Four Diplomas, One Family’s Journey: Juan Lopez Ruiz’s Commitment to Education

As the fourth sibling prepared to graduate from college, Juan Lopez Ruiz and his family began planning a celebration.

The conversation turned to what each of them had done to earn their bachelor’s degrees: the work, the sacrifices, the years of persistence. Then they began talking about their parents, whose sacrifices had made those opportunities possible in the first place.

“We decided that the degrees also belonged to them,” Lopez Ruiz said.

After his youngest brother graduated, the siblings presented their parents with all four framed diplomas outside the ceremony venue. Back home, their mother cleared a wall above the dining room table and had their father hang them there.

“Every so often, I would catch one of them just looking at them in silence,” he said.

For Lopez Ruiz, now a math teacher at John Finney Education Complex, that wall holds a family’s shared accomplishment. His parents brought him to the United States from Mexico when he was about 3 years old, and he worked in fields and packing plants around Yolo County. Neither had the opportunity to continue school beyond middle school. All four of their children would eventually earn college degrees.

His own path there was far from straightforward.

Growing up in Winters, Lopez Ruiz figured out how to get through high school without putting much into it. He chose easier classes, earned a C average, and graduated believing he had found a shortcut.

“I thought I outsmarted the system,” he recalled.

After graduation, his parents gave him two options: attend community college or get a job. He chose American River College because it seemed like the easier route, only to discover how unprepared he was. He found himself revisiting material he should have learned in high school.

But something surprising occurred in those college math classes. He began helping his classmates understand the work. A counselor connected him with a campus tutoring job and encouraged him to consider teaching.

The student who had coasted through school was beginning to imagine a future assisting others to succeed.

When he transferred to California State University, Sacramento, Lopez Ruiz pursued ethnic studies with a minor in mathematics. He also joined California Mini-Corps, tutoring students from migrant families in Yolo County and working in its summer outdoor education program. He later completed his teaching credential through Sacramento State’s Bilingual Multicultural Education program.

His parents supported his decision to teach, although it initially puzzled them. They knew a son who had never particularly enjoyed school.

Then his work brought him into the homes of families in the community where he had grown up.

During visits to discuss students’ progress, parents would ask: “¿Eres el hijo de Angel y Angelica?”

Are you Angel and Angelica’s son?

Some knew his parents from work. Others shared connections that stretched back to Mexico. One student’s father came from the same area of Michoacán as Lopez Ruiz’s father and functioned as both his father’s friend and his mother’s coworker.

When that student invited him to a birthday party, Lopez Ruiz initially thought little of it. Later, his mother brought up the invitation. The boy’s father had told her that his son had saved a slice of pizza for his teacher. He also told her how much the child looked up to Lopez Ruiz and how much his help meant to him.

“I think at that point she realized how much I enjoyed teaching and how much impact I could make,” he said.

That feeling of purpose eventually found a home in Vallejo, though his first year in the profession tested it.

After a difficult year teaching middle school in the Fresno area, Lopez Ruiz questioned whether he wanted to continue. Near the end of summer, he began looking for a position back in Northern California. Vallejo City Unified School District had an opening for a math teacher in its alternative education Community Day School program.

He joined the district in 2012 and remained with that program until transferring to John Finney this school year. He now teaches mathematics to students in grades 11 and 12.

Vallejo’s diversity and deep community roots made an impression on him. He met students whose families had attended the city’s schools for generations. In his classroom, he wanted to create a place where students felt safe physically, emotionally, and intellectually, and where they could give learning another chance.

He brings his own educational struggles into those conversations.

His students hear about the times he had to retake algebra because he could not earn a C or better. When he makes a math or spelling mistake, he welcomes their corrections. Those moments help establish that knowledge belongs to everyone in the room.

“By correcting my mistakes, I establish that I am not the only source of knowledge in the class,” he said.

He hopes that knowing his history helps students see their own obstacles as something they can work through.

That matters particularly in math, where he regularly encounters students who believe ability is a gift rather than a skill they can develop.

One student struggled with basic arithmetic and repeatedly second-guessed correct answers until they arrived at an incorrect one. The frustration made it difficult to move forward with more advanced work.

Lopez Ruiz began working with the students individually and in small groups, using a calculator to help them progress through higher-level math while continuing to develop foundational skills.

As the students’ confidence increased, their trust in the calculator gradually decreased. Eventually, the student earned enough math credits to graduate.

“The best part of the job at John Finney High School is seeing the students gain confidence in their education,” he said.

During his first week at John Finney, other students told him they had never liked math but liked the way he taught it. They were willing to give the subject another chance.

For someone who once struggled to see the value of his own education, that willingness matters.

Growing up, Lopez Ruiz saw few Latino teachers, particularly after elementary school. Studying ethnic studies helped him understand the barriers that communities like his own had faced in accessing education. Becoming a teacher gave him a way to help future generations see themselves in the classroom and imagine what they could achieve.

His own family had helped him build that belief. His father taught him the value of hard work. His older sister was the first to navigate college, graduating from Sacramento State and showing her three younger brothers what was possible.

Today, he and his wife, Sylvia Lopez, a first-grade teacher at Cave Language Academy, are passing those lessons to their 3-year-old daughter. Together with their extended family, they speak, sing, and tell tales with her in Spanish and English. They gather for birthdays, holidays, cultural traditions, and any other occasion that gives them a reason to celebrate together.

“Everyone becomes closer to each other with every celebration,” he said.

That belief in connection additionally shapes his advice to students: ask for help. Learning does not have to happen alone.

“Asking for help and collaborating with others is the quickest way to learn,” he said.

The four diplomas above his parents’ dining room table tell that same story. Each bears one child’s name, but the siblings knew how much their achievements belonged to the people who helped them get there.

Now, in his John Finney classroom, Lopez Ruiz helps students work toward their own diplomas.