After a 50-year career in the Navy and journalism, which took him everywhere from Hawaii to Antartica, Ricardo took a journey of a different kind back in 2019. He officially retired and relocated from San Antonio, Texas to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Between retirement and settling in after the move, Ricardo hoped to find a job or volunteer opportunity that would keep him active and get him connected to the community.
He tried a few different positions including contact tracing during the pandemic and editing a neighborhood news service, but he never settled into any of the roles. In January 2024, he finally found a new way to serve his community that felt right: high-impact tutoring through Math Corps.
“I had been looking for something more along the lines of grassroots service,” says Ricardo. Initially he thought he would serve in Reading Corps, which felt like a natural extension of his writing career. However, the greater need was for Math Tutors, and Ricardo stepped up. “I had to relearn some things, but thought to myself, ‘I can do this!’ And I’d consider it a very successful first semester.”
Thriving as a New Tutor
Serving at a local school in Milwaukee, he supported fourth through eighth graders as they learned fundamental math concepts crucial to success in and out of the classroom. Math Corps wasn’t just new for Ricardo: it was new to the entire state. Ricardo and eight other tutors helped launch the program in Wisconsin. And though tutoring math was a wholly new experience, Ricardo found he still used plenty of his journalistic skills while working with students.
“Engaging with people is what journalists do,” he says. “At its core, you want to inspire comprehension, in this case about math. But whatever the subject matter is, the skill sets are the same.”
Making Connections, Inspiring Breakthroughs
Although he’d never considered himself a math whiz, this perspective worked to his advantage when connecting with students: He knew how they felt.
“Math is daunting at first, if you go in with the mindset that ‘I’m bad at this,’” he says, having once thought that about himself. “The training dissuaded me from that… A whole lot of students say that themselves and it’s not true.”
Ricardo started his service in January and tutored more than 40 students in his first semester alone. Amidst countless great memories from that time, what was most gratifying to him were all the moments where he saw students grasp a concept for the first time, or ‘a-ha!’ moments, as he calls them.
“My coach observed a meeting with a student, and at the end she said to me, ‘How well you’re engaging with the student and how well she’s responding… I want to cry!’” he recalls. “The student wanted to learn.”
A Commitment to Serving Others
While tutoring math was a new experience, service has been central to Ricardo’s entire career. His first forays into journalism came after he enlisted in the Navy in the 1970s. Ricardo did not see combat, but proudly served as a journalist in the Navy for many years, learning skills that would come to shape his working life.
“The Navy taught me that I could thrive in service doing things I never thought I would be able to do, like be a math tutor!” says Ricardo. “That’s what service does for you: it makes you step out of your experience and helps you give back.”
His time in the Navy also instilled in him the idea that service is much more than a one-way street. For Ricardo, service has often given just as much as it has taken.
“Not only was I of service, I was being served in ways that are invaluable to me today,” he says.
New Year, New Subject
This school year, Ricardo has found yet another way to make a difference for students in his community. He’s back for a second year of tutoring, but this time with Reading Corps!
Pivoting to a different program meant starting fresh at a new school with a new set of strategies for supporting students. However, Ricardo was up for the challenge and has excelled in his new role. Helping students with literacy means a great deal to Ricardo: his parents emigrated from Mexico and at times struggled with written English.
“My life with them meant helping when they had to interact with the English-speaking world,” he remembers. Ricardo has seen first-hand how reading is a gateway to expanding both your mind and your life. “Getting children ready to learn and feel good about reading: those are my goals.”
Students across the nation need support from tutors and you can make a difference in their education and their lives. Whether you are interested in supporting students with reading, math, or early learning development, you can make an extraordinary impact. Explore opportunities near you and learn more by visiting join.readingandmath.org.