At the age of 4, Francisco Jiminez and his family crawled under a fence crossing the border between Mexico and America. Working from sunrise to sunset, the entire family made only $15 a day as migrant farmworkers, living in one room shacks and tents without electricity or running water. As a result of his family's illiteracy, persistent poverty, and transient lifestyle, Professor Jimenez's education was sporadic at best. In his early years, he largely educated himself, reading books he found at the local dump.
Today, Professor Francisco Jiminez is a professor of Modern Languages at Santa Clara University, an acclaimed author, and the winner of numerous awards. At the global level, Professor Jiminez creates awareness about the plight of migrant farmworkers - his award-winning books, which include the autobiographical novels The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child, and its sequel, Breaking Through, have been published in English, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.
At the local level, Professor Jiminez touches the hearts and souls of his students; he changes lives. Because of his influence, I went from being known as the daughter of Mexican-American farmworkers to the first Mexican-American (first minority) president of the Harvard (alumni) Club of San Francisco. I was elected by a board comprising mostly affluent, Caucasian males who graduated Harvard before I was born. All this occurred because Professor Jimenez instilled in me a confidence I had not known before.
Professor Jimenez, recognizing that I lacked certain basic skills in college, spent personal time coaching me as a student at Santa Clara University. He believed in me. He convinced me that I was intelligent and capable of graduating from Harvard. Now, as a teacher, I instill such confidence in my disadvantaged students and direct them to schools like Stanford and Harvard.
He was named a U.S. Professor of the Year by CASE and the Carnegie Foundation in 2002 because of his contributions to undergraduate education and success of his students. He is capable of welcoming (disadvantaged) students into the world of academia and making us feel like we belong there.
Read More Hero Stories >
