As told by Isaac Smith
At UVU I was shown a very different aspect of education, especially with the teachers and the mentors here. They were passionate about what they did and passionate about teaching students.
Photo by August Miller
Education — it was said that it was an option, but I was never shown how to achieve it. Either you have to work hard, you have to have a job, or go to school. But school wasn't really shown for me. The former was definitely shown more than the latter.
I grew up in Florida for 20 years before coming to Utah. I grew up in Coral Gables, so I was basically in a trailer park. My mother was a single mother. I had two older brothers and an older sister from a different father. Their father got more into gang life. They weren't as many options to be able to gain money. So one thing that was very present in my life growing up was that money was very needed to survive and to enjoy your life, basically.
My brothers went down to doing crime — selling drugs, selling designer handbags, and designer glasses, sunglasses. However, they were all stolen. They had very little choice in what they did. They weren't shown many options, especially coming from uneducated immigrant parents. So, it was very hard [with] what options we had. My brothers gave us a lot of issues with my mother, and she suffered a lot. But growing up, I saw how many issues they brought into our lives — or their own lives and our life as well — and how those issues have lasted up until this moment in time and most likely further, especially with their kids.
After graduating high school, I started working odd jobs. I worked in the food industry and at a moving company, delivering appliances to homes. I was going through the motions with no determination and no end goal of what I wanted to do. It was just money.
I met my wife, and she lived here in Utah. She showed me that education was an option for me. So I moved over here a year after I met her. After that, I attended Utah Valley University. I was shown a very different aspect of education, especially with the teachers and the mentors here. They were passionate about what they did and passionate about teaching students. If I had any questions or maybe something I didn't know, I had support there to help me get through that. That was one thing that I saw that was very different from the education in Florida.
Going to the general electives of mathematics and science courses, I saw how fun it was. It was very enjoyable. That's what I had as a child. I enjoyed science. I enjoyed math. I enjoyed learning about things. But that wasn't a possibility with the teachers that were there because a lot of them were there just to get a paycheck, and it's understandable.
The advice I would give to current students is to do what you want to do. One way I was lucky that my family supported me is that they always told me that I could do whatever I wanted. Don't worry about those pressures from outside. Worry about you. Be worried about what makes you happy because your life is not their life. You're the one experiencing it.
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