Windsor High teacher Ramirez wins Harvard honor

When Harvard University asked its graduating seniors last year to name high school teachers who inspired them, Windsor's Brian Gillis thought of Roberto Ramirez.

He credits Ramirez, who teaches physics and calculus at Windsor High School, with changing his life.

"I wasn't sure what I wanted to do," said Gillis, 23, who took classes from Ramirez in his senior year at Windsor.

Ramirez helped convince Gillis he should go to college.

"He'd find people who didn't realize their own potential and take them to places they didn't think they could go," Gillis said. "Mr. Ramirez has changed more lives than anyone I know."

Next month, Ramirez will travel to Cambridge, Mass., to receive Harvard's Singer Prize for Excellence in Secondary Teaching, a prestigious award given to only four teachers each year.

More than 1,600 Harvard seniors had a chance to nominate someone. The prize includes $3,000 for Ramirez and $2,500 for Windsor High.

Ramirez said he's honored to receive the prize but doesn't think he should be singled out.

"I'm lucky that some of my students remember me," he said. "But I know of so many teachers who give so much. I don't think there's enough acknowledgment of the extra effort and sacrifices that our teachers make."

He still pushes his students to go to college, Ramirez said.

"I found through the years that many are sorry not to have gone," he said. "I found none who were sorry they went. Education opens doors and opens minds."

Ramirez, 61, is an example of the value of education. He didn't speak English when he came to the United States from Mexico at age 16.

He went to Healdsburg High and picked grapes after class and during school vacations to help his family make ends meet.

After attending Santa Rosa Junior College, Sonoma State University and UCLA, where he earned a teaching credential, he returned to Healdsburg High.

Ramirez taught there for 22 years before moving to Windsor High, which opened in 1995.

For 28 years, Ramirez has spent his summers teaching math to migrant Latino students in a federally funded program called Adelante. It's aimed at closing the gap in academic achievement between Latino and white students.

Ramirez said he remembers Gillis as an eager student. "He was a learner," Ramirez said.

Ramirez kept his classroom open at lunch and long after school to help students, Gillis said. "It was an exciting classroom to be in," he said. "He was always teaching."

The math teacher gave special attention to students trying to overcome language barriers, Gillis said.

"His passion for math is equaled only by his passion to see his students go to college, even if they be the first in their family to do so," Gillis wrote to Harvard's selection committee.

Gillis majored in government at Harvard, but he's now taking business classes because he wants to be an entrepreneur.

"I really want to start companies," he said.

Next year, he'll start a sales job with a telecommunications software company.

You can reach Staff Writer Steve Hart at 521-5205 or steve.hart@pressdemocrat.com.