Hispanic students have a mentor in CHS robotics instructor

If Sam Alexander isn't the rookie of the year among Chandler High's teachers, he at least belongs in the discussion.

The first-year computer and robotics instructor is building excitement for science and technology among Hispanic students, and a $10,000 award from Honeywell, presented at the school Thursday, should keep the buzz going.

"We need inventors and engineers in our country," Alexander said, "and no one has really focused on the Hispanic population for that. I have a vision that they'll be inventing and selling to the rest of the world. And that money will come back here."

The award will enable Chandler's robotics team - one-third of which is Hispanic - to compete in an international event in June at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. It also will help fund Lego League teams at Galveston and Frye elementary schools, which Alexander sees as "farm teams" for the high school science and technology program.

Alexander, 36, came to Chandler High from Carl Hayden High in west Phoenix, where he helped mentor the much-publicized robotics team that defeated the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in competition almost two years ago.

He leaves no doubt about where he stands on immigration. On April 10, he joined some of his former Carl Hayden students in an after-school march to the state Capitol in support of the Dream Act.

"The Hispanic population is a part of our society that is vastly underestimated," said Alexander, whose ancestors migrated from Eastern Europe and ultimately settled near Yuma.

"Timing is the only difference between me being illegal or not."

Alberto Esparza, the president of Si Se Puede, a local non-profit youth organization, co-wrote the Honeywell funding proposal with Alexander. Si Se Puede recently named Alexander as its Teacher of the Year.

Source: Azcentral.com