Jose A. Ruvalcaba: Parent and former participant in the program

Jose Alfredo Ruvalcaba: My name is Jose Alfredo Ruvalcaba. I'm Nicolas father. Jose Alfredo Ruvalcaba: For my son the robotics program? Speaker 2: Yeah. Jose Alfredo Ruvalcaba: I think it was best thing that could've happened to him. he, he was actively involved with it, and he took it very seriously. And it took him to different, very different levels of I don't know, I like to think of sophistication.

Because I don't think I could of ever taught him all the mechanical skills and the people interaction. And how do we call it friendships that he captured in the program. And I, I was surprised, I didn't know that all that was going on till I started participating on it. And then I really got a feel for it. Jose Alfredo Ruvalcaba: I think it started, he had a, a project with making a car with some CDs.

And he just asked for my help. And we just kind of, you know, build a project and then, of course, we came to a, an open house and we saw his creation or our creation. And that's kind of where I met Mr. Shaeer. And then I kind of took an interest also because I thought it was exciting to see all that. All that development that I never, I never saw it in school, so I thought it was amazing that he was being exposed to all those different ideas.

Jose Alfredo Ruvalcaba: I think it's, I think it's been, I don't even know how to explain it. Essentially what we did me and my wife, we were very active in all of their, their school. I participated in almost up to 4th grade when he kicked me out of school from participating in all his activities in school. It was great because it was kind of a family involvement. I went to all his competitions. I think the only one that my wife missed was the the one from Atlanta because Tommy had other responsibilities to, to attend.

But it, it was always exciting. It was, it was great, I mean it was the, the ultimate experience to have with your son. So see him compete in, in San Diego and in LA, and in Atlanta, and to see the comradely there, there was developing with, with all the kids. I was like, it was amazing. I mean, I wish we had that kind of relationship at work, but It was great. It was a very good experience for, for the whole family.

Jose Alfredo Ruvalcaba: I mean, I always tease him that one of my weakest skills is presenting. And he seems to be a natural because he was doing presentations for Shaeer and he just, kind of like, I was really impressed with that. I mean, his confidence level just skyrocketed, you know, when he when he started participating in the, in the program. Definitely Jose Alfredo Ruvalcaba: the, the only problem I had with the program was that, you know, I wish more kids could be involved. I really wanted my son, Tommy to, to participate on it, but I don't think it, the I don't know if he wasn't interested or he just didn't get exposed to it or he thought he was just different.

But I mean to me, like when I talked to Shaeer was, you know, they should start this program at, you know, the ninth grade and just carrying them over all the way to the top, I think they, they could become so much more creative. I mean, and they can have so much more exposure to all the material. I mean, everything that he learned I think he would tell you that he almost feels confident that he could take a machine shop position anywhere. You know, and that, that to me was, that was, that was really special, because it gave him the confidence that he could be self-sufficient.

Jose Alfredo Ruvalcaba: I always like to say thanks to Mr. Shaeer. He he was he'd he had a tremendous influence on my son. I don't take any credit. I think my wife deserves most of the credit because she's really structure on, on her kids and Shaeer just kind of did 90% of my job. I just kind of, yeah he's my son. But Shaeer provided a lot of the the guidance, the direction, you know. The pursuit of higher education and I, I think I'm, I'm forever going to be grateful for that to him