During his time at college, Mr. Garcia was a research assistant in a psychology lab which unknowingly revealed to him the career he now cares so deeply for. After teaching for 15 years, and a couple more years of school Mr. Garcia finally got to change his name to Doctor Garcia. He realized that all he had to do to achieve this dream was to “Put my passion for history and working with younger generations together.” Essentially, teaching easily became something that Doctor Garcia feels a whole lot of happiness for just knowing that he can watch his students learn and grow every day. Although his doctorate journey was long, Doctor Garcia is pleased to continue teaching the subject he loves most this school year.
This year Doctor Garcia is teaching five advanced placement (AP) World History: Modern classes. This course is designed for sophomores and shows them economic and cultural changes from the 1200s to the present day. In addition, he has taught courses such as pre-AICE global perspectives for freshmen and is also currently teaching one government economics honors course for seniors.
Doctor Garcia has always enjoyed World History even from when he was still in high school. He finds that “Depending on what perspective or lens you look through, history can be told in so many different ways and that is what I kind of promote [to] my students as they learn.” Additionally, the way the course is designed, is it dives into some of Doctor Garcia’s favorite topics to teach such as networks of exchange specifically dealing with the Mongols. Although he has more AP classes this year than last, he is now “able to read a lot of writing samples and give a lot of accurate feedback with writing,” since his doctorate is officially over.
After finishing his master’s and doctorate, Doctor Garcia completed five years of school for his degrees. He went to the University of Florida for his history degree, Barry University for his master’s and educational leadership, and most recently the University of Miami for his doctorate of education and applied learning sciences. His motivation started during COVID-19 when he decided to do his master’s and be productive with his time. Doctor Garcia further explains, “The masters were pretty challenging and since I already got back in the mode of being back in school I figured I would keep pushing and crank out the doctorate [as well].”
Not only was Doctor Garcia still doing his doctorate last school year, but also he was still working full-time as a teacher. The biggest thing that Doctor Garcia had to overcome was being a single father and maintaining all this schoolwork. Because of this, he had to learn his priorities and find a balance that works best for him. Along with that “On the weekends [was] when usually all my work was due, [so] I would go over to my mom’s house and she would kind of entertain the kids while I did homework,” he expressed.
As he was getting closer to finishing, Doctor Garcia realized “It was a team effort [and] I appreciate all the help I got from my family. I mean [truly] a lot of it is a credit to them.” Even the little things his grandparents and parents did to help with the kids or the house meant the world to Doctor Garcia. Being able to graduate in May of this year, Doctor Garcia can confidently say that “[It was] probably the proudest I have ever been of myself, cause I knew how much effort I put into it and I was [so] elated that I was able to get it done and to be able to finish with a 4.0.”
For all he has done, Doctor Garcia hopes that his work inspires his kids to “Maximize their potential and to show them that if I could do it at this stage in my life that they [are capable of] pushing forward and getting a doctorate in whatever they want to be.” Similarly, he also wants to give “A testament to my grandparents and the sacrifices they made coming to this country from Cuba to be given opportunities like this to get my doctorate.”
Looking back on everything he has done, the best advice Doctor Garcia can give to someone who is trying to get their doctorate is “Just stick with it and trust the process. As long as you take it step by step and just enjoy the time flies by.” While the journey is long, Doctor Garcia is pleased with his outcome and wouldn’t want to trade his learning opportunities for anything in the world.
