Outstanding Graduate Student juggles responsibilities

As he was getting his bachelor's degree from the University of Phoenix's Yuma campus in 2008, Raul Arellano couldn't help notice the pomp and circumstance surrounding a dozen or so other students who were getting their master's degrees in the same graduation exercises.

"My reaction was, 'That's cool, I'd like to accomplish that one day.' "

As it happened, "one day" wasn't far off.

A little more than a year later, on Nov. 13, Arellano received his master's in business administration from the same university. Not only that, the student who completed his graduate studies with a near-perfect grade-point average of 3.97 was honored as the Outstanding Graduate Student of the class.

The university's Yuma-area faculty picked Arellano for the honor not only for his high GPA but for his demonstrated people skills and focus on completing his educational goals, said Patrick Goetz, faculty chair.

He earned academic honors while juggling his responsibilities as a quality engineer for Carrier Air Conditioning in Yuma and as a husband and father to wife Jennifer and the couple's twin 10-year-old girls, Kyla and Tylene. 

Arellano, who one day hopes to teach business, said there's a lesson in his story for others like him who immigrated to this country in search of a place for themselves.

"My message would be, don't let people dictate to you what you can or cannot do," he said. "If you think you want to do it, go for it."

At 6, he immigrated in the late 1970s with his family from San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., where he had been born. 

"I think I was more scared than anything," he said of those first days in a new country. "The only people you know are your family."

On his first day at kindergarten at Roosevelt School, he said, "I remember crying."

He entered Yuma's school system barely knowing how to speak English, and he says today his experiences can be instructive for others who revert to speaking in the Spanish language because they struggle to master a new language.

"Don't be afraid to speak the language, even if you feel uncomfortable, because that's the way you learn," he said. "If you don't practice, it's not going to happen."

Arellano completed Fourth Avenue Junior High, graduated from Yuma High, then got a degree in computer drafting and design from ITT Technical Institute in San Diego in the early 1990s.

"Life was expensive in San Diego, so I made my way back to Yuma." He worked in retail for a few months before being hired by Russell Coil 16 years ago.

He's remained at the company, which was acquired by Carrier, and today his responsibilities include quality control and ensuring compliance with quality standards at the Yuma plant, which manufactures refrigeration systems for restaurants, grocery stores and cold storage facilities.

He sought a bachelor's degree in business management to gain the knowledge he needed to succeed in his career, he says, but his pursuit of a master's was a personal challenge as much as anything else. He figured he could earn A's and B's, but as soon as he got his first A, he recalled, "I challenged myself and decided to apply myself and get an A in every class."

Ultimately, he says, he wants to move into an operations management position while teaching part time at the college or university level.

"To me, knowledge is worthless unless you use it to help others better their personal and professional lives," Arellano said. "I want to help other people achieve their goals."

His desire to teach came after he learned to define success not in terms of material wealth or fame but by how he could touch other's lives.

He learned that lesson not in school or in a university, but from a cousin who had passed away in his early 30s. The funeral, Arellano recalled, drew more than a thousand people, of all ages and all background. Their common denominator was that their lives have been affected for the better by his cousin, in one way or another, he said.

"Even in death, he was able to touch me and teach me about life."