Erick Olivas: Kicking Down Barriers

Erick Olivas: [00:00:00] Here in Utah, salt Lake, we led that an apartment over by the University of Utah, right downtown, small little apartment, two bedrooms, little brother and I, we were in the same room. We had our bunk beds. To this day, I’ve, I’ve never taken that for granted, which is why the, the very least that I can do for them is to be the best that I can be, to make an impact for myself, for my family, and for everyone around us.

Justin Hewett: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the ML Chat podcast. My name is Justin Hewett. I’ll be your host today. And I’m joined here by my co host. 

Mandi Morris: Mandi Morris. 

Justin Hewett: And we just had the best conversation with Erick Olivas. Erick is a member of the Flashlight Team. And his family immigrated from Mexico when he was two years old.

And he grew up , in our U S school system. And you are just going to love this conversation. We talk about Erick’s love of soccer and, and, you know, all the work he’s doing now to, you know, to bless the lives of these [00:01:00] young, young people who are learning soccer and to be really engaged in it, but I just, I just loved hearing his family story, Mandi.

I think that was my favorite part. 

Mandi Morris: Yeah, I really appreciated that Erick was willing to get real and talk about the sacrifices his family has made and what he has such a growth mindset. Even talking about things that have been really difficult. You can tell how committed he is and his family is to a growth mindset.

And that’s something really incredible about Erick. 

Justin Hewett: He just said that within the next month he’s going to be sworn in as a citizen, which is really exciting for him. And anyways, we, we think that this is a, this is a different kind of a conversation than we typically have here on the ML chat podcast is as we’re typically hosting amazing practitioners and educators and researchers and, leaders in our multilingual space.

And we thought we’d go off script a little bit and invite Erick to come and join us as he was a multilingual [00:02:00] student. You know, he was an ESL student in school growing up. He’s bilingual today. He said he doesn’t speak quite enough French to be considered multilingual. So he’s bilingual with English and Spanish, but we think you’re going to love this conversation.

Let us know what you think about it. Thanks for being here with us. And let’s go jump into this wonderful conversation with Erick Olivas. Erick is bilingual and is a former ML student who has mastered English and found success in his career in business development. When Erick was two, his parents moved from Mexico to the United States in hopes of a better future.

Erick now leads the business development team at Flashlight Learning and has for the last two years. While Erick has found great success in his career and in his life, it didn’t come without years of struggle to learn English in our school system. In fact, it wasn’t until after graduating from high school that he felt like he had the opportunity to build his confidence speaking English.

Erick Olivas, we are so excited to have you come and join us on the ML chat [00:03:00] podcast. Welcome. Thank you, Justin. Super excited to be here with you all. Looking forward to this. Oh, we’re thrilled. This is a little bit of a different take. A lot of times we have, you know, ML educators and practitioners, teachers, directors, and what a fun, fun opportunity for us now that we get to talk with you and talk with you about your journey.

Your family’s journey coming to the United States, you’re making your way through our public school system. And now we work together at flashlight learning and you are doing amazing things and we’re thrilled to have you on our team. I know on the side, you spend a lot of time with youth soccer, playing soccer yourself, and you are an influencer.

You’re a YouTube creator. And your site spike 17 just passed 100, 000 subscribers and you earned the YouTube silver play button award. So you are a man of many talents here, Erick. Oh man. I enjoy it all. That’s the best part. [00:04:00] And that was actually how you and I met was you were helping coach the team that my son was on, who was playing with your little brother, Oscar.

And it’s amazing to see how soccer has brought us together. We’re grateful for soccer and the role it plays in our lives and whatnot. But I want to jump in and learn a little bit more about your story, Erick, and learn about your family. You came over when you were two years old, are you the oldest in your family?

There’s four of you, right? Four kids. Yeah. Oldest of four. And so when your parents came 

Erick Olivas: over, were you their only child at the time? It was my little brother and I, Jonathan. So I was two years old and my brother was half a year old. Yeah. It was like six months. What 

Justin Hewett: do you think it was, or what was the experience that made your parents decide, Hey, let’s figure this out.

Let’s figure out how we can go get to the United States. Could tell us about that story. Okay. 

Erick Olivas: Yeah, absolutely. I’ll do my best to illustrate why. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully understand [00:05:00] how they felt being over there, living over there, but I do know that they wanted a better future for my brother and I, for the rest of my siblings.

They just knew that coming here to the United States was going to be tough. Allow us that opportunity. They came from a humble background in Sonora, Mexico, right below Arizona. And it was a leap of faith for sure from their part, right? Leaving their family behind, leaving everything behind, leaving their comfort zone, Getting over their own selves to selflessly just do what they thought was best to provide a better future for their children.

And so I’m so grateful now. I’ve always been grateful, but every day I feel as life goes by and the more joy that I feel to be here, it just reminds me of how Blessed I am that they made that decision. The best thing that I can do, I feel like moving forward is to pay them back for that, is to try to do the best that I can to for myself and [00:06:00] for my own family now and, and for everyone around me.

So, 

Mandi Morris: Erick, when your parents came to the States, did they speak any English? What do you think that transition was like for them? And at home, were you speaking Spanish at home? Tell us a little bit about what that language piece was like for your family. 

Erick Olivas: Yeah, zero English from both mom and dad, zero English from my brother and I, we grew up speaking Spanish at home and English at school.

I never really ran into an issue with that. It was never confusing. It was a normal thing for us to just go to school, speak English, and then come home. Hola mijo, como estas? How was school? So I think it was an amazing experience. We grew up learning our native language and, and learning about our own culture while learning the language and the culture of the country that we were living in.

Mandi Morris: So you go to school as a kindergartner. And you’re in ESL classes. Do you remember back then? What was that [00:07:00] kindergarten? So I’m imagining like baby Erick and you’re going to school at kindergarten. And is this, you of course were exposed to English when you’re out doing errands and out in life outside of your home.

Can you remember back to what that experience was like for you when you were young? 

Erick Olivas: Absolutely. I still remember pre K was full on English, no Spanish. Kindergarten moving forward, the rest of elementary, I was in a bilingual program. But I remember as a pre K student and not knowing English. It’s just one of those memories.

One of those things that you’re just never going to forget where I like had to go to the bathroom one time as a little four year old. And I couldn’t figure out how to ask my teacher that. She was a Polynesian teacher. Cini was her name. And. I was trying to figure out, how do I tell her I need to go? And I remember telling my buddy who was also a multilingual student.

Hey dude, can you tell her for me that I need to go to the bathroom? And he didn’t know how to say either. So he goes [00:08:00] up to the teacher. They used to call me Eriki. I don’t know why, but it was just Eriki, Eriki bathroom, Eriki bathroom. Probably just wasn’t pronouncing it because the teacher wasn’t understanding.

Where Eriki, what is he trying to say? And then it just naturally came like, Eriki. I had never practiced it. And I said, I got to go to the bathroom. I was just desperate. And then, Oh, okay. Yeah, go ahead. Here we go. It’s crazy. Cause I had never practiced it. Like I’d never been taught that. It just came out naturally in the moment of desperation.

That was like one of the first times where I was like, okay, I can do this. I can speak English. Moving forward. It was kindergarten through third grade, fourth, fifth grade, sixth grade, multilingual program. We had Spanish day and we had English day. We went back and forth every day. And I did get pulled out to the side at times throughout the week to, to read.

English to speak. It was an amazing experience because all these teachers were just so kind, so supportive, so encouraging. They never made me feel like I wasn’t [00:09:00] good enough. They always made me feel like a champion. You know, I’ll never forget that from all those teachers. 

Justin Hewett: I love that. I think all of our multilingual students should feel like champions, Erick.

I think that’s so fantastic. They’re doing a hard thing and learning a new language, learning a new culture, whatever that might be. I was thinking that story of you being in pre K was going to end up with a puddle on the ground or something like that. That’s where I thought it was going. I love that you ended up being in a bilingual program and went through that.

Did you just do that in elementary school? Did it continue through middle school? It was mainly. Elementary school that we had that ESL program. Do you know when you exited being an English learner? 

Erick Olivas: I would say probably third grade. I don’t remember ever like being told by a teacher, Hey, you exited the ESL programmer, but I remember in third grade, my teacher talking to my mom at a parenting conference and her telling her, Hey, like your student needs to go to a different school because he’s not progressing here.

He’s. In short words, he’s too smart here for this school. So in fourth grade, I [00:10:00] ended up moving to Emerson elementary towards the East side of where we live. And it’s still a bilingual program, but a more advanced program is what the teacher was calling it. Yeah. Extended learning program is what they would call it.

Mandi Morris: Erick, when I think of you as an adult, you’re so charismatic, you’re so outgoing, and you’re great at making connections with people and making people feel welcome and heard. I wonder, what were you like as a student? Were those skills, do you think, that were fostered in you when you were young that helped you to master English at a young age?

I mean, we know a lot of students have a similar story to you in that they start kindergarten, First exposure to English, but then often students are transitioning to that experienced ML state where they came here at a very young age, but are still in the English learning program in middle school or high school.

What is some insight that you might have about what helped you be successful to exit early in elementary school? 

Erick Olivas: My parents will for sure always be the [00:11:00] ones that I like credit my hard work and dedication. I wouldn’t say that I was really talkative. The one that would always raise his hand to answer the question.

I did try hard to be a class clown. I did try hard to be the funny kid in the classroom. Oh, Erick, yeah, he’s a funny guy. He’s a funny kid. One that you can always go to, to get a laugh out of. But in general, I do, I do think that I always enjoyed interacting with people, talking to people, getting to know new people, becoming good friends with the new kid in the classroom.

So I think that was really helpful for me. Just always being open to communicating with my peers. 

Justin Hewett: That’s fun. That does not surprise me at all that you were trying to be the class clown, that you wanted to be funny. You wanted to entertain. You do a really good job of that, but it’s been fun to see you on your YouTube channel.

One of the things that you’re doing, you’re entertaining, but you’re also teaching great teamwork concepts in your. Teaching a love of soccer and a love of being a great teammate and being a competitor. And that’s been fun for me to see. And it’s fun to watch you really work [00:12:00] to be a mentor to these children, these young men and probably young women as well, that they get on and watch Spike 17.

Tell us a little bit more about that and what your mission is with Spike 17. Cause I know it didn’t start out as I’m going to build out this big, huge YouTube following. 

Erick Olivas: Everything was all with the objective of helping my little brother become a better soccer player. So I started off with spike 17 training a couple of years ago, as you remember, Hawk being a part of the spike 17, three B three tournament here in Salt Lake, and it started off as a training program and then it transitioned into making highlights for players.

And now it’s transitioned into a YouTube channel, a platform to, to showcase, not just my little brother, but. His teammates and really now just anyone, any player that I feel like. It deserves to be exposed out to coaches and just people in general in the state of Utah. I feel like the mission is always evolving.

I want to build a [00:13:00] platform to recognize players that maybe don’t necessarily have the funds to be in a team that gets exposed to the college coaches, professional coaches. So that’s the mission right now. Who knows down the road what it will be, but right now, in the meantime, for sure, taking advantage of the opportunity to, to teach.

Small, simple principles to, to, to young athletes that I think can help them not just in soccer, but in their lives, humility, hard work, dedication. 

Justin Hewett: Yeah. And I think that resonates, right. And I think that’s the reason that, you know, that these little youth soccer players are coming in here. To come and listen into you and watch these tapes and see these boys talk to each other and cheer each other on and do some of that is because we need more goodness in the world.

It’s okay to be competitive and it’s okay to do your best to try and beat your opponent and whatnot and to be the best that you can be. And I think you’re telling that story in a really compelling way. That is inspiring these youth soccer players all over the nation. Really. It’s been fun to see. Where does your [00:14:00] soccer journey start?

I’m assuming you grew up playing a bunch and then I know high school was a big moment for you. Tell us a little bit about your soccer journey. Where did soccer take you? 

Erick Olivas: I grew up playing soccer, playing my first game at seven years old. My dad, one of his coworkers told him, Hey, bring your kid out to play soccer with my soccer team.

I went and played. I had always played it in recess and stuff, but never like in a team. And I remember that first game, it was a complete chaos, did terrible. I feel like I was comfortable with the ball, but like playing with my teammates, playing a position, passing, all that stuff, it was a learning experience for sure.

I remember the teammates being like, what the, like, who the heck is this kid? Why is he in our team right now? Why is he playing with us? But I loved it. And. It’s continued playing and growing all the way throughout high school, played in the state championship and lost. Unfortunately, I played at the Rialto lake stadium, lost in a PK shootout.

Amazing experience through soccer. I was able to learn all these principles that I am now trying to teach my little brother [00:15:00] and just the rest of the YouTube platform, the audience didn’t make it past. Club soccer in college. My goal was to play professional or, or a D one college at the minimum. But unfortunately all of that went, came to an end after I tore my ACL back in 2019 and it was heartbreaking.

It was, it felt like my dreams were shattered. I was, man, what do I do now? This is what I had grown up to believe in. This is what my path was going to be. I was going to. At least try to play college, get a degree and do what I love while going to school. And yeah, all of that was, yeah, just was thrown away.

But again, like because of that. I think of it now as a blessing in disguise, allowing me the opportunity to now do what I’m doing now at Flashlight and for the Utah soccer community, and I think it’s been a lot more gratifying than I think it would have been if I would have just played college or played pro for a few years and [00:16:00] then call it good.

Justin Hewett: Yeah, it’s interesting the different paths we end up taking in life, right? That we’re not necessarily in our plans per se. I love the idea of serendipity. You’re pursuing one goal and then something better comes along. And it sounds like you feel like that’s how the path has gone for you. I love that.

Erick with. When you were playing soccer, when you were going through high school, it sounds like you exited being an English learner early on in elementary school. Today, you speak English with a lot of confidence. You have a, we said in your bio that you’ve mastered English, right? 

Erick Olivas: Quote unquote mastered.

Yep. 

Justin Hewett: That’s right. Exactly. And so I’m curious, like, when do you feel like you really. Have you always had that confidence in English? If you were being the class clown, you were probably, you had enough confidence to some degree to do that, but were you always confident with English? 

Erick Olivas: No, I wasn’t. I was confident in, in, in trying things.

I was confident in putting myself out there for sure. I was confident in being courageous to [00:17:00] ask out a girl on a date. But when it came to having a conversation, when it came to having a presentation to, to give to a class on a health subject or for a health class or whatever, like that was really challenging for me because, you know, Yeah, I could understand things, I could read things, but when it came to producing, when I came, when it came to talking, when it came to putting my thoughts together and then expressing what I felt inside it, that was the hard part.

And I don’t think I ever, yeah, I never really got to that point at any point during high school. Yeah, it was after high school for sure. Going on a mission really helped, LDS mission, talking to people. Both in English and Spanish, again, boosted that confidence, but it’s even them, I don’t, there was only, it was only six weeks where I, like, where I was fully on speaking English during those two years of, of, of my mission service, but it came [00:18:00] after, even then, like I, it came after that, that was like the start, the starting point where I was okay, I feel like I’m getting the hang of this, but it, I think it came like towards the end of.

Or not the end, but like towards my final college years where I was like taking business classes, public speaking, professional business etiquette, whatever. And we had to really practice and just interact, try networking with people at work, talking to managers, just really having authentic experiences with people versus where at school it was just learning.

Here’s, this is what it is, but there was never authentic experiences. And so I think that those experiences after high school really is what shaped the, I guess, the, again, the quote unquote mastering of this, of my English. 

Mandi Morris: I think you highlight something that’s so important. Often the research shows us that English within context and authentic [00:19:00] English is the most important and valuable way for a student to master an additional language.

And. Often what we see in school is this memorize and regurgitate experience. Like I need this in order to accomplish this specific task in my social studies class or this specific task in my science class, but it can feel disconnected for students from the purpose of English in a broader sense. And you highlight something so important, Erick, is how you started really owning the English language when you were using it in a way that it felt very meaningful to you.

It was within context of the mission that you were in and work that you felt was important. And then classes, now you’re in business classes. You’re like, okay, this is going to matter for my career. I think about that a lot as an educator. And I wonder If you gave advice to teachers, , thinking back as when you were a student, what could we be doing better?

How could we be structuring [00:20:00] our English programs and our English classes better to make the language feel relevant to students and within context for students? I wonder if you have any thoughts about that. 

Erick Olivas: That’s a good question. I don’t know that I necessarily have a. A specific answer. But again, like I think the authentic experiences really, again, it creates meaning for the student and it creates excitement, enjoyment.

I was speaking it, I was trying to speak. I wanted to speak it because I knew that I, that it was, that it was important to what I was trying to accomplish giving. Yeah, to me, that was very valuable. Just having the opportunity to practice what I was being taught, whether it was again, whether it was with my peers, with my teachers, with my coworkers, just given, yeah, practice right now.

Yeah. Practice. 

Justin Hewett: I love that because, you know, to me, it really underscores the importance of doing the work. One of the things that we’ve talked a lot about at [00:21:00] Flashlight, for teachers that are listening to students speaking and writing, they’re trying to, you know, score them and give them feedback, you know, many of them have not actually done that specific work, even though they may have been, they might have an ESL endorsement and they, Have maybe done this work for 12 or 15 or 20 years.

They haven’t done that practice, that specific practice of listening intentionally to students and giving them feedback. And so we’ve really coined this phrase that we say a lot, which is ultimately you build capacity by doing the work. And I think the same thing goes for our students, right? Is that so often.

We hear about the stage on the stage teacher that’s up there talking to students. And ultimately, if they’re doing 80 percent of the speaking, our students are not doing 80 percent of the speaking and because I want you listening to me is, and so I think at the end of the day, one of the most important pieces here.

You’re talking about being able to have authentic experiences with language, being able [00:22:00] to practice with language, play with language. And I think a lot of that comes down to being given the opportunity to build capacity by doing the work of speaking, of having to put that language together and converse with others.

And so I just, I love that idea of, you know, of. In the classroom, you know, allowing students to turn and talk or whatever it might be so that they, you know, get up and do a presentation, you know, they might not learn as much from the presentation as that, as they will having to learn to speak English in a way with confidence to the class.

And maybe it won’t be that confident to start. And so I love that idea. Just you talking about playing with authentic language really resonates with me with the need to speak, to build that capacity. 

Mandi Morris: Erick, I’m wondering what your thoughts are about how soccer in your case or sports or interests in high school can drive students and connect them to wanting to be there.

I know I’ve had students over the years and I’ve [00:23:00] heard from Former coworkers that will say like, man, the student is so interested in art and he really wants to be here for this art class or so interested in soccer, fill in the blank. What was your experience like in high school? It sounds like you found your passion for soccer, even in elementary school, but with the young kids that you’re working with now, how driven are they to be in school and participate in that experience by a sport or an elective they feel passionate about?

Erick Olivas: Sports played a huge part to me because at that time for me, it was like, if I didn’t have good grades, I wasn’t going to be a part of the team. Not just because my parents wouldn’t let me, but it was just a rule in general at school and high school, right? You have to have a certain amount, a certain GPA average to be able to play.

And so to me, that was like the biggest motivator is, okay, I’ve got to have good grades to be able to be a part of the team and have a killer season. Cause I knew that the team was great. I knew we had a really awesome team and all I had to do was just make sure that I did well in class. And to me in particular, it was [00:24:00] never really.

I, again, I’m, I’m blessed that I had parents that encouraged me to be the best on the pitch and not in the classroom. I wasn’t a straight A student, but I’m more of an A’s and B student. But I did it because I wanted to be a part of the soccer team. I don’t know that I necessarily enjoyed chemistry.

I don’t know that I necessarily enjoyed language arts, but I was good at it. I was good at. Algebra, I was good at. Math, everything except for stats. That was like my weak area. But again, I did it all to be able to do the thing that I loved, that I was obsessed with the most at that time, which was to play soccer and just have a good, a good time with my teammates.

I love hearing that. 

Justin Hewett: Obviously, we love it when school is really resonating with students and whatnot. But at the same time, I love that, that you understood in order for you to Have your soccer experience that you wanted. You were going to have to [00:25:00] buckle down and get the work done. And I think about with my own kids, I’m trying to teach them.

You got to do what you need to do before you can go out and go do what you want to do. You got to get your work done. And I think it’s a good thing for us to learn just in life in general. And 

Erick Olivas: it’s not like I didn’t enjoy it as much, but I’m grateful that I went through the process of all that because I know things now, I feel like I acquired lots of skills through school that maybe in the moment I wasn’t really appreciating it as much.

I wasn’t like enjoying it, loving it as much. But because of that, now I built a solid foundation for. The knowledge that I have today now, right through school. 

Justin Hewett: I love that, man. I love that. And I think that’s, it’s really neat. And it’s fun to, to see what you’ve been able to leverage that into. And now you use your English for work.

You use your voice in speaking English and you’ve got to still grind and put in the work and do some of those things. And I want to go to your parents a little bit. And talk a little bit about their experience. They [00:26:00] came over from Mexico. There’s these young kind of newlyweds with a couple, with a couple of young boys.

And what was that experience like for them, Erick? It’d be fun to have your parents on here and hear it from them. Let’s hear it through your lens. What was that experience for them when they came here and brought their young family? 

Erick Olivas: It was, it was a very lonely experience. They came here without anything.

They came here without having anyone. They left their mom, they left their dad, right, left their, their siblings, and, and they came here all by themselves and they figured it out all by themselves here. Sure, we had a few aunts and uncles that helped us in the process to get here to the United States, but for the most part, it was just them trying to make it work here.

Technology back then wasn’t as advanced as it is now, but it was heartbreaking to know that [00:27:00] they probably weren’t going to see. A lot of those family members ever again, and which they didn’t, my grandma and grandpa passed away on my dad’s side. My grandpa passed away on my mom’s side. They never got to see them again.

Justin Hewett: Where did they first live when they first came here? Did they come to Utah? 

Erick Olivas: Yeah, here in Utah, Salt Lake, we lived at an apartment over by the university of Utah, my downtown, small little apartment, two bedrooms, little brother and I, we were in the same room, had our bunk beds. To this day, I’ve, I’ve never taken that for granted, which is why the very least that I can do for them is to be the best that I can be, to make an impact for myself, for my family and for everyone around us.

Justin Hewett: No doubt, and I think you’re doing a great job with that. I want to sit with that. So your parents came over, they found an apartment. You and your brother Jonathan are sharing a room on a bunk bed. What kind of work were your parents doing? A lot of times families come here because they feel like they can get better work here.

Were your parents able to find [00:28:00] work once they got here? 

Erick Olivas: My dad always has. My mom was always a stay at home mom. My dad, the majority of the jobs, it was a lot of shipping stuff. Working in a cold factory, waking up at 4 a. m., 5 a. m. And then getting off around 5, 6. He’s been blessed to always have been able to find a place where they don’t, you know, require a green card.

I would be lying if I say that it wasn’t. I’m not going to say miserable, but just very physically and emotionally demanding, sacrificing to be able to take care of our family. Gratefully, the job has been getting better or less physically demanding as time has gone by. And now my mom is at a point where she’s like cleaning a few houses, hotels here and there to be able to, to contribute as well.

It’s been a huge sacrifice in the sense of having to, you know, spend a great amount of time of our day out there. [00:29:00] And then, yeah, just spending the, the last few hours here at home with the family. 

Justin Hewett: Yeah. I love hearing about your dad’s journey. As you were thinking about him and talking about his work and what he’s done, you could tell you were affected by that, right?

You’re sitting here, you’re emotionally, almost physically affected by that. Why 

Erick Olivas: is that? Because I just can’t imagine having to go through that. I think about that. I can’t believe that they were willing to, just, it’s crazy to think that the amount of love that they had for us to sacrifice everything that they’ve had for us.

And I know that it’s not just, My family, right? There’s thousands, millions of families that, that do that, that do the same for their families to, in hopes of, of a better future for their children. And it’s, it’s admiring. 

Justin Hewett: Well, and I appreciate you sharing that. I think that, you know, we, we didn’t necessarily get into all the details per se, but I think it’s easy to say that, that your parents have made a lot of [00:30:00] sacrifices to be able to provide their children with a better life.

And I think a lot of people say that they are sacrificing to provide a better life for their children. Are they really? Are they doing what they can? Have they gone to another country? It’s just, there are different degrees of that, I guess is my point. And I think that the journey that a lot of, you know, families that immigrate to the United States, the journey that they go through, the difficulty, the amount, the level of sacrifice and uncomfort is significantly high, and it’s in hopes of providing their children with an opportunity.

And it’s neat to see what you’re doing with your opportunity. Earlier, you mentioned a green card that your dad’s been able to find employment where he hasn’t maybe necessarily needed a green card or certain documentation or whatnot. I know that you have had an experience recently where you went out of the country and, and would love to unpack that a little bit.

Tell us a little bit about your trip over to Europe and then the escapade trying to get back. 

Erick Olivas: So fortunately I, I received my green card [00:31:00] a couple of years ago. Through my wife, Aliyah, and we decided to go on a trip to Switzerland to celebrate. And it was an amazing trip, had some amazing food, went and visited some amazing places.

That when it was time to travel back to the U. S., I boarded that plane. I realized that I didn’t have my green card and I needed my green card to fly back to the U. S. because I didn’t have a U. S. passport. And when the flight attendant told me that I wasn’t going to be able to fly back, my heart kind of sank.

I was like, wait, what do you mean? Because that’s like the biggest, one of the biggest, probably the biggest nightmare of any immigrant is being deported slash not being able to be in, to live in the U. S., to be a part, to travel back into the U. S. And so you can just imagine, right? Like when you said that, I was like, wait, what do you mean?

Oh, you, yeah, you need your green card. Where’s your green card? Oh yeah, I don’t have that. Can I show you a picture? Of it. I have a picture of it. Nope. It’s got to be the physical card. [00:32:00] Oh, okay. Yeah, I don’t have that So I cried I I did I cried I was like what the heck what’s happening? Am I stuck in europe forever?

Justin Hewett: I can only imagine what would be running through your mind, the amount of just desperation that you probably felt. 

Erick Olivas: Oh yeah. It was the scariest thing. I went from like the, one of the greatest experiences to probably the scariest one and talked to my lawyer, texted him. He responded back to me quickly and told me, you’re going to have to buy a ticket to Mexico.

Go to the border in Mexico. And they’ll look you up in the system. Are you gonna have to pay another fine for a 600 fine for them to look you up on their system and then they’ll let you back in, or you’re only allowed to do that twice though, I think there’s only two times that you can do that after that.

If it happens any more times, you’re done. So I’m like, I’ve got one strike. I can do that one another time if I wanted to, but probably not through that journey. I. Had a layover in France. I had a layover in Mexico city and then flew back to Tijuana. I was [00:33:00] able to meet some cousins and aunts that I had never met.

You’ll never guess, but I’ll be in Mexico tomorrow for just one day because I forgot my green card. We’d love to see you and meet you guys. It was a beautiful experience FaceTime, my parents, why I did that? Because it was my mom’s sisters that she hasn’t seen to this day. And so to her, it was like, she felt like she was there.

Me being there with them, hugging them and just be able to share a day with them and went to the border on Tijuana, looked me up, paid the fine. Went to San Diego, flew from San Diego to Utah, and here we are now. Yeah, really crazy. So now that I passed my citizenship interview yesterday, so we’re not gonna have to worry about that anymore actually.

Super, super excited because it’s only now like a month left that we have to, for me to be sworn in as a U. S. citizen. And, Once I become a U. S. citizen, I’ll be able to start my parents residency process. And once that [00:34:00] happens, they’ll be able to go back and see the family that they haven’t seen for over 25 years.

So that’s one of my biggest objectives, motivators right now is to be able to help them get to that point. 

Justin Hewett: Oh, I’ve got the chills just thinking about that, Erick. That is so cool. I want to be there. Let me know. I want to be there when, when you do that is super cool. Well, thanks for talking through some of that.

I think a lot of people, we hear about different words like green card. We hear about some of these things, but to actually experience some of it and have to go through it and to be able to talk to it and hopefully make it a little more approachable for a lot of them. You know, EL, ML educators that we work with or that listen to our show here.

I think this is helpful. I think this has been a really interesting and fun conversation for us. I think it’s been really insightful into what your experience as a multilingual student has been. And now as a bilingual adult, who’s worked their way through the system. I think we just, we have, we probably have a couple more questions that we’d love to work through and talk about, and then we’ll go and wrap up here.

Mandi, I was going to go in a different direction, but I think you’ve got a good question now. [00:35:00] 

Mandi Morris: I just wanted to note that Erick, something that really stands out to me about your story is the long view that your parents had. And that is so powerful. The sacrifices they made, not only in the short run, when you were talking about your parents, not having been able to see their parents and you were there with your aunts, your mom’s sisters.

When I think about that sacrifice, it’s just incredible. And That long view your parents had, and I just wanted to comment that it’s so beautiful to hear you say that you’re so focused on the goal now of being able to get citizenship for your parents, and it’s just a beautiful story, and I’m thankful that you were willing to share that with us, and I think your story also connects in a lot of ways around identity, and we know a lot of students, I mean, You were two years old when you came to the United States.

You don’t remember life in Mexico before you came to the United States. This is your home. This is your place, but to be denied to get on an [00:36:00] airplane with your wife, who’s a U S citizen. So she was allowed to get on that airplane. Presumably those are heavy topics that our students have to think about from a really young age when their peers and their classmates are not having to think about those things.

So I just, I appreciate you sharing that with us. And I feel so deeply about the work that we are fortunate enough to do here at flashlight, because part of that is shining a light on our students voice and it’s giving them the confidence to advocate for themselves. And it’s just, it’s really beautiful.

So thank you for being vulnerable and sharing all of that with us. 

Justin Hewett: I love that, Mandi. I love you calling that out and pointing that out. And I think that this is a really different kind of conversation than we typically have, but I think it’s, it’s really moving and enlightening and I’ve really appreciated you.

Erick, tell our listeners a little bit about the work that you do at Flashlight. I think that a lot of folks here are pretty familiar with what we do as far as formative assessment of speaking and writing and being able to help progress [00:37:00] monitor productive language, but what do you do, what role do you play here at 

Erick Olivas: Yeah, I’m the BDR.

Business development manager here at flashlight. So essentially helping lead the team and setting up as many first conversations as we can with educators, with EL directors, coordinators, federal programs, directors, and just really. Put the name of flashlight out there to as many educators as we can. And it never gets old to see how amazed that an educator is when they see all the amazing things that flashlight can do and say, Whoa, yeah, where has this been?

Why haven’t we looked into this? And I’ve been on, I’ve done this role and at other places, but I haven’t seen that reaction. I haven’t had. That reaction from educators from the prospect in the same way that I do here at Flashlight. And it’s amazing. It never gets old. 

Justin Hewett: It’s been fun to see you grow in that role.

When Erick came and joined us at Flashlight, I [00:38:00] had recruited him to come and join. He was one of our early employees, early team members. And he came in and did the work of being a business development rep, setting up meetings all across the nation to meet with our partnership directors and learn about Flashlight 360 and how we could help them accelerate.

English language acquisition and development for their English learners. And then we ended up having you lead a team. And now today you lead that team and you’ve got five or six people on it. And it is really fun to see. There are, there’s probably a hundred thousand students today in the United States using Flashlight 360 because of you and your team’s work.

And that’s pretty dang cool to see and to, you know, see the impact you’re having on the hundreds of thousands of little, Erika, what, how did they, what did they call you? Erikis. And all over the nation. I just think that’s really cool. And I think it’s neat that you get to be involved in this work. And we at FlashSight are so grateful for you and the impact that you [00:39:00] have on our team and the impact you have on our culture.

You really have added so much to our company and you bring the fun. That class clown, I think, I don’t know. I wouldn’t think of you as the class clown per se, but I think of you as being fun. Bring a lot of fun and a lot of energy. And we’re grateful to have you here. And we’re grateful to have you come and join us on the ML chat podcast.

Mandi and I have really been looking forward to doing this. It was fun to sit down and have this conversation with you, 

Erick Olivas: but my life has changed because of flashlight and. No, I will always be grateful for it and look forward to continue to change many more multilingual learners lives. Yeah. I love it.

Justin Hewett: Vamos, let’s go. Thanks everybody. Thanks for listening to our ML chat podcast today. And this wonderful conversation that we got to have with Erickk Olivas.