Fidel Castro Jr.

Fidel Castro Jr. is no dictator. Unlike the elder Cuban leader whose name he shares, this young Fidel wants to change the world for the better.

In the process, he hopes that the world changes its view about what the name Fidel Castro should really mean to others.

His own campaign to change the world for the better began at Northbrook High School where Fidel Castro Jr. ran for and was elected class president all four years.

“Before I came here, I set it as a goal to help change the way people viewed this school. I ran for president to try to get more people involved in activities and to have more school spirit,” he says.

His work paid off recently when it was announced that he had been awarded SBISD’s sole Gates Millennium Scholarship this year. Fidel plans to use the full-tuition and board scholarship, good through graduate school, to study criminal justice science at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.

Established in 1999, the Gates Millennium Scholars program was initially funded by a $1 billion dollar grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Key scholarship goals are to promote academic excellence and to provide opportunities for outstanding minority students with financial need to reach their highest potential.

The first in his family to attend college, he’s thinking about a career in the FBI or a related law enforcement field for the best reasons possible. “I want to help people and help change the world,” Fidel says. “I chose Sam Houston State because of its great criminal justice studies program and have visited it several times, once with my parents.”

His parents, Fidel Sr. and Josie Castro, figure prominently in his life. His father, who has worked 20 years as a front manager at the Rice Epicurean grocery story on Fountain View, is a hero.

Fidel Jr., who will graduate No. 13 in his class, has juggled his studies and up to 30 hours a week at the same store. Customers ask if he is related to Fidel Sr., whom they have known for years or decades.

“He is my role model,” Fidel says. “He wants me to have a better life than he had so I will always think of him when I am making choices. I think that he did a terrific job and raised four good kids. My parents support me 100 percent in all that I do.”

“I want people to think about my father or me when they hear the name Fidel Castro and think good things,” he adds. The family and the ailing Cuban leader are not related.

When “Fidel Castro for President” posters appeared at Northbrook High last year, English teacher Diane Dempsey scrawled “for life” beneath the word President. Fidel smiled and told her, “No! I was named after my father!” with such pride that she had to blink back tears, she says.

“Only in this millennium could a kid named Fidel Castro be the quintessential ‘All-American Boy,’” she says today.

The Castro children – Fidel, a younger brother, and two sisters – grew up across from Spring Shadows Elementary School on Kempwood. He attended prekindergarten and elementary at the elementary campus followed by Northbrook middle and high schools.

As a middle school peer mediator, Fidel said that he discovered that helping his friends make good choices interested him. In eighth grade, he earned a district Character Without Question Award. This year, he was awarded the school’s Making A Difference Award.

“I became successful in my life because of the faculty and staff at the schools that I attended – Spring Shadows, Northbrook Middle and Northbrook High. The people in the schools and my parents helped make me what I am today,” Fidel says.

Northbrook High social worker Scott Glueck, who was a family friend for many years, and English teacher Dempsey are two of the adults who inspired him.

“Mr. Glueck’s door was always open. He even checked up on me, to make sure that I was doing well. He’s really like a father to me,” Fidel says.

“Fidel is the perfect candidate for the Gates Millennium Scholarship,” Glueck says in response. “He is one of the hardest working students I know, always respectful and sincere. Fidel strives to succeed in all that he does, whether it be working with customers at Rice Epicurean or working on a calculus test.

“Always friendly and pleasant, Fidel will be successful wherever he ends up. The university that is lucky enough to educate him will not be sorry that they gave Fidel an opportunity.”

Fidel was a student in Dempsey’s Advanced Placement English class. “Fidel was not the most insightful writer, the most intuitive reader, nor the most articulate of my AP students, but he was by far one of the most impressive,” she says.

“He stayed after school, e-mailed from home, and worked for the insights that came easily to others. His tenacity and gentle spirit impressed me when I first met him as a volunteering freshman and touched me when he was an incredibly hard working junior who always, somehow, honored his priorities.”

Vanessa Croix, the high school’s GEAR UP coordinator, works closely with students like Fidel, many of them the first in their families to consider college or university education as a logical next step after graduation.

“We have shining stars like Fidel and other students who are afraid to shine for one reason or another,” she says. “I hope that Fidel’s story will help motivate others to shine.

“We want them to know that Northbrook High students are going on to colleges and universities and, in some cases like Fidel, getting full-ride scholarships. There’s no reason to be afraid or scared. Students just need to try, like Fidel did.”

posted 05-23-08