I posted an interview I did with Ana Charavin a few days ago, and here's an interview with Alec Moreno. I first heard both of them speak at an Education Accountability Session sponsored by the Pima County Interfaith Council and decided to invite them to the cable access program I host with Ann-Eve Pedersen, Education: The Rest of the Story.

Alec's story is uniquely his, but it's also similar to that of many young Tucsonans. He took advantage of educational opportunities at high school — he went to Tucson High — including classes he took through Pima Community College. He's now studying engineering at PCC and plans to continue on to UA when he earns his associate's degree.

As a retired classroom teacher, I relate more to stories like this than to administration/school board battles over budget and governance. Alec's education is where the rubber meets the road. It's the reason we have a system of public education. He found people who helped guide him toward an education suited to his particular talents and interests. Through his involvement with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers group at PCC, he's already connected with students at UA and has become a student representative to the PCC Board of Governors where he's learning life skills that go beyond his classroom learning. Whenever we focus on all the big-picture trials and tribulations of public education, we need to remember stories like Alec's, which you find duplicated at schools across the Tucson area and around the country.