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Raul Magdaleno

Biography

Raul Magdaleno, 24, a native of Mexico and the youngest of 10 children, grew up partly in a homeless shelter and went on to receive the Silver Congressional Award Medal, presented to outstanding youth, for his service to others. While working a full-time job, he has earned a 3.9 grade point average at Mountain View College in Dallas, TX, and been named the school's Outstanding Student. Mr. Magdaleno has volunteered for more than a decade in a Reconciliation Outreach program for homeless men, women, and children. He hopes to attend Southern Methodist University and one-day serve as the US secretary of education.

Mr. Magdaleno overcame a miserable childhood to reach out to homeless men, women and children, helping them to acquire food, shelter, and health services while he was barely a teen-ager himself. When he was only three years old, his father died in prison, leaving his mother to raise ten children. After his mother married again to an "abusive man," Mr. Magdaleno said his life got even bleaker. His mother finally took him and a sister with a mental disability to live in a homeless shelter. At that point, however, his life took a turn for the better. "They instilled in me the importance of education, faith, and service to my community," he wrote.

Mr. Magdaleno began volunteering with Reconciliation Outreach at the age of 13, tutoring and mentoring at a children's learning center and at summer camp. Later he joined the Dallas Hispanic Advisory Council to provide health services to low-income families without health insurance, worked with Dallas police in a youth program, and promoted education at elementary schools. As a result of his selfless work, in 2004 he received the US Congressional Gold Medal, Congress's highest civilian service award, for his efforts to help the victims of domestic violence.

At Mountain View College, Raul proved to be a top student. He compiled a 3.9 grade point average, received several awards for scholarship, and was named Outstanding Student of the Year for 2003-2004 even while working 40 hours a week as a network dispatcher for a cable company. He intends to seek a degree in communications, with a minor in Spanish, with the hope of using his skills to help communities overcome poverty and despair. Eventually, he says, he aims to join a President's Cabinet as Secretary of Education and carry out a program for Hispanic Education Excellence.

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