Little did I know I would become the first native-born Mexican-American to become an elementary school principal in Minnesota.

Many people just think of illegal immigrants as workers, people who don't earn a high-school degree or people who are ignorant. But there are many students like me who want to be able to go to college and work.

Now after everything is said and done, I miss the high school that was supposed to be my alma mater. I'm afraid to get my class ring, because we might just move back again and I'd be stuck.

With it being a school thing, I don't mind too much. Part of it is supposed to be more personal but with this I'm still a little nervous but because it's through school, I don't mind.

We can't even graduate our kids from high school. Across this country there is a crisis with Hispanic education. ... I think the American education system needs to change the way it teaches.

I couldn't help but to think back to my classmates at Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio. They had the same talent, the same brains, the same dreams as the folks we sat with at Stanford and Harvard. I realized the difference wasn't one of intelligence or drive. The difference was opportunity.