LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Guillermo Carmona was nominated anonymously.

"The first time I met Mr. Carmona was at Umphrey Lee Elementary School in 2014, where he was a teacher and I was a volunteer. In this community, he played a key role in helping immigrant and low-income families identify their children's talents, enabling them to apply to Dallas' top schools. I observed that Mr. Carmona worked diligently throughout the year to enhance his students' reading and writing skills, as well as their participation in various academic and leadership activities, to ensure they could attend the Magnet and GT schools. His motto inspired me to become a teacher: 'A child needs a community to grow, and as a teacher, you must ensure that families that don't have the opportunity to go to the University have as many opportunities as possible to get it,'" said the nominator.

"Mr. Carmona is not just a leader for his students. He is a LifeChanger. Over the past two years, I have volunteered at Cedar Crest Elementary, where Mr. Carmona serves as a 4th and 5th-grade ELAR Teacher. As a former teacher myself, I learned how Mr. Carmona connects with his students and their parents. I saw him not only being a teacher, but a parent coach who encourages families to help their children apply for the best schools and trust that they will attend universities in the future," said the nominator.

"This 2024-2025 academic year, I saw Mr. Carmona doing the same work he has been doing for the last ten years, helping families with no expectations to trust in their children's talents. Mr. Carmona encourages his students to participate in activities such as chess, robotics, and Destination Imagination. Every time I asked Mr Carmona why he spends so much time in students' activities that consume a lot of his personal time? He told me that every opportunity they have to participate in a school activity determines their success to be accepted in a future talented school that will provide them with the chance to be the first generation to go to college," said the nominator.

"I remember that I asked him, 'Why are you doing this? These children will probably not remember you.' He answered me: 'I'm not doing this because I want them to remember me. I am doing this because my work is probably the only chance they and their families have to have a better future,'" said the nominator.

One of Mr. Carmona's former students didn't speak any Spanish. Today, they are now an engineer at Texas Instruments. As Mr. Carmona was eating breakfast at the Pancakes restaurant in Addison, TX, the student approached him with their parents and asked if he remembered them. Then, the student talked about their success story. After being a student at Umphrey Lee, they applied to the Barack Obama Leadership Academy. This allowed them to win a scholarship to the University of North Texas (UNT), and now, they are an engineer.

"You must be proud of me, Mr. Carmona," the student said.

"Look at this boy, Mr. Carmona. He is not doing yards like we did. He is an engineer because you guided him," the student's mother said with great enthusiasm.

At the end of the talk, the student and their mother paid for Mr. Carmona's pancakes, and they remembered him.

"I also asked Mr. Carmona how many students he has guided during these years? And, with the great sense of humor that characterizes Mr. Carmona, he told me: 'You know, I'm probably expecting to have around another 50 stacks of pancakes being paid because I heard that a lot of my students are now attending college,'" said the nominator.

"This year, I started my journey as a teacher, and I just want to be the change that Mr. Carmona inspired me to be," said the nominator.