Seeing the potential
Tough childhood inspires Bronx teacher to help hundreds of kids
A Bronx teacher turned a childhood filled with tragedy and loss into a life dedicated to motivating and educating disadvantaged students.
Jonathan Berenguer, 29, a nominee for the Daily News’ Hometown Heroes award, learned early on that sometimes you have to be your own hero. He was only a month old when his mother was allegedly killed by a spurned boyfriend, he says. The exact details surrounding her death are still a mystery.
Five years later, Berenguer’s father was murdered, making him and his older sister Carmen orphans. The siblings were adopted by their maternal grandparents, and for a few years they had a mother and father figure to lean on.
But then his grandfather died when Berenguer was just 10, and the boy suddenly understood he now had to be the man of the house. Assuming the responsibility of caring for his sister and grandmother came naturally, he says — and others around him soon noticed his ability and willingness to be of service to others.
“When I was in eighth grade my math teacher saw potential in me that
I didn’t see,” Berenguer remembers. “He asked me to help him teach some of my fellow classmates and when I helped that first student and he said to me, ‘Hey Jonathan, I get this. Thanks man’ — that changed my life.”
That feeling of knowing he was able to make a difference in someone’s life “set me on the path to want to do something in education,” Berenguer said. “At that moment, I knew I wanted to be a teacher.” As someone who had few resources growing up on the Grand Concourse and E. 196th St., Berenguer began finding ways in which he could be a resource to those around him in similar circumstances.
At 18, he earned a full scholarship to CUNY’s Lehman College in the Bronx, where he planned to graduate as a math teacher — and promptly founded his own tutoring company aimed at helping younger kids in his community. While pursuing a master’s degree, he worked as a math SAT tutor and counselor to Bronx high schoolers for TRIO, a federal program that provides assistance to low-income students hoping to go to college. Working out of Lehman College, he’s now a TRIO project director and has mentored hundreds of youngsters at several Bronx schools, including Pelham Preparatory Academy.
Leslie Vasquez, a recent Pelham Prep graduate who nominated Berenguer as a Hometown Hero, told The News that she was inspired by his passion for wanting to help kids better themselves.
“Jonathan recognizes that education services are not the way they should be for students in the Bronx and he wants to provide these services to us,” said Vasquez, who graduated as the school’s valedictorian. “He gave me the advice I needed when I had no one to give it to me … and he was able to help friends of mine that were headed onto really bad paths and now they’re going to college.”
Berenguer said, “I know what it is to feel abandoned, and so I strive to make all students feel welcomed and accepted.” He added, “I know what it is to grow up with not many resources, so I teach students how to become successful so that they can live comfortably. I know what it is to be hurting and trying so hard to hide it, so I try to make students feel special and cared for when I talk to them and provide them with opportunities and programs.”
While Berenguer’s dedication to his Bronx students makes him a deserving Hometown Heroes nominee, he says they’re the ones who are real heroes by providing him with inspiration and motivation.
“When I see Bronx kids I can see the poverty and I can see the struggle,” Berenguer said. “But at the same time you see the potential, the creativity, the eagerness to succeed [and] to be somebody — and that right there is the most beautiful thing for me.”