On
line
Clean break
After polishing his skills at GCU, Zenon Castro is transitioning
from custodian to teacher
B Y C O O P E R N E L S O N
A
s he cleaned the vacant classrooms in Mountain Vista
Elementary School during his shifts as a night custodian,
Zenon Castro could see in great detail the place where one
day he would teach.
The chairs that he lifted onto the desktops to make room for his
vacuum cleaner would be filled with young students eager to learn. Each
wall would display the subjects students would study: an English wall
with posters of the alphabet characterized by animals with names from
A to Z, a science wall detailing the four seasons, and another for math
with basic equations symbolized using apples or baseballs.
Castro’s lifelong dream of becoming a teacher is finally within reach.
The 32-year-old Grand Canyon University alumnus, who graduated with
a master’s degree in special education which he completed online in
June, plans to teach special-needs children.
Castro began working as a custodian at Mountain Vista, a K-6 school
in the Coachella Valley Unified School District in Indio, Calif., in 2012 to
pay the bills while gaining the 75 hours of student teaching required to
graduate. He is taking the Arizona and California state educator exams to
become a certified teacher and expects to receive the results this fall.
When he finally does get his own classroom, Castro will waste no
time setting it up just the way he always imagined.
“Designing my classroom is one of the most exciting things. The
way you design it says a lot about you as a teacher and is the foundation
of how students learn,” said Castro, a Coachella native. “I’ve wanted
this for so many years, and it’s a great feeling knowing I am so close to
reaching my dream.”
He felt called to work with special-needs children after his mentally
disabled older brother died when Castro was 3.
“I believe everything happens for a reason. Everything in my life and
the decisions I’ve made led me to this point,” he said. “I know my calling
is to be a special education teacher.”
Destined to teach
For Castro, helping children with disabilities started in adolescence. He
remembers trips to the hospital to visit his brother, who spent his entire
life there before passing away at age 5 of complications from premature
birth. Growing up without a sibling was difficult, and Castro mourned
that loss until his sister was born when he was 9.
His passion for helping people with disabilities carried over into
junior high. Castro often took care of his best friend, who was in a
wheelchair after being hit by a vehicle with a drunk driver behind the
wheel. Castro pushed his friend to class and around the playground at
recess, and they had sleepovers and hung out on weekends.
When his friend died during high school, Castro decided to pursue
teaching as a career. He earned a bachelor’s in liberal arts from
California State University, San Bernardino, in 2008, then became an
elementary school teacher’s aide for four years before joining Mountain
Vista as a custodian.
Working both jobs enabled Castro to mentor special education second-
through fourth-graders outside the classroom. Many visited him as he
cleaned after school, asking for homework advice or bullying solutions or,
most often, just to give a hug or high-five before heading home.
Castro often worked
14-hour days during
shifts as a teacher’s
aide and custodian.
GCU TODAY • 2 3
