Main story: Determined teacher helps keeps students on Path to success
Teacher Jan Link has a mantra: Anyone can make it, given the right help after the school day ends. These are a few of the many students she helped.
• Juan Guitron: Getting down to work • Breeanna Martin: Figuring things out • Taylor Murgallis: From slacker to honor roll
BELLINGHAM — The quiet sixth-grader didn’t know why she picked him.
Juan Guitron was a good student who loved jazz music. He didn’t figure he needed much help in school.
He also didn’t think he would make it to a four-year university. His family doesn’t have much money.
Seven years later, Guitron, now 19, set down his backpack, took off his headphones and claimed a seat in the coffee shop on the first floor of Arntzen Hall at Western Washington University. He lives on campus and visits his family in Lynnwood most weekends.
Guitron plays in a jazz ensemble and balances music with core courses. The college freshman is tackling fourth-year music, no problem. The second-year microeconomics class is killer, but he’s getting through it.
He’s the first in his family to go to college. His parents emigrated from Mexico before their sons were born.
In sixth grade, Guitron got a letter. A woman named Jan Link was recruiting people for a club geared toward getting kids to college, no matter the obstacles.
She seemed nice, but Guitron was confused. Why him?
His first two years of high school showed him he needed support. He battled anxiety. His grades dipped below B’s. Link would call or meet with him. She encouraged him to do better.
When Guitron’s family couldn’t afford two months of fees for the saxophone he was renting, Link covered the cost.
“Whatever you were passionate about, she’d support it,” Guitron said.
By junior year, he had A’s and B’s. He took advanced classes in physics, Spanish, literature, European history, and government and politics. For college, Link helped with a $500 scholarship toward a saxophone of his own.
Guitron is deciding what he wants to pursue as a day job. He thinks he’d like to work in the tech industry, and play jazz gigs in his spare time.
“My parents didn’t go (to college) and I really wanted to, but now I’m here and I’m not sure exactly what I want to do,” he said.
No matter the path he takes, he knows he can succeed. Link doesn’t call him anymore when a grade slips mid-quarter, or when he needs to turn his attention from playing saxophone to studying microeconomics. Instead, Guitron catches himself when he’s slacking. He remembers when he doubted he could afford college, and Link told him that money and doubts should never stand in the way of his education.
Then he gets back to work.
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