Profile Text: Katie Johnston Audio Highlight: Hannah Perry Edited by: Sam Purkiss
“We’re moving to the US,” his parents said one day. Arevalo first took the news in stride, only to later realize, “Oh wait, I don’t know anybody there,” he said. “And then when I came here, I went to school and I was like, ‘Oh, right! English!’”
Cross-country moves are always difficult. A new home, a new school, and added distance between you and your loved ones can make the journey daunting for any American citizen. Such change pales in comparison to international migration, where a foreign home could require learning another language, adjusting to a vastly different political climate, and feeling alienated from native-born neighbors. Raul Arevalo Ramirez, a nineteen-year-old from Storm Lake, has done both. When he was in second grade, Arevalo and his family emigrated from Atotonilco El Alto in Jalisco, Mexico, to Storm Lake. He remembers the move being difficult and, worse yet, sudden. “We’re moving to the US,” his parents said one day. Arevalo first took the news in stride, only to later realize, “Oh wait, I don’t know anybody there,” he said. “And then when I came here, I went to school and I was like, ‘Oh, right! English!’”
Frightened that he would be unable to make connections with his classmates, given the language barrier, Arevalo dove into his studies feverishly. He recalls being frustrated by the extra English classes that he needed to take throughout elementary school in order to catch up with the other students. It certainly required effort beyond the expectations teachers put on his peers, but his hard work paid off and he “eventually got the hang of it.” These days, Arevalo studies computer science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, a testament to his remarkable perseverance and comprehensive grasp on a language once unfamiliar to him.
Of course, language wasn’t the only difference between Storm Lake and Atotonilco El Alto that Arevalo experienced. In Mexico, he said, children “mostly spend time outside, do things outside.” It was only when he moved to the United States that he realized that there were other ways to entertain himself in the colder Midwestern climate, things like video games or puzzles, which he discovered and “enjoyed a lot.” As he grew older and his English improved, Arevalo also found ways to occupy his time through school by participating in clubs and organizations.
His work with Mesenbrink highlights the importance of mentors in a young person’s life. Their influence can lead to lifelong interests . . .
In middle school, he joined the band, choir, theater, and robotics club, all of which continue to be a part of his life today. At Johns Hopkins, Arevalo was involved in a student-led production of The Drowsy Chaperone, in which he played the role of Aldolpho, a self-obsessed Latin lothario. The role required Arevalo to take on one of the show’s most dynamic and challenging songs as a solo. He said that he enjoys theater because he likes “stepping into the shoes of someone else, to see what it’s like through their eyes and get a new perspective on things.” He readily admitted that he had to change a lot when he moved from Mexico, perhaps a reason he values theater’s ability to transport its participants and audiences into different perspectives.
Another interest of his, robotics, opened doors for him and allowed him to make connections in the Storm Lake community. At the end of 2020, he and a friend joined AmeriCorps in town. In his position, Arevalo worked with children to teach them about robotics just as Angela Mesenbrink, faculty advisor of the robotics club at Storm Lake High School, had taught him. Arevalo attributes much of his success to Mesenbrink, saying, “She would always be there just to talk outside of school or also just to help me understand something that I didn’t understand.” His work with Mesenbrink highlights the importance of mentors in a young person’s life. Their influence can lead to lifelong interests and, in this case, charitable pursuits. Though he took a leave of absence from AmeriCorps to move to Baltimore for college, he plans to serve again this summer.
Based on his resume, Arevalo seems anything but timid. Though he said he had to put in hard work to meet people and make friends in Storm Lake, it paid off. It’s a good thing, too, he said, since his social network has helped him avoid burnout, and to fall back in love with learning. “I was taking school too seriously to where I couldn’t enjoy it,” noted Arevalo. That drive stemmed, in part, from his family. Though going to college is not always feasible for children of immigrants, Arevalo’s parents stoked his desire. While his parents were supportive of his extracurricular goals and encouraged them, he says the family motto was constantly, “You gotta go to college, you gotta get a good job, you gotta make money.” Luckily, he had his friends to help him navigate this intense pressure, “and they showed me there’s actually a balance between [rigorous study] and you can actually have fun while learning,” he said. “And that’s something very important to me because that’s where I found out that I actually enjoyed doing it. That’s why I came to such a big school with difficult courses.”
Johns Hopkins is indeed a big school, especially compared to his high school and Storm Lake’s Buena Vista University. So, what convinced Arevalo to make the move? “Senior year, we were talking during physics about college stuff, just ’cause it was one of those things, and the teacher brought up how one of his students attended Johns Hopkins, and he said that it has quite a few good programs, and we started talking about it, and I guess I got interested. Then I got an email from Johns Hopkins, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I should really look into this more, and I looked into it and decided [to] apply. I heard back around mid-March, and I got accepted. I was very happy, and by the end, when I received all my decisions, I decided. It’s not within Iowa, so I guess I’ll get a new perspective on things,” he explained.
Now with a taste of city life, he can say that, though he appreciates the quiet that comes with small-town living, he doesn’t see himself ever moving back to Storm Lake. That may have more to do with his career perspectives than anything else. Arevalo wants to work in artificial intelligence (AI) development. Though it seems likely that he’s thinking of Storm Lake in the past tense, it’s clear that the connections he made and that the experiences he had in town opened doors for him, helping to make his dreams a reality.
