Several Teachers Changed His Life. Years Later, He Returned to the Classroom to Pay It Forward.

This story originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of Texas Monthly as part of our public-education feature, “What Our Schools Actually Need.” Roberto Garcia muscled rows of school desks across the floor of his new classroom, then sat quietly in the afternoon window light. He rubbed his thick black beard as he put together an Amazon wish list of school supplies he hoped benevolent friends would help him buy in time for the first day. Three weeks earlier, the 23-year-old had been selling home and auto insurance when he saw a Facebook post from Erika Vigil, an assistant principal at Dallas’s Thomas Jefferson High School, his alma mater, advertising open teaching positions. Having grown up in the low-income neighborhood that feeds TJ and having long wanted…

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