(l to r) Kenia Gonzalez, Isaac Rodriguez, Fernando Herrera, Ariel Herrera, Leslie Vargas and Kimberly Rios-Hernandez
Indian Springs High School teacher Joe Kelly gets a bit emotional talking about one of his former students. “I get teary-eyed thinking about Kimberly graduating,” he says of Kimberly Rios-Hernandez ’20, who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Redlands in April. “She’s a great student and will do great things in life.”
As a first-generation college-bound student, in high school Rios-Hernandez had the talent and ambition to go to college, but she felt she needed guidance: “Mr. Kelly is the reason I’m at Redlands. He was always looking out for us. He made sure we got our application-fee waivers and helped us with the financial aid forms. We had no excuse not to take the SATs. He really went above and beyond for all of us.”
Several of Kelly’s Redlands students over the last several years, including Rios-Hernandez, are recipients of the Annexstad Family Foundation Leaders for Tomorrow Scholarship, a program that financially supports deserving students at select universities. Due to this scholarship, Rios-Hernandez, who earned her degree in psychology and plans to enter the medical field, graduated without college debt.
View the original article in Och Tamale, a publication by the University of Redlands
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