{"id":335,"date":"2016-05-01T14:33:53","date_gmt":"2016-05-01T14:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.kera.org\/class-of-17\/?p=335"},"modified":"2017-05-26T19:11:06","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T19:11:06","slug":"alex-gutierrez-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/class-of-17\/2016\/05\/01\/alex-gutierrez-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"She Dreams Of College \u2013 And Passing Geometry Class"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Gutierrez is a student at the International Leadership of Texas high school, a charter school in Garland. For Alex, math is a struggle. As junior year ends, a big geometry test looms.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Alex Gutierrez has dreams. She\u2019d like to go to college and study criminal justice. She wants to become an FBI agent or a police detective.<\/p>\n

First though, Alex has to get through junior year. And pass geometry.<\/p>\n

She failed geometry last fall. And now, she\u2019s scared about the final exam.<\/p>\n

For Alex, who\u2019s 16, junior year has been a big adjustment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been rough,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just feels like there\u2019s more work than there has been freshman and sophomore year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alex

Alex Gutierrez speaks in front of other students in her Mandarin Chinese class at International Leadership of Texas Garland High School. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

One recent morning, in math class, Alex and her classmates are reviewing math problems for their final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to find the area for that shaded part. You see there\u2019s a hexagon inside a circle,\u201d teacher April Nguyen explains.<\/p>\n

Alex needs to make sure she can calculate the volume and surface area of three-dimensional shapes. And figure out the properties and rules of polygons. And know everything she can about circles.<\/p>\n

Nguyen approaches Alex\u2019s desk and points at her worksheet.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow look, I like what you did, but I don\u2019t need that angle there,\u201d Nguyen says. \u201cBecause if you have two angles, you\u2019ll get confused.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s scary but exciting. … You\u2019re going to be starting to live the adult life.”<\/p>\n

Alex Gutierrez, high school junior<\/div>
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\"April

April Nguyen, who is Alex Gutierrez’s math teacher, is teacher of the year at International Leadership of Texas Garland High School. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

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Nguyen, who earned Teacher of the Year honors at the school, said Alex is working hard to raise her geometry grade. She asks for help outside of class. Alex even formed a study group with some of her classmates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the algebra skills, she is great,\u201d Nguyen said. \u201cYou can give her just any equation and ask her to isolate any variable, she can do it. But it\u2019s just the concept, where she reads a word problem, she doesn\u2019t know where to start. That\u2019s what she struggles with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nguyen said Alex needs to focus on the word problems, one sentence at a time, to avoid feeling overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just Alex. It\u2019s every student,\u201d Nguyen said. \u201cThey read the long word problem. There\u2019s a mouthful and then they\u2019re like, \u2018OK; now what?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex balances math with dual credit courses. So she\u2019s earning college and high school credit.<\/p>\n

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\u201cShe would be the first in the family to get a degree. It\u2019s important to me that Alex go to school. That she be successful and have a career for her own future.”<\/p>\n

Leticia Rocio Gutierrez, Alex's mother<\/div>
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\"Alex

Alex Gutierrez, right, and Olga Sandoval wait for the bell to ring in their Mandarin Chinese class at International Leadership of Texas Garland High School. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

‘What’s Out There For Me?’<\/h3>\n

Alex is also taking foreign language classes.<\/p>\n

Students at International Leadership of Texas are required to learn Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.<\/p>\n

The goal: to be trilingual by graduation, so students are ready for the increasingly global market.<\/p>\n

As junior year wraps up, Alex and her friends have been talking about life after high school.<\/p>\n

\"Alex

Alex Gutierrez is wrapping up her junior year at International Leadership of Texas, a charter school in Garland. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe talk a lot about it whenever we\u2019re walking to our next class,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s like, OK, we have like literally three weeks left of school and then we\u2019re going to be seniors and then we have to start turning in our college applications. And then we\u2019re off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marco DeLeon is assistant principal of the Garland charter school. He says juniors have a lot of questions. Reality is sinking in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for juniors you really start to see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of graduation and that next step, and what am I going to be doing,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat\u2019s out there for me beyond IL Texas High School?\u201d<\/p>\n

For Alex, it\u2019s Sam Houston State \u2013 a three-hour drive south, in Huntsville. Alex and her parents visited the college this spring.<\/p>\n

At home on a recent evening, Alex and her mom, Leticia Rocio Gutierrez, sit on the couch talking about the future. Her parents have always stressed the importance of education.<\/p>\n

Leticia Rocio Gutierrez\u00a0says going to college would mark a family milestone.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would be the first in the family to get a degree,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to me that Alex go to school. That she be successful and have a career for her own future, because we\u2019re not always going to be there for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alex

Alex Gutierrez, right, and Juliet Wickersham play a card game during lunch at International Leadership of Texas Garland High School. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

The Future: Exciting, But Scary<\/h3>\n

Alex\u2019s parents are from Michoac\u00e1n in southwestern Mexico. Her dad didn\u2019t finish high school; her mom did and studied to become an executive assistant.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s glad Alex is learning to be more independent, like driving. Alex\u00a0drives to school now. Still,\u00a0it worries her mom.<\/p>\n

\"Alex

Alex Gutierrez, center, jokes with students Andrea Martinez, left, and Marisol Mendiola, right, at the start of physics class at International Leadership of Texas Garland High School. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt makes me nervous that she might be on her phone or that she does something she shouldn\u2019t be doing,\u201d Leticia Rocio Gutierrez said. \u201cOr that she tells me she\u2019s somewhere she\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

That independence brings mixed emotions not just for mom, but for Alex.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s scary but exciting at the same time because you know you\u2019re away from your parents,\u201d Alex said. \u201cAnd then it\u2019s scary because you\u2019re gonna have to start supporting yourself financially and like getting a job and going to school. So you\u2019re going to be starting to live the adult life.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Alex, that next stage of life\u00a0will be here before she knows it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been rough. … It just feels like there\u2019s more work than there has been freshman and sophomore year.”<\/p>\n

Alex Gutierrez, high school junior<\/div>
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A Day In The Life Of Alex Gutierrez<\/h3>\n\n
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