This student has become the first Latino DACA recipient to win a Rhodes Scholarship

“She was one of the greatest blessings I’ve ever had in my life,” Potts told CNN’s Poppy Harlow.

“My parents didn’t go to college. My parents had me when they were 16. So, she really became kind of like my mother’s first mother. She went out of her way to teach me hard.”

Which included a lesson about what it means to be a Renaissance man, a term the young Potts took into account. In addition to his academic success, Potts is also a violin reader and is fluent – or fluent – in nine languages, one of which is Chinese.

In his announcement, the Rhodes Trust wrote, “Santiago has been a teaching or research assistant for leading professors in physics, philosophy, social psychology and neuroscience, and has won numerous college awards for leadership as well as academic performance. As for the status quo, DACA was one of the shortcomings filed in the Supreme Court to uphold DACA. “

“He’s very full. He’s a round man,” Esteva told CNN.

“With the highest moral caliber, with a sense of justice, with a sense of what excellence is, and willing to sacrifice for excellence, not for performance, but for excellence.”

Esteva is a Cuban refugee and herself an immigrant to the United States. He said that means two generations of opportunity and success in the United States, both as a teacher and a student for Latino immigrants and refugees.

“I wish there had been a bigger national conversation about how important primary school teachers are,” Pots said.

She said that if Estava had not told her from an early age that she believed she could do great things.

For her part, Esteva said she only found what was inherent in pets as a child.

“I planted the seeds in the fertile soil. You took care of the plants. You are the one who made it possible.”