Duncanville resident Jose’ (Joey) Rodriguez knew he was in the wrong place last year. A freshman at Duncanville High, he felt like just a number. With nearly 4,000 students at the school, about 1,000 per class, it’s easy to see how he could feel that way. And at the end of the year, the school made news when over 100 students were suspended for violating the dress codes just weeks before graduation.
“Every day he’d text me from school and tell me he wanted to transfer out of there,” his mother, Elena, remembers. “It broke my heart.”
“I got good grades. I thought school was pretty easy,” he says, “But I knew I wasn’t learning enough. We didn’t have the technology we have here at Bishop Dunne, and we worked from worksheets in some of my classes. It wasn’t good.”
Although he was on the freshman football team, even that wasn’t much fun.
Now, as a sophomore, he plays on the Falcon junior varsity squad as a receiver. In the first quarter of the first game he played as a Falcon, he made a reception. He looks forward to playing on varsity, and helping the team win another 51 – 0 game like they had in their opener.
Joey knew some friends from St. Luke’s Catholic Church who were students at Bishop Dunne, and they were obviously happy. “I met Brandon Zamorano at St. Luke’s Catholic School. He told me all about Bishop Dunne, and said I’d love it here,” says Joey. So his mother and he made an appointment with counselor Ms. Jessica Perales, and with his good grades the transfer was easy.
Now he gets to enjoy learning about his faith in theology class with Ms. Torres, a new teacher this year. “She’s great,” he says, adding, “Pretty much all the teachers here are.” He loves geometry too, with Mr. Schettini, a Notre Dame graduate with a Master’s in Education from the school, “because he teaches so clearly, I finally get it.”
He also gets that this is the school where he can excel and get to the college he hopes to attend: West Virginia University, explaining, “I just like that college – I would love to play football for the team.”
He’s excited to hear that WVU’s Athletic Director Oliver Luck will be the keynote speaker at the Bishop Dunne 100 Dinner, and hopes to meet him. Although West Virginia is far away, he likes to travel.
In November he’ll be going to California with his family to support his older sister Megan, the reigning Miss Dallas. He’ll be escorting her in the nationals as she competes for the title of National All American Miss. He said he wasn’t surprised to see her win the local beauty contest.
“She was really committed to the pageant and had been working towards it for a long time. She put a lot of effort into it. I knew she was going to win,” he says proudly. Now he gets to be with her as she competes on a national scale. Traveling, meeting new people, and paying attention to detail could help him in his future career.
“I’d like to be a sports agent,” he said, “I’m good at math, so I could help athletes with their contracts.”
He likes to help others, and understands that sometimes things don’t work out the way one hopes. His younger sister, Regan, was diagnosed with a rare childhood cancer, and is in heaven now. Joey explains that, “She earned her angel wings two years ago. She’d be five today. I miss her every day." He knows she's watching over him out there on the football field, and he plays his best for her.
He’s also giving his best in the classroom. He used to be late every day for school last year, but has turned a corner; now he has no problem getting up and off to school. “I want to be here,” he says happily. “The students and faculty are friendly. It’s a great school.”
This is a Falcon ready to work hard in both the classroom and on the football field, preparing for his future, getting ready to soar.
“They that wait upon the Lord will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint...” Isaiah 40:31
Bishop Dunne increased in enrollment this year with 24 transfer students, and a larger freshman class than last year which includes 76 new freshmen joining 64 who were promoted from 8th grade. Total enrollment is now 602. 100% of the school’s graduates are accepted into college. Last year 11 students went to college on a full scholarship including Dartmouth, Brown and Notre Dame.
The Bishop Dunne 100 Dinner is on October 22, 2014. For more information see the school’s website: www.bdcs.org
Information provided by Judy Porter.