This time of year marks the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month. While this represents a great opportunity to celebrate Latino culture and swap stories about our favorite family traditions and recipes, it’s also a chance to shine a light on the challenges facing low-income Latino kids and families – and highlight the crucial role our generation can play in tackling them.

The current dialogue about immigration in the United States has put Latinos on the national stage. Unfortunately, it’s not the caliber of conversation our Latino communities deserve. The solution? We have to be the generation to change it.

As a Teach for America alum working at a school in Miami, I see the impact low-brow, high-level rhetoric and debate has on kids every day. I see the isolation kids feel in the lunchroom and hallways when their languages and cultures are nowhere to be seen. I see how hard low-income kids have to work to compensate for the opportunities they haven’t been given. I see how low expectations undermine students full of potential and promise, when their lives have just begun.

These injustices have nothing to do with ability or will. The gap in achievement between Latinos and their white peers stem directly from systemic gaps in educational opportunity according to race, class and zip code. With our country’s demographic makeup moving towards majority minority, unless we address these inequalities, we will soon be living in a world where the majority of students are behind.

When I first came to SU, I never thought I’d become a teacher or move to Miami. I had plans to go to medical school in the Northeast. But the more I learned about the scope of the opportunity gap, the more convicted I became that I wanted to be part of the movement to close it. Working in a classroom was a way to both empower students and learn the nuances of the shortcomings of our education system so that I could work to help fix it.

The systemic issues that hold low-income kids back are complex and frustrating. But we can’t give up or walk away. It’s up to us to use our experiences and education to empower the next generation. They are our future. Let’s set them up to make it a good one.

Angel Arroyo
2013 alum of SU and Teach for America-Miami-Dade
Dean of Culture and Science Department Chair at Brownsville Middle School, Miami