By: Sebastian Rendon and Geovanny Garay
BANG! BANG! BANG! Loud strikes to the walls echo in Ms. Ochoa’s classroom. Those who don’t attend Neuwirth may be concerned when these loud noises abruptly appear in their classroom. But to those who do attend Neuwirth will know that’s just the sound of everyone’s one and only best Physics teacher, Mr. Alan Rivera, at work demonstrating to students the difference between elastic and inelastic collisions.
The layers of life experience that make up the onion that is Mr Rivera have laid on top of each other for many years. But buried inside those layers is a side of Rivera not many take the time to acknowledge, which is tragic because if one takes the time and sits with this wonder of a man they’ll get the honor of knowing him on a deeper level. We had the privilege to interview him and we would love to share that experience with our readers.
To anyone, Rivera is an upbeat guy who is just oozing positivity and passion. When he is teaching his class anyone with functioning parietal and temporal lobes can tell he is fanatical about teaching. With such animated movement he keeps the classroom feeling full of life although being the ripe age of 50, he makes learning physics exciting and fun. You know it won’t be a dull day if you have his class.
Born on October 29, 1973 Rivera grew up in a farming community in a third world country that is the Philippines. Rivera was faced with many financial hardships, even being unable to see his father for many years due to working conditions. Rivera grew up mostly with his mother and siblings where he learned to be compassionate and loving to others. Education was instilled in him from a very young age being told “Education is the way out of poverty.” Rivera, along with his entire family had to wake up at 3 am when the cock crows rang out to begin work on the fields. Through this difficult labor, Rivera learned the values of determination and hardwork. Forced to work to make sure his family could get through, Rivera also had to still attend school right after.
Unfortunately the reality for many around the world is that they don’t have access to the advanced tools first world countries do. This was the reality for Mr. Rivera as well where he had to walk through dirt roads to attend school without technology - just text books and black boards with chalk. Rivera never really took a liking to school, but had gotten a huge interest in physics due to his teacher, Mr. Aragon (Franciso Aragon) who took Rivera under his wing when other teachers gave up on him. Mr. Aragon was such a role model to Rivera that he even uses some of his teaching traits on his own students, where if he has the chance he will teach his students with a more hands on approach.
After highschool, Rivera attended University of the East, a private university located in Manila (Philippines) where he completed his Bachelor in Science and mechanical engineering while being a working student as a draftsman for a textile company. After graduating in 1995 he became a junior assembly engineer for a machine factory. Rivera had worked in many different companies throughout his lifetime filling in almost every position there is in a company (besides HR) from an assembly engineer to being part of a business development and facility management division which he was assigned to be in charge of the intel project with 300 staff under his watch. He has worked for companies like Mitsubishi, Ingersoll Roland, Texas Instruments, and even MW Zander.
Rivera was an accomplished engineer during the early 2000’s, but his world turned upside down in the year of 2009. The person who raised him and taught him to be the compassionate and caring person he is today passed away. Rivera’s mother was a very important person to him, being the only parental figure he knew majority of his life, it took a big toll on him once she passed away. Rivera described his life as feeling meaningless and he lost his reason to keep on going, even questioning. “What's the purpose of working, what’s the purpose of having money if you cannot save the life of somebody you love?” Rivera fell into a state of depression during this time, even contemplating whether life is worth continuing.
Thankfully there was a turning point in Rivera’s life that brought him to where we see him today. When going on a family trip to Red Rock Canyon his son asked him how does one find the height of the canyon or the age of the rock, Rivera answered his son’s questions scientifically and his son absorbed this information and after stated, “Dad you know what, why don’t you go back to school? You explain it better than my teachers.” Rivera heard his son’s suggestion and once they returned home it was like fate where Rivera opened The Los Angeles Times and saw an ad from Cal State Dominguez Hills promoting a scholarship for teachers. That was the start of Rivera’s teaching journey. Rivera loves teaching and it also connects him with his mother since as he stated, “My mom never graduated from college but her dream was to become a teacher, she always looked up to teachers because they mold the young ones, there wouldn’t be any doctor if there were no teacher, there wouldn’t be no engineer without the teacher.”
Ever since then Rivera has continued living his life the way he chooses to. When asked “What plans do you have for the future” Rivera replied with a very Rivera like response, “I don't know. Every year I don't close my book, I don't guarantee I'll be back and every year I always say that because I'll always go with the flow.” Rivera always loves to say, “You plan things that will happen but at the end of the day what the hell happened.”
Although Rivera goes with the flow there is one regret he has which he says that, “If there's one thing of how I wish I would have brought her here and see how I became who I am: being respected by students, being respected as a role model to some of the kids who say that they don’t want to be in school.” He is a man of reflection and chooses his life decisions based on what is happening around him. For example he questions whether or not he is doing his students a disservice or if he is actually doing a good job, but he always tells himself “It's not over until it's over.” He suffers with an inferiority complex comparing himself to other teachers to see if he is good enough for his students. Rivera cares deeply about the education his students receive, so much in fact that he will even go into his own pocket to make sure he is up to date with all the information he is sharing. Paying for new lessons, labs, and conferences to make sure he is doing his best for his students. Rivera is an amazing teacher, father, and role model. He isn’t the perfect human being, but those imperfections and different characteristics are what make Rivera one of the greatest teachers and people we have the honor and privilege of getting to know.