Putting in the work to move up
Efrain Gonzalez, Olathe, is a testament to the power of hard work and perseverance. His mother brought him to the United States, to Satanta, from Mexico when he was 5 or 6 years old.
Growing up and graduating from Satanta High School in 1995, he was undecided what to do.
“I knew that education was important to improve my live and to achieve some upward mobility,” he said. “I had to do something.”
He knew about Fort Hays State University because he had friends who came here, and he visited the campus a couple of times. “The city wasn’t too big, and I liked it.”
He enrolled, majoring in information networking and telecommunications with an emphasis in media studies. But it was still, he said, “scary.” Satanta had a lot of Hispanics, but Hays at that time had only a few. There were English-as-second- language classes to contend with, and money was tight.
“I had to go with student loans, and I worked two or three jobs, but I knew a degree was going to help me.”
He met his wife, and when he was a junior they had a baby, “So then I had to buckle down, not only for me but for my daughter.”
In 1999, he graduated with a job already lined up. Some of his telecom classes had caught the eye of recruiters for the telecom giant Sprint, and he went to work for them straight out of college. He has worked for Johnson County for 11 years now.
His advice to other first-generation students is “keep working.”
“Keep working hard,” he said. “You’re not only doing it for yourself, but you’re doing it for your family. It brought a sense of honor to my family to say we have a college graduate. Do what it takes.”
“And now,” he continued, “there are a lot of resources, more than when I attended. There’s an abundance of resources to help you.”
