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Colombian student is the first Latino from the DACA program to win the Rhodes scholarship. He says he owes everything to his primary school teacher | CNN

2020-11-28T22:44:05.182Z


Colombian Santiago Potes, who came to the US when he was 4 years old, is the first Latino beneficiary of the DACA program to receive a Rhodes scholarship. Potes thanks his primary school teacher for his success. | United States | CNN


Santiago Potes came to the US when he was 4 years old, from Colombia.

(CNN) -

In second grade, Santiago Potes first entered Marina Esteva's classroom of gifted and talented children at Sweetwater Elementary School in Miami, Florida.

He was an undocumented immigrant from Colombia who entered the country when he was 4 years old.

Esteva said that she quickly noticed his intelligence and wanted to lead him to success.

Now, Potes is the first Latino recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to receive a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

On Saturday, the Rhodes Trust announced that Potes, a 2020 graduate of Columbia University in New York, would be one of the Rhodes Scholars in 2021.

Santiago Potes is pictured with elementary school teacher Marina Esteva, whom he describes as "one of the greatest blessings I have had in my life so far."

Potes traces all his success to Esteva, the teacher whom he saw twice a week from second to fifth grade in elementary school.

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"She was one of the greatest blessings I've had in my entire life so far," Potes told CNN's Poppy Harlow.

"My parents did not go to college.

My parents had me when they were 16 years old.

So she really became kind of my first mother figure actually.

She did her best to teach me a rigorous education.

That included a lesson on what it meant to be a Renaissance man, a term young Potes took seriously.

In addition to his academic success, Potes is also an accomplished violinist and is fluent, or nearly fluent, in nine languages, one of which is Chinese.

In their announcement, the Rhodes Trust wrote: “Santiago has been a teaching or research assistant to outstanding professors in Physics, Philosophy, Social Psychology and Neuroscience, and has won numerous university awards for leadership and academic achievement.

He has numerous publications on legal issues related to the status of the DACA [program], he was one of the DACA recipients, and his case was presented in a report to the Supreme Court to preserve DACA. "

It's so complete.

He is a complete human being, "Esteva told CNN.

"He has the highest moral caliber, a sense of justice, a sense of excellence, and he's willing to sacrifice himself for excellence, not for showmanship, but for excellence itself."

Esteva is a Cuban refugee and immigrant in the United States.

She said it means even more having Latino immigrant and refugee teachers and students, two generations of opportunity and success in America.

"I wish there was a broader national conversation about the importance of elementary school teachers," said Potes.

He said that he would not have achieved this level of success if Esteva had not told him from an early age that he believed he could do great things.

For his part, Esteva said that he has just seen what was already innately in Potes when he was a child.

«I planted a seed in fertile soil.

You took care of a plant.

You are the one who made it possible.

Potes will study International and Contemporary East Asian Politics at the University of Oxford with a view to working on national security in the United States.

His program will begin in October 2021.

Rodhes Scholarship

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-11-28

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