Ruth Kunstadter is an elementary school Spanish teacher in New Jersey. Javier Ceballos is a senior dual sport athlete at Woodlake Union High School. Minus their fluency in Spanish, the two had nothing in common. But Spanish was enough to bring the two together recently.

The two crossed paths in April on a project that could promote Javier, Woodlake and Tulare County in a unique way across the nation.

Kunstadter is an elementary-level Spanish teacher in New Jersey who is tired of the blasé, standard type Spanish education videos used in most foreign language classrooms across the nation.

Reaching for something culturally authentic to spark the interest of Spanish language students, Kunstadter decided to create her own series of videos for classroom use.

Creator of Chispa Productions, Kunsdater released her first DVD video, “La Chispa del Beisbol,” in March of this year. The video featured interviews, in Spanish, with four Latino Minor League Baseball players in the U.S.

For her second video, Kunstadter was drawn to California when she heard about the local non-profit program, Sequoia Gateway.

Sequoia Gateway, in its second year, is a program aimed at creating opportunities for under represented Tulare County youth to attend college by using soccer as a vehicle. The program sponsors the participants on an Under 19 club soccer team called Juventus.

Kunstadter learned about the program through a familial connection to the program's director Marvin Lopez.

“I learned about the program and I think it's just a really great story,” Kunstadter said. She made contact with the team last year and helped the program by setting up a visit for Sequoia Gateway senior athletes to visit Drew University in New Jersey.

She made a trip to Tulare County last week, April 19-21 to interview Lopez and the program participants, including Ceballos.

“What impressed me so much was the dedication that these boys have and their vision for their future. They are interested in being architects, teachers, engineers, forensic investigators, businessmen,” Kunstadter said after she completed filming. “It was an impressive list and I completely believe these young men will achieve their goals.”

Her aim for the video's content is to include interviews with the athletes and Lopez as well as some information about the county and the impact Latinos have in the community. Kunstadter toured Visalia, Woodlake and Porterville during her short stay and hopes to include footage of the surround ing area and information about the produce grown in the Central Valley as part of the educational video.

“The videos partly teach Spanish and also celebrate the importance of Latino culture in the U.S.,” Kunstadter said. “Our kids [in New Jersey] just have no idea how much food is produced in the U.S.”

The visit was Kunstadter's first to the Valley and the trip was educational for her as well. “It's prettier than I expected. I didn't realize how expansive the area was and how much is grown here,” she said.

Kunstandter's series of interviews revealed the special bonds that the athletes have with their family and their home life.

“I interviewed about 10 of the boys, and all except for one said that their idol was their father or their parents,” Kunstandter said. “The remaining boy said that Marvin was his idol for giving him this opportunity. But it is clear that they are all very proud of their families and want to succeed not only for their own goals, but to make their families proud of them.”

For the seniors in the program, like Ceballos, they are well on their way to success in their search for higher education.

Ceballos was recently accepted to Fresno Pacific University and is waiting to hear about his options for athletic and academic scholarships. Another teammate out of Porterville, Noel Mendoza, has already been accepted to St. Peter's College in New Jersey and is being offered a four-year $34,000 academic scholarship. He is still waiting for an offer of an athletic scholarship.

Print this story

Email this story

Return to Index