You could call it a lot of things. A calculated approach. A multiplication of possibilities. An undeniable case of beating the odds.
But for Johnny Aviles, the intervention of his high school math teacher Jonathan Pisors -- an educator whose encouragement and expectations pushed Johnny from apathy to aspiration -- was more than all of that. It was, quite simply, exactly the push he needed to get to where he is today: a UNT math and education graduate ready to make a difference in the lives of his future students.
"He sent me down the right track," says Johnny, who after graduating from Fort Worth's North Side High School attended Tarrant County College before transferring to UNT. "My freshman and sophomore years in high school, I was just there to play football and goof around. Then my junior year, I met Mr. Pisors and he'd ask me questions like, 'What are your grades? What are you doing? What's next for you?'"
Johnny spent his junior and senior year determined to make Pisors -- and himself -- proud, adding nearly an entire point to his GPA by the time he graduated. That tenacity multiplied exponentially by the time he enrolled in undergraduate studies at UNT, where he chose to double major in mathematics and secondary education and take part in UNT's rigorous Teach North Texas program. All the while, Johnny -- one of seven children and one of two siblings currently in college -- worked two jobs to finance his university studies. It's been worth it, he says, to serve as a role model to his family.
"I didn't do all of this just for myself," says Johnny, whose goal after graduation is to teach high school math. "I knew that by earning my degree, there's a higher probability of my siblings going to college, that it's more likely my children and future family members will earn a degree. If I'm just a small part of the reason they keep pushing forward, that's enough for me."
And members of his family aren't the only ones he's hoping to motivate. Like Mr. Pisors, Johnny has his eye on encouraging students to do their very best, even when the path to a brighter future appears daunting.
"Everybody has a lot of things going on in their life, and sometimes it feels like there's nobody out there to support you," says Johnny. "Be the adult your childhood needed."