In high school, Rafael Cordero always pictured himself attending Penn State University or Seton Hall University. The Milford, Pa. resident wanted to spend his Saturdays at Beaver Stadium watching football or cheering on the Pirates basketball team during March Madness. But that all changed the day Jeff Jones, director of admissions at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania walked into Delaware Valley High School for Immediate Decision Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw something in this young man,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI knew he was a Warrior.\u201d Right then and there he offered Cordero a full scholarship to ESU. Now, after three short years, the history major is getting ready to graduate and reflecting on his decision to attend ESU.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really wanted to go to a big school with a Division I athletics program. I love watching sports,\u201d Cordero said. \u201cBut when I first came to ESU I felt immediately connected with the campus.\u201d He started his freshman year with a heavy course load. \u201cI took 18 credits my first semester, and that was all I knew. I\u2019ve taken 18 credits every semester since, and now I\u2019m going to graduate in three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
By May he will have all the tools to become a history teacher: a great education, teaching experience in the classroom, and leadership skills he developed outside the classroom. He is a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success and a resident advisor in Hawthorn Suites. \u201cBeing an RA has helped mold my leadership skills,\u201d Cordero said. \u201cIt helped me have a voice and become more social and active on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cordero became an RA when he was 19. He was younger than most of the residents. \u201cI had to learn to be confident without being the biggest kid in the room.\u201d This confidence will help him as he enters the classroom to teach. \u201cYou have to be strict, but you also have to be genuinely good. If you have a sincere level of respect for the people you oversee, you will be a good leader and a good teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t regret not being at a big DI school. He gets to ESU Warrior games and spends a lot of time playing basketball at the Mattioli Recreation Center. But it\u2019s more than just the extracurricular activities for Cordero. He has made a connection with his professors that helped him excel at ESU. \u201cIt feels like what I do here matters. I don\u2019t know that I would have felt that way anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the professors are on the same page. It helps make the transition from one class in the department to the next seamless,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone has the same end goal.\u201d Cordero continued, \u201cNothing ever seems to get lost in translation because the classes aren\u2019t too big. There\u2019s a connection between the students and our professors.\u201d He wants to make the same connections with his students when he is a teacher.<\/p>\n
Cordero will spend his final semester at ESU student teaching at Dingman Delaware Middle School and Wallenpaupack Area High School. While at Dingman Delaware Middle School he will have a chance to engage with students outside the classroom. Combining his love for teaching with his love for sports, he will also be coaching basketball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In high school, Rafael Cordero always pictured himself attending Penn State University or Seton Hall University. The Milford, Pa. resident wanted to spend his Saturdays at Beaver Stadium watching football or cheering on the Pirates basketball team during March Madness….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":15376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17,20,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-esu-success-stories","category-students"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15377,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15370\/revisions\/15377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}