean government made tattooing illegal to try to prevent those kinds of business dealings. But tattoos there are illegal like pot is illegal here; everyone here know someone who smokes pot just as everyone there knows someone with a tattoo.
  
What was your path to becoming a tattoo artist?
   
I have my undergraduates degree in chemistry and painting from Andrew's University, (laughs) the ever envious pre-med, pre-dent degree. I attended, and dropped out of dental school, but that was in California. Then got my graduates in painting and critical theory from MCAT (Minneapolis college of art and design). I studied chemistry because my parents really wanted me to go into the medical field to be a like a nurse, doctor, dentist, or anything. After trying that path and realizing it absolutely, without a doubt, was not for me, I sought different things I could do creatively. I became a DNA paternity tester for Dakota County, and did that for five years. That job gets depressing quickly. Then, I went to baking, and baked at a few different restaurants. I held the position of executive pastry chef at Hola Arepa from the time they opened to the time I left it, but I still consult for them. With tattooing, it's not really a true sort of path or application process for it. It's funny, I just had a friend guide me into it one day. Day one I asked her for a tattoo, day two I was interviewing for an apprenticeship, and day three I got the apprenticeship. It's a really challenging field to break into, even if you have the technical skill, or the proficiency to be a tattoo artist, it's not easy to get into. It's a combination of both technical and artistic skill, but even if you have both of those,  It's hard to get an apprenticeship. There's no rhyme or reason to getting one. Especially in Minnesota, it's more or less luck. 
  
I originally got into tattooing because of Ayako Junko, she's my friend who gave me my first apprenticeship. My favorite surprise tattoo is my lucky cat, by her. She used to be located in Minneapolis, but now she's in Portland.  
  

  
It's got a little cherry on top because of Minneapolis and the type of pastry chef I am. I'm a from scratch chef, so poor lucky cat has to do everything from scratch. I'm also really into Kimchi fermentation so it has a bunch of garlic around it.
  
What are your biggest challenges?
  

The most difficult part of my career however is the fact that I am a minority female in this industry. An industry that has less than five minority female artists in the Twin-Cities. Not only that, but I am one of only two Korean artists. So I really feel like it’s important for me to share my knowledge and skills with people if they’re interested because that's how I was able to continue and progress on my journey of becoming a tattoo artist. I think that was one of the greatest things because there were other minority artists from all over the United States, and even internationally, that were happy to share what they knew and answer questions I had; it really helped with my success and perseverance in becoming a tattoo artist.
   

How do you combine tattooing and then also writing your book?
  
I was approached by this publishing company that was looking for pastry chefs of diversity; being a female minority, I think I checked all the boxes. I'm also a little snarky, so that was helpful. But it's been fun, I've taken three days off in a row to finish it up. It's aimed for teenagers, so it'll be the worst book I ever write and I'm pretty excited about that.
  
Could you see yourself writing any other books in the future, but more aimed towards tattooing?
  
Definitely. There is not a huge amount of intelligent writing, like  the wonderful writing that is going on in the culinary world right now. There's no "Lucky Peach" for tattooing. There are some great textbooks on like women in tattooing, and the history of tattooing, but nothing like that. There is pin ups and hot rods and other really tragic sorts of things. It would be fantastic to see something out there that was a well-written sort of magazine, blog, or website that we can go to and create articles about women in tattoo, ones that don't deal with objectification or fetishing women.
  
How do you think your work is impactful?
  

Through tattooing, you get the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people and learn things about them that you never would’ve guessed. In my opinion, people are amazing and I just love hearing their stories and how they came to be the people they are and what’s made them who they are. That’s one thing I really focus on within my work, taking the time to get to know the person I’m tattooing. I have met people of all different backgrounds, from suburban school kids to, um the other day I tattooed some, I think, awesome Jewish witches. They came in and cleared the air by burning sage, and they brought crystals with them. For the first hour, they visualized what their molecules were doing. They did like a talk through journey of how they were sending the good happy to where they were getting tattooed. But, yeah, I love hearing everyone's stories, how people came to be and who they are.

It’s funny because it’s not unheard of to have partial therapy sessions with clients because the process of getting a tattoo takes place in a very intimate, one-on-one setting. However, challenges accompany the intimacy of these personal settings. One of the most difficult parts of my work is understanding the concept of empathy and when you’re client is having trouble tolerating the level of pain. You need to realize that your client is in pain and you’re putting them in pain and you have the ability to stop it and start it so you really need to understand what you’re doing and be able to gage the person’s pain level.

I feel like my work in the tattoo industry definitely helps my clients. A lot of the work I do involves memorial tattoos although my specialty is cover up work. Before I start working with a client, we have a consultation and determine what type of identity their looking for within their tattoo. The enjoyment I get out of taking something someone finds unappealing or something that has lost its meaning and turning it into something that is beautiful and meaningful for someone is what makes my work so worthwhile in my eyes. Each piece of art I do is going to be unique to that person, and that’s what I really love about tattooing. The artwork I’m creating is going to be one-of-a-kind and nobody else will have that same exact piece.

This tattoo was a rework tattoo done by Heather, she said it was one of her best reworks she's done. The original is on the left, Heather's is on the right.

What are your recommendations for first-time tattoo clients?
  
Go to the shop's website and find an artist who's work you like, then check out reviews. Reviews can be tricky because they are very person to person, but you can get a good feel of the shop and the artist from reviews. Make sure you go to unbiased websites, like Google's reviews, not websites like Yelp where you can pay for reviews. But make sure when you go to a shop that you feel comfortable, both from the shop's environment and the artist. Also make sure you're getting something you really want, if you do not one hundred percent enjoy the artwork, walk away. It's okay if you lose the $50 deposit, speak up for yourself and get something you really want. I specialize in covering up tattoos, I'd love to see people but really, no, I don't (laughs). Just stop yourself from getting that first ugly tattoo and get something you really want.


Story Facilitators: Emmalene Meier, Chenyu Ye, Lucas Olson

Changing Diets to Change Lives with Joe Halbmaier

Joe Halbmaier (1)

Growing Up

I wanted to be a professional golfer [laughs]. I did actually go and attempt to get on tour, so that was cool. I also wanted to be free. I noticed when I grew up, my parents and my neighbors were always struggling. They just weren't happy with it. They were always worried about getting laid off [and] I knew I just wanted to be free. Even when I was [in] middle school, I started saying to myself, "I'm going to be able to be retired by the time I'm forty." I've always had the entrepreneurial mindset.

The people that had the things I wanted in life were typically business owners. They could create their own schedule to some degree. They weren't being told they had to be at the office [because] they got to create the office hours. Those were the things that I always wanted to have. Even now, I don't like being told I have to be somewhere at a certain place or time [so] I believe I was destined to be an entrepreneur.

Thrive Wellness Club (2)

Here and Now

Basic things that I do is I help people nutrition-wise, understanding nutrition, help weight management. I also help people mentally [and] help people build a business, so earning extra money around what they currently do. When I help people with their businesses, they're creating a business to some degree that is very much like mine. We're helping them understand the fundamentals of the products that we use and the impact that it has on people.

His Calling

I think the biggest sealing moment for me when I knew that I was supposed to do this was when I was at my kids' school. One of my daughter's friends was ten years old [and] diagnosed with type-two diabetes. I knew at that moment that this is just wrong. I have five kids and I don't want them growing up in that world of "Okay, well here we are." We're so malnourished or over-nutrient, getting in that bad stuff that now all of a sudden people are getting put on medication at ten, that used to be a fifty or sixty-year-old's medication. It used to be called adult on-set [diabetes]. I knew at that point I [need to] educate enough people, at least around my circle of influence so my kids have a chance to know a different way.

One of the things that helped me right away in the beginning was bonding with my own mom. She struggled with type-two diabetes, so did my aunt and a lot of people. I never had an answer or solution to that. She was taking medications, changed her nutritional habits and got taken off of her medication. She was a different human being. I was always close to my mom, but it was good for me to do something back. That was the one that stuck with me for fifteen years or so.

There's such a huge struggle with it right now and [I've been] given so much information over the last sixteen years. I did it to be at home with family and to be able to create that freedom I was looking for and we created that. Once I created that freedom, I was able to retire, [and] not really have to work because I needed to work. We were continually helping others and that was a cool thing to see. There was a lot of people being helped. I didn't need to go out and work for the money 'cause it was [already] being made.

There was one day I was with my kids and wife on a walk. It was an awesome summer day, lots of sunshine, it was beautiful. Kids are riding their bikes, rollerblading, walking with us, and the dog was with us. All the kids had gone up ahead of my wife and I, and I remember bursting out in tears but couldn't figure out why, I had this emptiness. That was an opening moment for me 'cause I noticed it kept happening, I felt empty inside. I didn't have a place like this [gestures towards his store]. An office space to come in and get introduced to a different quality of life. That was a powerful moment for me. I'm a believer, I believe in Jesus, so I believe that he was saying, "Hey, you're not doing enough of what you should be doing." I started looking at the stats and it's so true. What I do have is the solution to an issue, a couple issues that keep increasing in a negative way. That was my eye-opening moment and that was when I opened up a couple of nutrition clubs.

Impacts

The first [change] people see is physically. When they start getting good nutrition in and they start changing, all of a sudden they feel better, that's how I felt when I first started. Being a high school, college, multi-sport athlete, I thought I felt good, but I didn't know what good felt like until I started changing my dietary habits. Most people notice they feel different and unfortunately [with] the obesity and people being overweight, there's a lot of that going on so they start noticing they look different. I think the coolest thing is when people just become different, all of a sudden they're a different person. I like seeing people. Seeing people improve what they want to improve. I'm a bridge to that, in many different ways. I want to keep being the best I can be and hopefully that rubs off on others. I focus on the best version of me I can be and hopefully that'll impact my kids and I see that change.

Joe's Team (3)

I've been doing this for sixteen years. I have teammates that I now call family. There's people in Chicago that I would do whatever for; people outside of my team that are our friends now that if they needed something, I'd be there for them. It's been a great thing.

I'd love to see the numbers start to come in [the] opposite direction, especially the childhood obesity. I'd love to see communities have places where there's more wellness and nutrition resources, but I don't know if it'll happen before I leave. My one thing to keep with everyone is to not let fear hold you back. I love the quote from Gandhi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Then continue to work on yourself 'cause that's the only thing you can change. 

Legacy
I'd like to be remembered as an optimistic person that gave everybody a chance to be the best they can be. Also, a great dad that was there for his kids, and a wonderful husband that supported his wife and what she wanted to do in life. I see so many people these days [where] that isn't the case. When I said, "I do" to my wife, I said, "I will do whatever you want to do. I'll support you as long as I'm not doing anything immortal, unethical, or illegal" [laughs]. That's how I want to be remembered.

Story facilitators: Noah Greensweig, Mariah Colucci, and Kathy Vang

Cooking For A Better Life

Edgar Garcia was born in Mexico City, Mexico. In search of a better life for his family, Edgar pursuits the American dream of becoming a business owner. He has been a cook for over 20 years. At 43 years old, he is the owner and head cook of his new restaurant “Las Enchiladas”. Which prides itself for its healthy, authentic and fresh menu.

                             

   La Familia

Brandon Garcia: Tell me about growing up with eight siblings, and how you had to cook and be the responsible one of the family.

Edgar Garcia:  We have in the family seven people. It’s not easy cause one died so that’s why you counted eight. I’m the six and my sister is the number seven the younger one, but my aunt she take care of her and not me. The time when I (was) like ten years old or so my mom she has to work and she teach me (how to cook). So she leaving in the morning and come back midnight. I have to eat something, sometimes cold sometimes it’s kind of hard because in my house everyone makes their own food. Everything I do, I always like it. I try to find the (positive side). Sometimes when you find a job (there is) something you don’t like from the job, it’s hard to keep even if you make good money. When I start doing the job for restaurants I (noticed) I like to create.

"I Like to Create"

Brandon Garcia: How did you start into the restaurant business?

Edgar Garcia: It's something I don't know I have to do it. When I came (to) America the situation it’s hard because I have to make money I came for work, but I never thinking I wanna work on the kitchen or in the restaurant. So it's the first job I have and I make more money than what I expect. Then I find another job in the restaurant and I feel comfortable, that’s how I started. I (made) friends, they recommended me more restaurants and the time when they recommend me, I get a little more experience. So any job you have the more experience you have the more money you have, it’s how it is. I started as dishwasher because all people start as dishwasher. From the bottom! It’s how you build your career better and now I know how to work everything because I started from the bottom.

Brandon Garcia: Would you build something different, other than the restaurant business?

Edgar Garcia: I like to keep the restaurant business. It’s a new experience and it’s something I looking for a long time! I like what I do. I like to go outside and talk to the people and see (their) faces when they finish the plate. I never find anybody that can tell me they don’t like my food [laughs]. Today for example a lady (asked me) “hey do you have fish tacos?” I told her “yes I have fish tacos” and she says “anybody can make enchiladas”. [Edgar laughs] Not everyone can make enchiladas, I make my own enchilada salsas. I have 100% Mexican enchiladas. She says “okay if you can make very good fish tacos than I believe you”. I say “okay I wanna make the fish tacos and if you don’t like it then you don’t pay for them”. I believ[ed] 100% she like it before I make them because all the people I’ve made fish tacos they like it. Even one guy told me one day “I don’t eat fish, I don’t like fish”. So I make fish tacos and invite his family and everybody (was) eating fish tacos and he say “okay I wanna trying” and after that every week he wanted me to invite him again for my fish tacos. That lady I made the fish tacos for finished before her husband in like five minutes.

Finding the Middle Ground

Brandon Garcia: Tell me when you found out that my mom was pre-diabetic. How you switched your cooking style?

Edgar Garcia: Okay. That is a something I put in my mind to because it’s hard for (her). It’s hard even to make different kinds of foods. The best (is to) find something in the middle for everybody. I start buying less carbohydrates in the house and buy more fruit. Not too healthy but if you follow the directions it’s really easy because she have to make five meals. She have to combine everything in portions. We used to eat three meals but now we split to five. After that I tell her okay you can eat this at this time and I create something every day.

 Making a Difference

Brandon Garcia: Do you think your food makes a difference in other people’s lives?

Edgar Garcia: That is what I try to do. The time when I make the menu for the restaurant, I wanna make something healthy. For example, if you bring the kids to a restaurant the (options are) chicken tenders, hamburgers with fries, macaroni and stuff like that. What about if you put something different? A lot of kids like fruits, but they offer them more sugar. The kids don’t have another option, that’s why I put on menu rice, fruit and vegetables.

Brandon Garcia: It would save you a lot of money if you just used a bunch of oil to get the people coming in and out.

Edgar Garcia: In America a lot of people have a lot of things to do, so they wanna eat quickly. We can do that, but cook with 100% vegetables. The stuff you take from the can is not affecting you right now, it’s affecting you in the future. It’s hard to change the world, because people don’t like you tell them what they have to do. I just try and make the food healthier.

Life Tips

If you’re not responsible for doing whatever you have to do you can’t create anything in the future. I’m working with a lot of people better than me, but at the end of the 4-5 hour (work day) they making something that is not okay. If you make something you feel comfortable with, don’t feel like you have to follow (others). You have to make your own decisions.

Story Facilitators: Brandon Garcia, Mitchell Heinen, Bryce Kelley

Fighting Oppression

Nate is a TRiO advisor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He also teaches the first year TRiO class for students at the University, and teaches another class in South Africa every year. He has been working at the University with the TRiO program for 16 years now.

Wake Up Call

As a younger teen I was fascinated by social justice work. My dad was gay, he passed away eight years ago. I had a judge from Hennepin county literally say to me that I was safer with my abusive stepfather than I was with my gay dad, so at this very young age I was kinda shocked by this. There was something that didn’t click for me, being this privileged white guy and not knowing any of this stuff. The interesting thing about growing up with a gay father is when I was a young person, I didn’t learn hatred yet. I didn’t learn homophobia, yet. But when I got to high school I learned homophobia really quickly. I lived in this shitty neighborhood in Minnetonka, which if you know Minnetonka it’s quite wealthy. In eighth grade I went to Minnetonka junior high school for one year, and I was in this new student organization for like kids who were new to the school or whatever. And the family that moved in next door, they were also new, and so their daughter was in this group with me. Her name was Sarah, and somebody said to her, I’ll never forget it, they said, “I heard you have a fag living next door.” And it actually became quite terrifying and violent to be in that school. I used to get harassed like crazy and bullied on the bus. The funny thing about homophobia and hatred is that it can rot you in ways that it shouldn’t, even when you know better.

This teacher that I met in high school got me involved with one of the first things that I ever got involved with. These two non-profit organizations started this underground railroad simulation. They would literally go to high schools and take kids out to the woods, and chase them through the woods at night like they were on the underground railroad. I was a participant on it because of this teacher, and then after that I became a volunteer and worked for the program. It was transformative to these youth. So like as a junior and senior in high school, I really learned about white supremacy and white privilege. I was around these dialogues about white supremacy all the time and I started making connections to the homophobia and classism, and I would say this underground railroad thing was just huge for me as this white kid. That was like, “Yo, wake up.” That was the first wake up call.

[In college] I started down the music major path, and it’s interesting because when this whole music thing started to collapse, this mentor of mine said, “Ah man you really gotta meet this guy named Terrance Quami Ross in Youth Studies”. We scheduled a half hour together, and we hang out for four hours. It’s literally a meeting that changed my life. This guy had me convinced that I should join Youth Studies because at that time it was the only real social justice type of major on campus. It was the most diverse major at the time; black, brown, gay, straight, they were all in this major. And I’ll be honest with you, I never thought I would work with youth. I loved young people, but it was like, “Do I wanna work in non-profit with young people?” So I took a summer job with TRiO upward bound. I didn’t even know what TRiO was. I really liked this TRiO program, but it was a short summer job, and I had to go back to grad school. The summer job ended and I was looking for grad assistantships, cause I was literally working in a parking booth my first year of grad school. It was awful, I was getting sick all the time. I got a phone call from an old mentor of mine that said “Hey, TRiO students support services is hiring a graduate assistant, I think you should apply”. And here I am, sixteen years later, still working in TRiO.

Nate and his students in South Africa

Ubuntu

I believe the more we engulf ourselves in communities that are different from us, the smarter we become and the more free we become. When I was an undergrad here at the U, I was really pissed off, and I had this faculty [member] who was a professor and a mentor of mine, who said, “You know your stepdad is still beating you. You’re angry and you let him control your life because you’ve never let him go or you’ve never forgiven him.” This was a profound thing to me. I knew a lot about South Africa because of anti apartheid work in high school. South Africa, after the end of the apartheid, they went through this process of healing and that was called Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or TRC, where the victims under apartheid forgave the whites who committed horrendous human rights abuses and atrocities like you would not believe.

In 1991, Nelson Mandela was released as a political prisoner and he initiated this thing called the Truth and Reconciliation where victims of torture and abuse could come to a court like body and come face to face with their perpetrators and tell them what they had done. The perpetrators had to come to the truth with the crime they had committed, meaning in exact detail so it could be reported and could be verified. It was all about the truth, if they told the truth and they could prove that they were saying the truth, they gained amnesty. Rather than putting these people in prison, or turning the tides and killing all these white people from the apartheid government, they literally fucking forgave them. Which is literally insane when you think about it. It comes from an African philosophy of ubuntu: “If I oppress you, I oppress myself.”

The whole idea fascinated me, and like I could go somewhere in this world and learn what that meant and then literally do that for my own self. So, when I graduated from the U of M I literally packed up all my shit and sold everything I owned and moved to South Africa (laughs). The only person I knew in South Africa was a guy who was a guest professor here at the U of M in Youth Studies the year before I went there. He said, “Come and I’ll make sure you have whatever you might need. I’ll throw you in a community and you just go for it.” So I did it. It was nuts, it was crazy, but I did it. The people there became my dearest family. They are the ones who listened to me and helped me change. I came back a totally different person and that’s why I went to grad school, I promised them I would continue my education.

Nate and his TRiO students at the program retreat.

I’m Happy Here

Through this job I have so many opportunities. I’m now a faculty [member] for the school social work and social justice minor. My main point when I was building [the TRiO] class was like, “I am done lying to students. I am done helping the University lie to students. So, I’m going to put this curriculum together in a totally different narrative of what these institutions are actually like for underrepresented students, and I’m going to bring that into the classroom, and tell them the truth, as hard or whatever [as] it may be to hear, in hopes that that fires students up in a way” so to speak. “To self-author their journey here, and know how to navigate this stuff in this more personal kind of way” or whatever. And so we tried it. And after the first time we taught it, the evaluations came back and 100 percent of students said they would recommend the course. So yeah, our whole point in that class is to kind of bring up different types of identities that are similar across TRiO students, and then just really talk about what’s really happening in higher education around those identities, and then letting students decide for themselves what to do with it.

As far as I’m concerned we’re one of the only real radical social justice programs on this campus. We do our job really well, with students who are coming with low ACTs and less preparation for college. The University does not want these students here but they can’t get rid of them because we’re here. And they keep attacking the students of color, the low-income students, and students of disabilities.There’s so many people on this campus who think they are good, well they are good people, but they don’t get it. They refuse to give things up in order for our students to be successful. That is the hardest thing of this job, and the fact that we have to deal with that every day. There’s times where I think, “I’m going to leave, this is too much,” and times where I think “Is this really what I want to be doing?” But through all of it, I have been like completely humbled by this program. I would not work anywhere else. Mostly it’s just the students that keep me coming back.

Back in the day I used to work in the residence halls as a CA (Community Advisor), and there used to be this kind of general saying that like, “20 percent of students are going to love you, 'cause you’re a CA. 20 percent are going to hate you 'cause you’re the CA, and the rest are going to decide once they meet you.” I find that to be very true as an advisor too. I have so many students in my history that are just super cool, and I’m just really close to, and close to their families. I love getting up in the morning to come in here. I learn so much from these students and their communities and their families. The most meaningful thing to me for sure is the relationships I have with students. They may start off in my office thinking “this guy’s going to tell me what to take and and not to take and remove my hold and stuff.” And later on, they are friends of mine, and now interestingly enough they are coworkers of mine. My whole life is just really fascinating that way and really meaningful that way. I just feel really full of meaning in what I do, even though I don’t get paid shit. I don’t care though. I just dig it. I don’t know why I would leave. The cool thing about higher ed is that you have a ton of autonomy. That’s really important to me. There’s a ton of resources here too, that’s the cool thing about the U. I hate the U and I love the U, you know what I mean? I hate the U for what it does to underrepresented students and I love it for the resources and the underrepresented students, you know what I mean?

Everything changes so fast, and I never expected to be here, and certainly didn’t expect to be here as long as I have. Now I just don’t even think about it anymore. I’m happy here. This is cool. We’re just still here, until they kick my ass out, I’m here (laughs).

Story facilitators:

Alec Showen, Sergio Molina, Teagan McIntyre