By Anselmo Ramon, TOCC Chair of Workforce and Community Development
Emilio Ramon
Emilio Ramon is Tohono O’odham and his grandparents are from the community of Vamori in the Chukut Kuk District located on the southern part of the Tohono O’odham reservation adjacent to the Mexico border. Emilio’s father is Matthew C. Ramon from upper Covered Wells in the Gu Achi District of the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Emilio attended Living Word Academy in Sells for most of, what would be considered, fourth to tenth grade. The school did not have grade levels but one group of students of different ages. His education consisted of some instruction but mostly workbooks on the academic subjects he needed for his age level. The school suddenly closed due to lack of funding. He and his family were not sure why but knew that Emilio had to finish his high school education. Emilio’s mom, Madeline, brought him to Tohono O’odham Community College’s (TOCC) Hawks Nest Campus to inquire about our Pre-College GED program. After a brief overview, Madeline and Emilio decided the program would be his next step to finishing his high school education. Emilio was 17 years old when he entered the GED program in September 2023.
The first steps in our program that Emilio completed were to pre-test in all of the GED subjects, identify the ‘most likely to pass’ subjects, get set up for testing, and receive the results to start the next step. The next step involved Emilio completing the official GED practice tests as he began working with our online GED Instructor, Ms. Bridget Taylor, via Zoom sessions. Once Emilio had the hang of online learning, lessons, homework, and working independently, he began to learn very quickly.
The collaborative, supportive efforts from our Pre-College GED Team and Emilio’s commitment to staying focused and completing his GED requirements helped him to succeed, as he exceeded the levels required to pass in the first three standard GED subject exams and the Arizona Civics Test. Emilio’s fourth and final subject, and most challenging, was the GED math exam. Once all his other tests were passed, he was then placed with our GED math tutor, Ms. Linda Gates. Linda develops Individual Study Plans (ISPs) for math that identify what each student needs to know to pass the exam. She spent several months with Emilio on a weekly basis via Zoom. Upon completion and taking his final GED math exam, Emilio has been identified as the highest scoring student in GED math at our Pre-College GED program! The score was high enough to provide Emilio with the opportunity to earn college credits in math. He did so well on his final math exam that he had time to spare. We are all very proud of Emilio for making the effort to give it his all.
I asked Emilio several questions about his work in math. Emilio shared that he didn’t know he would do so well in math, but thinking back on his education experience he didn’t recall any difficult math. When asked what helped him learn the level of math he needed to pass the official GED math exam, Emilio responded that Linda explained the ‘why’ to him – why he needed to know the type of math he was learning and why it could be challenging. He also mentioned that the Aztec software we use helped him and noted that the math on the software was more difficult than the actual GED math exam. Emilio shared that he likes to read, mostly comic books, and we know strong literacy skills contribute to strong high school equivalency outcomes. When asked what he would say to other GED students working on their GED, he replied, “Believe in yourself, practice your work, and don’t give up.”
