Conversations with Luis Chavez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Luis Chavez.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born and raised in Torreon, Coahuila, MX. My experience leading to success started when I met my wife Francis in the small town of Durango, Mexico. At that point in my life, I fell in love and decided to take a leap of faith by considering moving to the USA to explore another horizon and attempt independence from my family.

I left behind my family, not my roots, a potential professional soccer career, and an undergrad scholarship opportunity in hopes to run from some family trauma and some other personal issues in an attempt to become independent and resilient. I grew up in Mexico in a medium to low socioeconomic family of 3 boys, my parents, and me. I became passionate about soccer when my father introduced me to the sport allowing me to thrive and to want to learn and develop soccer skills, which eventually would open different types of doors including a scholarship to play soccer to get an undergrad degree at the Tecnologico de Monterrey Campus Laguna.

Unfortunately, my parents were going through a rough time, which ended up affecting me when it all fell apart because of the divorce and the separation of my family. My mother remained my true inspiration, especially when she became my mom and dad after the divorce. She consistently encouraged me to stay out of trouble and do whatever I could to become someone in life. She helped me and inspired me to develop a spiritual faith, a source of strength that would eventually get me through in my journey while introducing myself to the American culture trying to figure out what I could do or learn in a new setting.

My club soccer coach in my hometown became like a second father to me and kept me accountable pushing me and supporting me to never give up and to be comfortable stepping out of my comfort zone and facing challenges and life just how it needed to be dealt with to get ahead in life and reach my dreams. At the age of almost 23, I migrated to the USA with nothing, not even English skills, not knowing what it would be like for me and my future. I first moved to Dallas, TX in 1990. I started a job and started learning some English. I moved to Colorado in 1991 to become engaged to my beautiful wife 1991 and got married at the age of almost 25 in 1992. Before I got married, I did some work at a Longmont local McDonald’s store, work some concrete, and also worked for a substance abuse prevention program out of the Longmont Youth Center.

I started a Teacher’s Aid job with the St Vrain Valley School District at Skyline High School in 1992 also. After I worked at Skyline for a year, I continued my journey of 31 years now working for the district while learning higher levels of English skills through professional development opportunities through the district and also through the community. I started attending classes at Front Range Community College thanks to a scholarship awarded to me through the Hispanic Education Foundation. My wife and I had our first child in 1994.

I continued to learn English, became more proficient, and after completing my Associate of Arts at Aims Community College through the CU Bueno Center in Boulder, I took a break and continue to work for the school district, and also explored a couple of other jobs, which eventually made me realize how much I loved education and wanted to pursue an entire career in it! I started back the second half of my undergrad degree in 2000 at Metropolitan State College of Denver obtaining a Major in Behavioral Science and a Minor in Special Education.

During the time, I was working to earn my degree, my wife and I had four baby boys and as time went by I eventually had the opportunity to introduce them to soccer also and even coached them until they reached higher levels of club soccer and college.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It sure wasn’t a smooth road, especially leaving my family behind in Mexico to move to a different environment and culture was traumatic to a certain degree, but immensely rewarding as well as I accomplished much more than I feel I would have had stayed back in my hometown understanding now that it was not meant to be for me to stay there! It was a lot of ups and downs while growing up, facing daily giants, trials, and tribulations, and honestly what kept me moving forward as time went by is my faith, my mother, my wife, and my children!

Migrating to another country and staying focused on keeping my roots has not been an easy journey! To me, not knowing the language or much about the culture, other than through movies, was a shock! Having to overcome adversity to learn what I now know and do what I do now, is something I could not describe but have the best intention to share through a joyful and positive attitude showing how grateful I am for so many opportunities and so many people that showed me support and stayed with me every step of the way pushing me this far to only consider to continue to learn and keep working to empower as many people as possible!!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
By the time I earned my Bachelor’s degree, majoring in Behavioral Science and minoring in Special Education, in 2003, I had already explored several educational positions with the district, including being an Interpreter/Translator. I went back full force in 2003 to teach Bilingual Special Education at Frederick Elementary, I continued to grow and met lots more people while receiving full support from the district at all levels.

I was very fortunate to have many people helping me and encouraging me to get to higher levels to eventually impact our community as a mentor and role model. Starting to coach my kids opened the door to coaching club and high school soccer and have been doing it for the last 25 years. I am currently the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Liaison for the St. Vrain Valley School District as a teacher on a special assignment, I am the head soccer coach for Skyline High School and have been for the last 13 years, and hope to continue to learn and grow to continue to keep impacting people in the community and anywhere I go!

I am honestly nothing special just a testimony of determination, perseverance, integrity, respect, discipline, and encouragement, thanks to the support from many people in my life who believed in me, pushed me through having to make tough decisions at times, making many mistakes made along the way, but more importantly getting up to keep moving forward only to look back to see how much ground I had conquered with the unconditional, help, encouragement, and support from all of those individuals, both from the community and the professional field involved in my life.

I am proud of my wife, my children, myself, my family, my mother, and my father – both RIP, I am proud of who I am and what I do thanks to the amazing support and help from all of those who whether helped me a little or a lot, I can honestly and proudly say that I am a product of St Vrain Valley School District and its community were I grew to love everything about the area and education while working and learning from peers, students, and community members!

I am bilingual, bi-cultural, love humanity, and like to focus and see the good in everyone around me no matter what! I like to share and exchange experiences about faith, education, soccer, family, dreams, and sacrifice!

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I am constantly seeking partner agencies and collaborators to provide services, resources, and that would be willing to collaborate and work with our students, their families, and our community to jointly do what is in the best interest of our students and their families empowering them to become and remain productive citizens in our society!!

I am passionate about treating others with the utmost respect, believing in them, encouraging them, and inspiring them to stay strong and resilient creating awareness for them to give back to our community and making it a chain reaction where soon many more are impacted and benefiting from the care, encouragement, and support from those involved!!

Contact Info:

• Website: svvsd.org