BESITOS Dr. Socorro Herrera, Director, K-State Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy: I was in a program at eastern New Mexico University where the focus was on the preparation of students who struggled in school. The conditions that were set for us to be successful, there was no failure there. We didn't have to present ourselves to the learning space with all of these indicators that would say to someone, these students are going to be successful. Rather, we were to come with lots of ganas. We had to have this desire, this passion, this commitment for social justice and to be teachers and to work hard and to be present every day to the learning where no one said, well, they flunked out of high school, how could they possibly go to college? No one said, well, that's a single, mom, we were successful. And so the model here at Kansas State was based on that. That's the birth of the Besitos program here within the college. Besitos in Spanish means little kisses. Besitos is a program that, for the last twenty-five years has prepared and followed some amazing teachers as they have gone out into the world to create equitable spaces for all children. I saw the opportunity here because the communities had an emergent population of Latinos and I saw that there were very few teachers of color. Dr. Kevin Murry, K-State Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy: School counselors were telling us that they had very qualified, very promising students who did not have funding for college and could we do anything about that? And that's what led our efforts to begin to explore how we might fund their efforts to get teaching degrees. So around 1999, we received our first federal funding to begin educating Besitos students here at K-State. Over the course of the program, we provided education to 190 students. Most of those, in fact, taught at or very near their own home communities. Dr. Pat Bosco, K-State Dean Emeritus of Students: I'm in awe of the role teachers play every single day in molding the lives of young people. We need teachers who are focused and have a great deal of passion and are supported not only fiscally but with their education to make sure we're doing everything we can to have the best possible experience where it counts. The Besitos program gave us that opportunity to work with first generation families and give them that opportunity to be supported, to go from not understanding the rudiments of higher ed to actually having a tender, loving, supportive family to help them be successful here at K-State. Dr. Debbie Mercer, K-State Dean of Education: The Besitos program worked off of an asset approach. What are the Besitos students bringing and how can we build on those strengths? And because that was modeled in our program. That's what the Besitos students are doing in their own classrooms. They're saying, what are the strengths of my students? And many of them went back to those communities and are there in classrooms, in school buildings, impacting students in powerful ways each and every day. Regalos (Gifts - Faith - Fortitude) Julia Morales: I'm Julia Morales and I'm a second-grade teacher at Buffalo Jones Elementary. I'm a Besitos graduate from Kansas State University. I think some of my earliest memories are definitely in southwest Texas. And I think what really comes to mind are running around with all the cousins, music, barbecues, all your aunts and uncles just gathering around. And I think that sense of community, that sense of involvement with one another, that hasn't always been consistent in my life. But I think it's definitely a key part to how I am a teacher today. I was totally geared up in high school to study fashion and merchandising and maybe design and just work in retail, and I started working at an afte-school program and something started to happen where these kids just became such a big part of my day-to-day life. And when that program ended, I bawled my eyes out because I couldn't believe I had grown so attached in such a short amount of time. Each situation led itself into a subsequent situation. There was the after-school program, then there was the classes of exploring teachers as a career, and then there was bumping into Martin Segovia in the hallway. I mean, it was just all meant to be the way it lined up. Rafaela Solis, Principal, Buffalo Jones Elementary: When I first met Julia, I was very impressed with her communication skills. She has a super personality, very warm and caring, and I love the way that she works with kids. I've stepped in and subbed in her classroom and the notes that she leaves for her substitutes and the way that she communicates about her kids. You can even feel the warmth and the caring that she has. She's just an amazing young lady that has awesome potential. We're Buffalo Jones Elementary and we are K-4 building 90 percent of our population is Hispanic and so many of the students speak Spanish as a first language. And so it's been my job to really find great Spanish-speaking teachers to support our students. So our dual language program has been around for twenty four years. We've done tons of research to find what works for our students and currently we have kindergarten first and then we transition our students to English at second grade. So when the kids come in to second grade, they're very bilingual and have acquired all the foundations to transfer their learning into a second language. Our kids do an amazing job and I believe that that is one of the reasons that our district continues to support our program because we have students that when you look at scores, our Spanish track outperforms our English students and we've had students that have graduated, have been successful, have gone on to college, we've had valedictorians. And so we're very proud of that. And it's very fortunate. For twenty- three years, I've had wonderful school board members and superintendents that have supported our philosophy in teaching our kids. Julia Morales: I think the work and the advocacy that really motivates me for students and family is wanting them to have a presence and having a place, whether it is in education, whether it's in whatever avenue that they choose to be in, and I think experiences that they wouldn't necessarily have. I really want to open their eyes and open their lives to things that they would have never considered. You know, it's kind of funny to see the little light bulbs click on and be like, wait, what? I can do this. I can be that. I can go to college. And I feel like a lot of times people don't necessarily always feel like they are cut out to do things like that because they don't fit a mold or their parents didn't do it. This not feeling good enough, not feeling like capable enough. It is a message as much as we don't see it to be a dominant one, there's a lot of little subtle messages of not being good enough, even in school. I think family is one of the most beautiful gifts, but it also can be a burden. You know my little world inside my classroom. That's what I want it to be, is a family. And sometimes it does not always feel like a happy family. But at the end of the day, they're the reason why I come back. That's one of the great things about the Besitos program, because you had your people there, you may not have known each other, you may not have been from the same city, the same town, but they instantly became your family. You have that same sense of nerves, you had that same sense of like, oh my gosh, what's going to happen? Because we have no idea what we're doing here. We've never done this before. It was this this family that helped you to navigate and helped you to just get through college. So they led you to where you needed to be. And then, you know, when you had your own little wings and you flew and you plugged yourself in, it was nice. The biggest contributions, that Besitos has contributed to me, the heart for what you do and knowledge of culturally and linguistically diverse populations and passion, being able to go into a situation like a classroom and approach it with passion and just make it something that you love to do. I think that the amount of reach that you can have within a student's life is so immense, you know, it's not about doing it for your fame, but just the potential that you have to make a difference in their lives. There is nothing that is greater than that. It comes with a lot of heartache sometimes and it comes with a lot of stress, but when you finally see that growth or that something bloom or that result of that it is like the most beautiful thing in the world. You know, it always goes back to family, that sense of connecting, that sense of belonging, I have to have that as a professional. I really do, because if I don't have that, I feel like I fade away. Kids are worth it. They are worth the time, they are worth the buildings and the materials, they're worth it, they're worth investing in. Cargas (Burden) Maria Magdalena Ortiz-Smith: I began my life in a home full of joy. The house was filled with talk, it was filled with singing, and it was in those formative years that I developed my love for learning. I lived with my grandma and grandpa. Later on when I came to the States, things were a little different. I expected it to be like Disneyland only when I came here after not having lived with my mom since I was three months old. She was always working at the meat packing plant and she worked the night shift. So I hardly ever got to see her. So it was harder reality. All of a sudden, I didn't know the language of the school. When I lived in Mexico with my grandma, I felt very smart and very talented and all of a sudden no one knew that about me. My name is Maria Magdalena Ortiz-Smith and I am a professional learning specialist and a Besitos graduate. I am currently working as an education consultant. Sometimes I'm facilitating district leadership teams, other times I'm coaching teachers in the classroom. And there are some times when I teach workshops and other times where I facilitate curriculum alignment. So I student taught in Garden City at Buffalo Jones and I thought beginning of the year first graders would be too overwhelming for me. But I was just blessed with excellent mentors. One of the highs of being a Latinx teacher in our communities is being able to relate to families and being able to relate to students and being able to model for them that they can go after the biggest dreams that they've ever dreamed. Sometimes we underestimate what kids can do. And those are the hardest moments for me, because I know that if you're given the opportunity and you're given the tools, you can conquer anything. Kelly Gillespie, executive coach and mentor: I first began to work with Maria eight years ago when she was an instructional coach in Dodge City. She was working in one of the buildings that I happened to have the opportunity to serve. And she immediately became a light in that building that was struggling. She was solution focused. She really worked hard and advocated for all students, but in particular brought the lens of the EL student and the EL parent to the table. Maria is really a person that listens with the intent to understand and interjects inserts herself when she feels confident that the knowledge she has is going to contribute to the conversation. When Maria talks, people listen. One of the things Maria has done for us is develop an EL simulation where teachers can go through the day of the life of an EL parent and EL student. So the note comes home and you're supposed to be at the after school coaches meeting and you only speak Spanish and there's no interpreter. So it takes the teachers through the day in the life to really open the eyes of those teachers so they can be more cognizant and aware of the barriers that lie between EL parents and their students success at school. Maria I'm proud, brings that thoughtfulness of consideration of all needs rather than those that we know. Maria Magdalena Ortiz-Smith: As a teacher and as a Latina, I have special insight into the lives of kids and where some people might see poverty, people might see kids who don't have health insurance, they might see a struggling reader. I see everything that they've already overcome, and I see all the potential that they have, just like someone saw it in me. Whenever I encounter something difficult, I think back to the times when I took care of my mom as she was passing away and knowing and finding strength and everything that she had taught me. And those Cargas, those are all important in carrying us through the rest of our lives and helping us find hope where there seems to be little hope. My strength comes from poverty. We were always welfare kids, and someone saw something in me that I didn't even see in myself and provided me with those opportunities. But now I can look back and say, look at all those things that I was able to overcome because of my grandmother's love and her prayers and because of the dreams that my mom had for me. And it comes from knowing that one day I could do that for other kids. I always wanted to be a teacher, but it was just a dream. I didn't even know the actions or the steps that I needed to take in order to become a teacher. And my mom used to say, maybe you can get a job at the office now that you have graduated. I didn't know anything about college. I didn't know how to get there. What the process of applying was. Being a teacher was just a dream. Besitos found me, and it was just the greatest opportunity that I've ever had. I didn't understand how big of a gift it was because I was so unfamiliar with the process of going to college. Now, looking back, I completely understand the enormity of that opportunity. The people in the Besitos program were able to predict the needs that we had. They knew that we would need a structure. They knew that we would need that connection, that constant connection with someone who looked like us and sounded like us. And they were able to see beyond that. When I went to college, I didn't know that things I learned from my family unit were a strength. I didn't know that my first language was a strength. We learned about the regalos that came from our families. So the prayers that my grandma said and the dreams that my mom had for me, those are all things that have helped me learn and grow. The Besitos program changed my life. Before Besitos I didn't even know that college was possible. And it's very likely that I would have repeated my mom's story. I love telling my kids about the Besitos program and about Socorro because the program is so powerful that it impacted their lives. Poverty and trauma can be generational and the Besitos program had the impact of changing all of that. To me, having come from Besitos means that I have the responsibility to carry on that dream and to impact others and to give opportunities because I was given those opportunities and our kids need opportunities. Familia (Family) Jorge Estrella: My name is Jorge Estrella and I am the director of the Student Achievement and Resources Center at Dodge City Community College. I moved to Dodge City when I was 13 years old back in 1983. My dad had been living in Dodge City since 1980, and he brought his wife and four children to Dodge City, Kansas. And that was one of his desires to bring all of his family so we could get back to living together. Coming to Kansas was very difficult. I think the worst things that I lived was learning English. I remember my brother Enrique and I were sitting at the table and he was trying to explain to me how a verb or works because I couldn't understand it. And they were about to give up and say, I'm not going to learn English ever, and I'm just gonna stop trying. And somehow he was able to get that through me and that's when I started enjoying learning the language. But before it was a nightmare. When I came to K-State it was very difficult because I didn't know the system that I was going into. I knew that it was going to be different. I knew that I was going to be by myself. And even though I felt that I was mature enough, I knew that I didn't know a lot of the things that were needed to be successful. Dr. Socorro Herrera: So with Jorge, he struggled as one would when you come in as a high school student and then immediately go off into college. He's taken all of those hardships, all of those cargas, all of those experiences. And he has turned them into gifts where he can now sit across from a student that he's advising and talk with conviction about how it was that he became successful and he talks with his high school students about just because you don't write now in English doesn't mean you won't do it in the future because you have that native language, you have that gift, utilize it. You can write in Spanish, you can read in Spanish. And eventually those skills are going to transfer into English. He has taken all his history, all his experiences. He has put them in a package where now he has something to share with students that's real. Jorge Estrella: Looking back at my years at K-State, I believe that I had success because of the Besitos program. They tried to group us to go to the same classes that way we had somebody else that not only looked like us or that spoke the same language that we spoke, but just to have somebody that we can rely on and somebody that we knew that was going to help us. So I remember one time that one of my professors told me that I didn't know how to write. And I agree. I mean, I didn't know how to write in English, but I knew how to write in Spanish. And everything that I wrote in there, I still have all those documents. I feel that with anybody in the Besitos program, they never wanted to take anything away from us, like our identity or how we write, how we speak, anything of that. But you guys value who we were. So the impact that identity has on occasion, it's huge. It is important to know where we come from and all of the experiences and try to help the students identify themselves, to help them see who they are, where they come from. After I graduated from Kansas State University, I started working at Dodge City high school and I was there for 10 years before moving to Dodge City community college. I am in charge of ESL programs at the college, and our main focus is to help students transition from the adult learning center or the high school with limited English and help them acquire the language so they can start taking regular classes and work on their associates or their four-year degree. I think the reason that I feel that I'm been successful in this position is because I focus my energy on the students and not on changing the system. As long as these students are being well served and that they get whatever they need to, I think I'm doing my job. All of my students know my family. They know my wife, they know my kids, because I always bring them to class. I would like to expose them to different languages, different cultures. And I hope that when they spend time with me and my work at the college that they are exposed to those things with my own students that are from different cultures, they speak different languages. I remember my Dad, he was not very knowledgeable about school. I think he completed third grade in Mexico, but that didn't stop him from supporting us. My father, he was never there for school events, but he always pushed us to do whatever we wanted to do. And I remember him telling me that he didn't understand what I was doing. But if that's what I was wanting to do then he was going to support me. I have this ring that says Excel, he worked there for forty-six years and he gave it to me on my graduation day and I carry it every day. Dr. Socorro Herrera: You know, with Jorge and with many of our Besitos students, family was the driving force. Many of our Besitos students, including Jorge, saw their families and really work hard to help them get an education. When his father retired from the beef packing plant, he gave him the ring as a symbol of how proud he was and how his dream for his children had come true. I listen to when Jorge shares that story and I see in him a love and a satisfaction in that he was able to attain through his dad's hard work what many others don't. And so he appreciates that symbol in a way that reminds him every day why he does the work that he does. Identidad (Identity) Margarita Alcantara: Hello, my name is Margarita Alcantara and I'm a graduate from Kansas State University. I was in the Besitos program and I teach at Olathe North High School. As a child, I grew up in Mexico City in a convent, and so I live there from my kindergarten through elementary. In the convent, it was like kind of like military life. You have to follow a very strict schedule. You wake up a certain hour, after school you have more chores. I ended up over there, because my mom was having a lot of health problems and when she decided to put me there is because the doctors say that she might not survive when she was admitted to the hospital. So that's one of the decisions that she had to make. At that time, my sister and I were the little ones, I was three years old and my sister was a baby, and so she had to decide who was going to take care of the kids. One of my dad's sisters is a nun, and she's the one who will say, I can help you with that. Coming to Kansas was very, very different from what I was used to. I remember my first Sunday here, so my brother and my dad and my sister, they were getting ready and I thought they were getting ready to go to church because that's what we used to do in Mexico. And then I was like, OK, so where are you guys going? They said we're going to work. I was like but today is Sunday. And they said, well, welcome to America. So that was a real shock for me. Well, I think my mom is the one who really influenced a lot of me to like pursuing education. She doesn't know how to read or write, but she encouraged us a lot, like please don't stay like me, go to school because I'm like a blank person. That really encouraged us to continue. I worked at so many different places when I came here to this country as a teenager hard jobs like the beef packing plants, those are really hard jobs. So when I was almost 30 years old, I was like, I don't want to be in this place the rest of my life. I need to go back to school and also make it, because at that time, my girls, they were middle school and I was like, how can I tell my girls that school is important if I don't go to school, I need to be an example for them. And also, as Latinos, sometimes you get put down when you're a female and you have kids and you're a single mother. I want to show my family that even though I have kids and I'm a single mom, I'm going to show them I can do that too. When I was at the community college, I had the opportunity to tutor students, but that was not the only thing that helped me to become a teacher. It was when I had the opportunity to teach the GED and the adult education. When I start helping other adults like me, I really like it. And I was like, I think really I want to be a teacher because I'm helping others and that makes me feel good. I'm going to make a difference later on. When I had the opportunity to go back to school here, I received a lot of encouragement from a lot of teachers that they believe in me, even if I was not a traditional, like regular student. I went back to school when I already have kids, so I feel very welcome and encouraged to continue. The Besitos program, I think we understand ESL students better because we went through very similar challenges, so has helped not just me, but it's helping me help other students to continue and to see that oh you can do it. If I did it, you can do it. For me when I was in the Besitos program, we formed like a little family. We help each other, like finding ways to survive in the university because most of us were coming from different backgrounds. (Spanish begins here) I know many things happened in my personal life, especially when I was almost done with my career. Even more when I lost my daughter. It was very hard, but fortunately many people supported me a lot, friends and everyone, like yourself, were always there. many people were telling me, "Keep going." I also did it for her, I kept on going. I remember you were always in every court asking and seeing how my daughter's case was going. I also remember Gabriela Sabates, that I didn't even realize, a month had almost gone through and I was sleeping in my apartment, I was in my room, not even sleeping, I was just in there. I remember her coming into the apartment and she went for me and took me to the psychologist so that I would begin appointments with her. Many teachers told me, every single one I had, "Don't worry about the classes, we can stop them, we'll freeze them for the rest of the year." Everyone helped me, friends and family. That really helped me to understand my students, because many of them have been through many things. I don't know if it's because of what I've lived, but I feel that many students open up to me and tell me what they've been through. Some of them, even though they tell me, some of them give up. They don't want to keep going and they say, "No, there is no point in coming to school and all of that." There have been times where I said to them, "Look, I've been through the same. Yes, it's hard, when you love a loved one, everything is hard, but life goes on and we have to keep going for ourselves. You have to do it for yourself and for the people you love." It helps me be more comprehensible, more patient, to try and support them more than anything. To make them want to do it, because they remind me of myself. I was in that situation, and if all the people that helped me weren't there, I think I would've never finished school. What I like the most about teaching right now is that I like the age that I teach. I never thought that I was going to like teaching teenagers, especially because at that age you think you know everything. But then I think about it, well, some of these students, they don't even have their families. Some of these students, they see you like their mother, like it's someone else that they can trust. And I like it. I can give advice to them and not just learning the math, but also learning about what opportunities that they can have, that they don't have idea what they can do. When I was working at the beef packing plants, or the motels, I went to work because I need to go to work, but here I don't feel like oh I need to go to work because I need the money. No, I like to go see my students. They become like your second kids. Esperanza (Hope) Betty Sanchez: I was born in Texas. When I was two years old, my parents took me back to Mexico, so I grew up in Zacatecas. I have five brothers and four sisters. My dad is a carpenter and my mom was a housewife. Saturdays and Sundays with mom and dad, we always watch movies together as a family. My dad will cook for us and my mom will teach us how to cook so we could spend more time with them. I am Betty Sanchez. I live in Emporia, Kansas. I've been working at Village Elementary School for about nine years. I am a Besitos student and I'm a graduate from Kansas State University. When I was in Mexico, they always told us that they wanted us to be someone important in life. The reason that I came to the United States was my dad said that at some point in life I was going to be needing to get a career and learn the language. At the age of 15, I moved to Hugoton, Kansas, and they sent me with my uncle and his family and that's where I started my high school year. Since I was in elementary school. I knew that I wanted to become a teacher because I wanted to help my brothers and sisters. Since I was the oldest I knew that was that was something that I wanted to be, because I come from a big family and I knew that that was something that I needed to do in my life, that will be helping others. When I started high school in Kansas, it was very difficult for me to communicate with other teachers, but my ESL teacher spoke both languages and she always told me not to be embarrassed about speaking the language because then I will not be able to learn it if I was still afraid of speaking to other people. Daniel Sanchez, Betty's husband and teacher at Emporia High School: Betty and I have been married for now, this is going to be our 13th anniversary, so we started talking and she would always come and cook for me. That's the easiest way to gain a man's heart, Betty is always preparing her lessons. She's always working hard, she's always making phone calls to parents, and she's always going to reward her students. In my case, it was my calling, I wanted to be a teacher and helping others who are at the same situation we were and how we can pave the way for them. And we're there for students. In this case, students who don't know English. Betty Sanchez: The Besitos program is like your second home, you have a lot of friends in there that are younger, that are older than you, and they can be sharing a lot of different experiences to you, their families, that you can make a lot of connections to them. So I think the Besitos program is one that you can be in a room and talk about anything. Talk about mom, dad, brother, sisters, cousins, especially about the food, too. I mean, that's the one thing that you miss when you're away from home. So then we ended up getting together, sometimes at different houses and then cook. So I think the Besitos program was more like a family. They wanted you to feel comfortable, feel welcome, and knowing that there's more people there that are similar to you and that they're going to hear your voice. When I first went to college, it was very tough for me. I got homesick, I didn't speak the language. I was placed in a classroom with many different cultures because my English was not good enough and I was not able to take any regular classes. Daniel Sanchez: It was a challenge for her. But then at the same time, it was just more like a psychological barrier in there. I mean, we think, oh, I'm not worthy enough or I don't know enough English. That's our thing. Basically, when we come to this country and we're learning the language at a later age, we're like, I don't speak English good enough. Betty Sanchez: When I became part of the visitor's program, I felt more comfortable because I can make the connections with all the other students that after sharing their stories and knowing where they were coming from. Some of them had their families back in Mexico. Other ones were living with uncles or they were living by themselves. I felt the connection. I felt more secure about myself. I was able to be in regular classrooms. I think that the Besitos program helped us a lot to think about why we want to be teachers. I think because of the experience that we have and the things that we have passed through in the need of the students that we see in our classrooms, help us to stay there. I feel like if I leave, what's going to happen to those students? Who's going to leave them? (Spanish starts here) I feel connected with all the students, those who are newly arrived and don't speak any language and the other children learning English. They can connect with me because they can speak the same language. When they arrive and see me, you can see it on their parents' faces, mainly. They are like, "Oh my God, she speaks Spanish." I can tell parents are more involved. I can see it in how they come to the meetings, to our activities, because they can find that connection, and I can feel it's something not everybody can offer. I feel very proud of helping, even if they are from a different culture. The language is the same, though, and we can learn different vocabulary words. It's about helping them make progress. It's sometimes a challenge, especially when you have parents sometimes look at you like you don't belong here. People think you don't have any experience. Because you look young, they think that I don't have much experience. Or for looking Hispanic, they think that I don't speak the language, that I won't teach their children well. In fact, this year I've had a few students from the gifted program, special students with a very high academic level. I think their parents were worried about what I was going to teach their children and how long I have been working here. Later, a month or two later, the parents came and they told me that they had never seen their child so happy at school before. That their children wanted to learn and were happy about everything they were learning. That the child was happy about coming to school every day. Okay, let's see. Are we ready? (claps) Amazing job table number two and table number three. They were responding, some examples of successes that I have seen on my students are that they are more open minded. They feel more comfortable speaking now that they are in fifth grade, sixth grade. They are always very appreciative of me teaching them Spanish and how it's been helping them to communicate with other people in town or when they travel to other places. I still have students that come from high school. They come and check on me and say, thank you so much for what you taught me when I was in your class or because of what you did I feel like I'm going to be someone successful in life. The role model that I want to be for my students will be one that never gives up, even though things are hard in life, you always have to look at the doors that are open for you. Dr. Socorro Herrera: Why is it important to know where we come from and why is it important for those who teach us to know our biography says if you don't know where you're coming from, will you know where you're going? And oftentimes we get placed upon us messages that begin to fade away, the true colors that we really are, and our histories that we should all be proud of , and our language. And so often times in the Besitos program, we had to be reminded. We have to be reminded that although we have these societal burdens or messages that we begin to own, that we have to bring out that beauty and those gifts that we have that really outshine any message that we get. We have to get that from our family ,and we have to get that from the mentors, the teachers, reminding our own students in the future that although you might be burdened with things that sometimes seem so overwhelming, there's hope and there is the gifts that you have within you. Every child has a gift. We just have to go look for it and make it shine. And I think that with our Besitos students, there is no gift like being a teacher. In our work at Kansas State University within the College of Education was to constantly remind every student that whatever message they got, there was a louder message within them to send out and that there were those people who believed. Dr. Debbie Mercer: So the impact of the Besitos students earning a bachelor's degree ripples in so many ways it impacts their own family. But it also set a model of I can do this. They can say to students, yes, college is hard, but I did it and so can you. So the legacy Besitos left was an emphasis on students, an emphasis on individual needs and support structures, and an emphasis on changing the demographics of teachers in Kansas. It's important that we are making very concerted efforts to ensure that all students have authentic models that they can connect to. This person looks like me, talks like me, gets me. So it's building those relationships in very authentic ways that was laid in the foundation of the Besitos program. Dr. Kevin Murry: We desperately need teachers who can work with refugees and students who've had traumatic situations in coming to this country. And so it's critical that we begin to build our capacity to better educate these students before they're lost in the system. Dr. Socorro Herrera: When a family walks in and sees that there is someone sitting there that looks like their child, it just solidifies for the child and the family that there's equity in the space. We can't talk enough about the need for teachers of color in our classrooms because that diversity of educating one another is powerful. Dr. Pat Bosco: I'm just not aware of a program had this kind of success rate, not only students finishing an education, but going on remaining in education. What a tremendous investment of youth of today and the families of tomorrow. Dr. Socorro Herrera: So to all of you beside those students, my message to you is to continue to do what you're doing, to continue to love and be committed to a profession that's like no other and keep encouraging your students.