Daniel De La Torre: What Brings Me to Teaching

When I graduated highschool, my parents were proud of me and showered me with "Congratulations Daniel!" Which makes sense, considering neither of them have a secondary education due to the location in which they grew up in, and I am their oldest son. Nonetheless, it shows that I am making progress in my life, and I am going down the right path. However, graduation for me, I did not think much of it because in all honesty, highschool was not too bad. I felt as if graduating was a given.  That is unfortunately not the case for other students. I think with my parents not having a secondary education, I have this motivation that makes me want to become educator so that each student I teach, I see my mother or father. Educate them by telling them that regardless of where you come from or where you grow up, it is possible. It may be a difficult path, but it is possible.

In the picture where I am between two women, if it was not for the lady on the left, Elizabeth, I would not be at UIC. When deciding where I wanted to go to school, I wanted to go to Loyola to become a neurosurgeon. When I found out the ridiculous cost of the school, I decided community college is best. Elizabeth is someone that works with UIC who personally went up to me, and asked "Why are you not coming to UIC?" I told her my situation, and she told me that a student of my caliber would be letting this opportunity go away because I am perfectly capable of attending a four year university. She sat me down and walked me over my reward letter, and the cost looked too good to be true. Now, I like to think of her as someone as important as my mother. She keeps me in check about my grades, and is always letting me know of opportunities that would benefit me. Like my parents, she wants the best for me. Now, this goes along with me wanting to teach because having someone believe in you, aside from family members, is more powerful. Someone that is associated with school, that talks to you as a person, was something uncommon for me since I did not have intimate relationships with a staff or faculty member. I wish to be that person in a student's life because since I want to teach in a school of need, the system is made for them to fail. I wish to use my privelege to help others.

According to Ancestry DNA, I am more Spanish (Iberian Peninsula) than Mexican (Native American), but I identify as Mexican much more since my parents are immigrants from Mexico. My parents grew up in a very poor part of Mexico, and so they commited the act of sacrificing their life by illegally crossing the border to give my brothers and I a much better opportunity at life. I am very proud of my ethnicity because with the current racial tensions, it gives me all the more motivation to succeed against all obstacles. We are a very traditional Mexican family in thinking that hard work does equal success. This connects with me wanting to teach because a lot of schools in CPS have students of Mexican descent, and since math is overall a difficult subject to grasp, I believe that having a teacher that can relate with students helps substantially. I want to give back to my community.