Alberto Hernandez
Alberto Hernandez is SCORES’ San Jose Program Manager. Born and raised on the east side of San Jose, Alberto comes from a family of educators—his grandfather was a professor in El Salvador before the civil war brought the family to the U.S., and both his parents are teachers. After initially resisting the family tradition of education, Alberto discovered his calling working with kids after school. He's currently pursuing his master's in academic counseling at San Jose State while managing SCORES programming across two school districts. We talked with Alberto about growing up as the child of educators, his journey into youth work, and his vision of SCORES as a sleeping giant in San Jose.
You come from a family of educators, stretching back to your grandfather. How did that background shape you as you were growing up?
You know what? I think about how lucky I am to have that opportunity because a lot of people in my community don't have that. I think about what I can do to get that same feeling to our youth. That’s why I first got involved with after-school programming. I told the kids, Hey, I'm here for you. I'm going to be in your corner. So whatever you need, let's get it together. I like to see myself as a guide because I was lucky enough to have the support of my parents. But I know sometimes other people are not as lucky, and so I feel like it's my calling, my duty really, to get this opportunity for a lot of people in my community. It’s a beautiful community.
Tell us about your path to SCORES. Had you planned to follow your family’s path into education?
It's a funny story. I actually went to school at San Jose City College, and I went in as a business major. I was working at a restaurant, and I thought to myself, I cannot work in a restaurant. It's not meant for me. My friend reached out to me and asked if I wanted to work at an after-school program with him. At the time, I recall telling my parents that I wasn’t going to pursue a career in education — that was their thing, not mine.
But then I start my first day at the Coral after-school program run by Catholic Charities. I'm in this storage classroom with boxes everywhere, but they have 10 desks right in the middle for my kindergarten students. I thought to myself, they can’t be in a storage room for a classroom, so I went to Target with my own money and made the classroom a real home with alphabet decorations and sensory toys.
The kids loved it. They would call me Mr. A because they couldn't say Alberto, and their parents would pick them up later because the kids wanted to stay. That's when I realized I wanted to stay in education.
The school where I worked had a big soccer community, and I remember telling my manager that I wanted to make a soccer team for my after-school kids. And she said, “It's funny you say that because we’re partnering with SCORES for soccer.” And then she gave me a SCORES curriculum packet that really got me excited.
That's actually how I met Hamza (SCORES Chief Growth Officer). My manager sent me to a SCORES training meeting. I remember seeing Coach Alex and the other coaches and thinking the whole thing was awesome. They were very energetic, and they knew how to control a classroom. I picked up a lot of what I observed and brought it back to my classroom. It was a full 180! The kids fell in love with it even more, and that’s when I knew SCORES was special. We started using it in my best friend’s classroom, and eventually, the whole after-school program was using the SCORES curriculum. Hamza saw what I was doing and eventually brought me on as Program Manager.
What was it about the SCORES curriculum that appealed to you when you first encountered it?
The curriculum was super easy to use as a coach. I went in there to the kids, and I was like, Hey, guess what? We're going to do poetry and soccer. And the kids are like, Poetry? And I was like, Yeah, poetry. And then they really liked it. We did a lot of play with silly words or silly phrases that we’d turn into poems.
What I really loved about it is how the students were able to express themselves. As a kid, I just remember wanting someone to listen to me. Poetry is an amazing way for students to sit down and express how they feel at that certain time and to reflect on that. I think that's very important to do at a young age, especially if we're trying to build leaders for tomorrow.
You describe San Jose as a "sleeping giant." What do you mean by that?
I do see San Jose as a sleeping giant. There’s an imbalance here economically, but there’s a beauty in the challenge. I come from the east side of San Jose, where the community is really underrepresented. I feel like I can help represent my community, help its kids hold their heads up high at big events that the Earthquakes and the Bay Area host. We can represent San Jose as a whole. I came up through club soccer, and was able to see a lot of the misrepresentation of the East Side. There’s so much room for more balance.
When I moved up in soccer, there weren’t a lot of teams from East San Jose, and if they were from East San Jose, they weren't traveling to a lot of the tournaments that were presented to them. So I ended up joining a team here at West Valley, based in the west side of San Jose, and there’s a vast difference in the infrastructure, the housing, the opportunities. What became clear was that talent wasn’t the factor separating the East Side kids from the other teams - it was the income. It was money.
But we’re looking at an enormous opportunity here now. There’s a lot of interest here in soccer, and there are going to be so many opportunities for SCORES and for these kids to really go out and become leaders. So I’m really happy to be in the position I’m in now because I can help bring these opportunities to kids without the financial support. And I think that's where my calling in life is.
If you could go back and tell your younger self something—say, when you were SCORES age—what would it be?
I would say don't ever lose sight of who you are, who your family is, and who brought you up. I'm not first-generation Latino, and so I didn't really speak Spanish well growing up. And so I never really got to relate to a lot of those things. On the other hand, the people I did relate to didn't really see me outside of being Latino. And so I was in the middle, where I felt like I never belonged.
And it wasn't until really the end of high school that I told myself, No, this is not okay. I'm going to relearn my culture. And I learned Spanish again. I really learned the stories, the implementation of the culture in everyday life. And now I feel like I can represent both sides of the spectrum. So I would tell myself, Just keep going. Don't stop. Because there was a time when it was tough for me, even when people asked my name. I would say Albert, or I wouldn't even want to say my last name. But now, if someone puts a mirror in my face, I can tell them exactly who I am.
And so that’s a big role for me – advocating for people who aren’t really sure yet what their mirror is yet.
To read more Five Questions With conversations, go here!
