Jaime Escalante’s students –– where are they now?
The Futures Channel highlights Jaime Escalante’s greatest achievements: the success of his students.
(PRWEB) September 3, 2005 -- In a special feature published on The Futures
Channel website, Garfield High School alumni from 1976 to 1995 describe what
they are doing today and the influence their legendary teacher, Jaime Escalante,
had on their success.
Among the students featured on the website, who
have gone on to successful careers in medicine, law, business and engineering,
is Thomas Valdez, a Research Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Part
of Garfield High School’s class of 1991, Valdez passed the advanced placement
Calculus exams after attending Jaime Escalante’s mathematics classes for three
years.
Now conducting research at JPL for the development of new fuel
cells, Valdez is grateful for the strong work ethic that Escalante instilled. He
explains that “one of the things Escalante gave me that I still hold dear to my
heart now is he gave me the ability to push myself.”
Like Valdez, Dr.
Armando Islas, the first of his family to go to college, credits Escalante with
providing a “life altering experience” for him and his classmates. Islas recalls
the encouragement that Escalante gave him more than 25 years ago to “do anything
you want to do and nobody can put a ceiling on how high you can go." Islas took
this advice to heart and has enjoyed careers as a dentist, a police officer and
a CEO.
The Futures Channel, a digital media publisher making real-world
connections to mathematics, engineering and science, chose to highlight
Escalante because of his hands-on approach to teaching mathematics. In 1990,
Escalante wrote, “I believe that math teaching should be peppered with lively
examples, ingenious demonstrations of math at work and linkages between math
principles and their real-world applications.”
Since 1999, The Futures
Channel has been producing video programs to give students that real-world
connection by going behind the scenes with the scientists, engineers, designers,
explorers and visionaries who are shaping the future.
“The Futures
Channel team pioneered the creation and delivery of short, broadcast-quality
video clips and ‘micro-documentaries’,” said Dr. Eric Robinson, Professor of
Mathematics at Ithaca College, “which teachers can use to bring context and life
to their lessons and engage their students. This is a new direction for
educational media, one that fits the way that teachers actually
teach.”
The Futures Channel caught up with Escalante and his students
when Steve Heard, the Futures Channel’s CEO, recently co-produced an event for
the Center for Youth Citizenship in Sacramento to honor Escalante’s achievements
and contributions to education. The Center’s Executive Director, Dr. Joseph
Maloney, along with actor and activist Edward James Olmos, presented the
Bolivian born educator with its Highest Office Award. Inspired by Supreme Court
Justice Frankfurter who asserted that, “In a democracy, the highest office is
the office of citizen," this special award was created to acknowledge
individuals who, in their capacity as citizens, have made extraordinary
contributions to society and who exemplify the finest qualities of citizenship.
For further information contact:
Jenna Bowles
www.thefutureschannel.com
(818) 557-3300
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/9/prweb279988.htm