English 9 Honor students have been exploring people who have chosen to “live deliberately,” and guest speaker Juan Francisco Sanchez visited York High School on Thurs., March 10 to talk about his personal journey that coincides with the theme of “living deliberately.”

Sanchez was raised at the Hogar de Niños Nazareth (All God’s Children) orphanage and grew up working on farms without the benefit of education. The schools in Honduras are often only the size of two York classrooms, and the conditions are extremely dangerous. Kids are also expected to do manual work, and education is not encouraged.

He’s noted that his experiences in the United States have been drastically different, from education to safety.

“Here, I can go to school and someone’s not going to kill me. I walk to school and someone will smile at me… You feel free here,” says Sanchez, comparing the differences between his school experience in Honduras versus schools in America.

He continues to talk about things that students didn’t even realize they took for granted, like Chromebooks.

“I think that computers for us are just part of our day and we don’t think about it like it’s something that we’re fortunate to have,” commented freshman Savannah Baron, whose English class listened to the speaker yesterday. Sanchez tells the audience that he hopes to return and bring back a computer to show the students there, who have never seen one before.

Sanchez tells the audience that he hopes to return and bring back a computer to show the students there, who have never seen one before.

“I just want to give them hope,” says Sanchez. 

Sanchez’s message was one of hard work and determination, and he stresses that to the students. Right now he is getting a business education and hopes to return to Honduras to share what he has learned with the opportunities he’s been given.

As a person who values education, Sanchez hopes that sharing his education will open up opportunities to kids in Honduras who didn’t even know that professions like being a doctor or lawyer were options.

Another aspiration of his is to start a business where people collect their spare change and send it back to Honduras. He came up with this idea after walking home and collecting $1.50, a sum that equals what some people in Honduras make in a day. Right now he calls it, “the power of change.”

He ends the presentation with thanks to all the people who’ve brought him there, and shares a quote from Albert Einstein that has motivated him throughout his journey: “Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work.”