It Takes a Village and A Lot of Work and Dedication with Andy Canales - Social Entrepreneur, Educator & Activist, EP #128

As our team has been looking for excellent Latinos to speak at Latin Talks, we found Andy Canales and I was so impressed with him. I wanted to have him on the podcast so that you can hear his story of what it looks like to create success for Latinos in the U.S.

​​Andy Canales was the Greater Houston Founding Executive Director at Latinos for Education, an education non-profit organization focused on developing and placing Latino talent in the education sector. Andy worked with a wide range of non-profits to increase Latino leadership in their organizations through two Latino leadership fellowships. The goal of the organization is to train 150 Latino leaders over the next five years to be at the forefront of leading education change in Houston through service on education nonprofit boards and senior education roles. Previously, Andy worked in education as a corporate philanthropy manager, nonprofit director, and teacher. Andy is on the board of TEACH and also chairs the Latino Texas PAC, a nonpartisan organization that elects the next generation of Latino leaders in Texas politics. As the son of Salvadoran immigrants and the first one in his family to graduate from college, Andy is passionate about expanding educational equity.

You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...

  • How teachers, family and friends can help you move forward (3:21)

  • How Andy’s college counselor helped him manifest going to school at Pepperdine (7:26)

  • The importance of post secondary education (16:24)

  • How to give back to your community for all the support you’ve received (20:10)

  • How important early childhood education is to a child’s growth and success (27:12)

  • Why parents need to be educated on how to help their childrens’ learning process (32:52)

Setting your sights high

Andy grew up in Southern California as the son of El Salvadorian parents. He learned a work ethic and good values from helping his mom clean houses, but he also saw firsthand what money can do to help a family succeed. As they took the bus from southern LA to the affluent communities like Bel Air, Malibu and Beverly Hills, Andy noticed that he had opportunities to do more with the circumstances he had been given. He knew that serendipity had given him the leg up of being born in the U.S. and surrounded by wealth and success. But he also knew he had to put in the hard work to make good on those opportunities.

What the data says about education

I asked Andy what showed him the value of education and why he has invested in it. He shared the data that when someone has a college degree, they average making $1 million more over the lifetime of their career than a peer who doesn’t. Even though it’s not a one-size fits all kind of path to success, it’s all about being smart and wise about your career, where the demand in the market is, and finding the best program or path to filling that. We all start at different places in the race and the factors that we are born into make a big impact on our life path. But if we take the opportunities given to us and make the most of them, we can go anywhere.

Building advantages for yourself

Andy suggests looking at your life circumstances and identifying where you can build advantages no matter where you are starting from. When he moved out of his parent’s house to go to school at Pepperdine, he had to work through some guilt about how much better he was going to be living than the lifestyle his family had been living. He had to remind himself that the people who loved him the most really did want what was best for him. He challenged himself to use whatever he gained to at least in part give back to his community. Today he is the co-founder of Latinos for Education, which is a big part of how he is doing this. 

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