Students at Sherwood Forest were inspired to be creators of their future world after meeting local news presenter, Jaime Mendez. Mendez is the pioneer presenter of Univision’s Seattle News program and primary correspondent for the Seattle Sounders. He was invited to share his personal journey and experiences with a 5th grade Dual Language class in Spanish. It was a great opportunity for the students to meet a local Latino leader who they watch in the news.
The students had plenty of questions for Mendez, long before he started his presentation! One asked about the challenges of speaking to a camera when millions of people will be watching. Another asked how Mendez remembered what to say. He taught the students how to speak to the camera like you are talking to a friend, and how teleprompters help news presenters know what to say on live television.
Mendez drew from his personal experience to inspire the students to pursue their dreams. He told them not only about his journey attending college, but shared his son’s experience in the Running Start program before attending the University of Washington. Mendez encouraged the students by telling them how smart they were and how they all had the opportunity to attend college.
Before he left, Mendez asked the students what their dream jobs were. Some of them wanted to be music teachers, actors, firefighters and doctors. He told them that it was perfectly normal for them to each have different dreams for their careers and inspired them to be creators of their future world.
