As a student during the ARC 2020 summer course, Tony Marquez had a lot to contribute. He showed up with a radiant smile, a shock of bright green hair, and kind words for everyone. From the first day of the course he helped create a space where others felt comfortable sharing themselves with the group. He is fully bilingual, and assisted with translation throughout the course, as we had some students who were just beginning to learn English. By the end of the course the staff team would often joke that we should be paying him.
And now we will be! Tony is taking his facilitation, interpersonal, and language skills to the next level as a part-time Program Facilitator with ARC’s Rising Community Leaders at Truckee and North Tahoe High Schools this upcoming school year.
“His vision is always to create a community of inclusion, kindness, and care,” Kaela Frank, ARC’s new Tahoe Program Coordinator and one of the 2020 summer course instructors, said. “In a time when people are needing community more than ever, he is the perfect person to be welcoming a group of 9th graders into the ARC program.” Kaela and Tony will be working together to facilitate the Community Leadership Program this year.
Although this position is new for him, mentoring is not. Tony served as a peer mentor in a suicide prevention program at El Capitan High School in Merced during his senior year, where he empathized with students confronting mental health crises. “I went from hearing someone to actually listening to someone,” Tony said. He is most excited to build bonds with incoming students in the Community Leadership Program and step formally into a mentorship role.
Tony says he participated in ARC this summer because, for him, it’s a family tradition. Both of his older siblings have done ARC summer courses, and his sister Jasmine now serves on the ARC Young Professionals Board. He says that his younger sister will also probably do an ARC summer course when she is old enough. “We were all tricked into it under false pretenses,” Tony said jokingly, adding that he made sure to leave out the part about pooping in the woods and hiking uphill with a heavy pack when describing his ARC experience to his younger sister.
When asked about the most challenging part of the summer course, Tony first said going to the bathroom in the wilderness. Then he started to talk about conflict and conflict resolution. “Conflict was difficult, especially towards the end.” Although it was challenging, Tony credits the conflict resolution strategy we practiced, called VOMPing, as the most important tool he learned this summer at ARC. The acronym breaks down to Voice, Own, eMpathize, and Plan.
“I’ve taken VOMPing to a whole new level,” Tony said. He VOMPed with his mom when he first got back from the course, taught her how to VOMP, and now his whole family has been VOMPing through conflict. At first he thought it wouldn’t work outside of the context of ARC, but “once I hit her with that empathy, she was like boom,” Tony said. “I feel like we’re closer because we understand each other a bit better.”
Tony has deep roots in Kings Beach; he spent most of his childhood there going to school and working at his family’s Mexican restaurant. He moved when he was 14 to attend high school in Merced. Now that he’s back in Kings Beach, he plans to take classes at Sierra College to prepare for applying to a 4-year university. He wants to study political science with the ultimate goal of going to law school and becoming a lawyer who focuses on special education rights.
“Being a special education lawyer means working with people of all different ethnicities, sexualities, and mental capacities,” Tony said, adding that facilitating for ARC this year will help him further develop relevant skills. “I want to grow with ARC. I feel like ARC just brings out the best in humans.”
This article was written by Michaela Webb. Michaela co-taught the English curriculum for ARC summer courses in 2019 and 2020. She is an exceptionally talented educator and writer, and we are so fortunate to have her contributing her talents to ARC. Thank you, Michaela!