Profile Assigment

The Rising of a Revolutionary Mind

As many students from the University of Puerto Rico system, Rodrigo Tañón has a part-time job in a retail store. One day an American gentleman showed up to buysome shoes and, naturally, Rodrigo put all his English knowledge into practice. At the end of the sale, in perfect Spanish, the man told Rodrigo that his English was excellent.
What that mandidn’t know is that Rodrigo was privileged enough to receive all his education in two different bilingual, private schools: Colegio San José in Río Piedras and Colegio La Inmaculada in Mayagüez.
Rodrigolooks like any other student in his fourth year: he attends class and hangs out with his friends at la plazita in front of the Chardón building. However, when you get to know him better, youdiscover that he is a young man with strong convictions, as a member of the revolutionary group of the Organización Socialista Internacional (OSI), he was once suspended for one year for being part of thestudent strike in the UPRM in 2010. One of those strong opinions that he shared was about the English education program being implemented at all public schools. He believes this is part of politicalagenda and a plan to take away people’s taxes.
Been raised in a family of shop owners, he knows the value of a second language for the sake of prosperity. However, his family was one who sufferedthe impact of big stores in the island and had to close their printing shop and move to the western region of Puerto Rico in 2005 where Rodrigo noticed that students are less prepared in the secondlanguage even if they attend bilingual schools. In 2008, Rodrigo was accepted into the Industrial Microbiology program at UPR-Mayagüez.
Although he is currently in the Microbiology Department, heplans to transfer to the political sciences program and someday be a professor in UPR-Mayagüez, where he will continue his fight for what he thinks is correct inside the UPR system and Puerto Rico....