HOUSTON — “I shouldn’t have done it. Looking back, that was a terrible decision.”
Mark Perez sits in his new office on the fourth floor of Harris County Department of Education’s Adult Education building. In his first month as Adult Education’s career pathways manager, Perez walks over to a cabinet, opens the door and pulls out a framed certificate.
Written in bold: “Certificate of High School Equivalency.”
The GED certificate he earned through HCDE.
“I was a high school dropout,” said Perez, who grew up less than two miles from the same building where he’s now charged with helping others forge the same path he did.
At the time, walking away at 17 years old was a means to an end. It was a way out.
It was also just the first of many hurdles he’s gone over.
Perez is in his second year with HCDE, joining the department in January 2023 as its first on-staff translator. Working in the Marketing and Client Engagement division, he helped establish a translation program that supports HCDE divisions with both internal and external needs in Spanish.
He now serves in Adult Education, using experience in both translations and teaching to help students achieve goals they may have deemed unattainable. That includes finding community partners to supporting graduating students to leading computer and ESL classes.
“I know these people,” he said. “I am these people.”
Added Adult Education Director Linda Fehoko: “Mark’s appointment isn’t just about filling a role. It’s about igniting a movement towards unparalleled excellence in adult education. At HCDE, exceptional is our baseline. As we ascend to become the premier adult education institution in the nation, the path will be arduous, but rewards are immeasurable.”
Perez is an example. At 45 years old, he earned his Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies with a dual minor in Psychology and Spanish from Sam Houston State University. He earned a master’s degree two years ago.
Both times, he graduated with honors. He’s now pursuing doctoral work.
“When I go downstairs, talk to these guys and tell them I’m a high school dropout, they look at me and can’t believe it,” he said. “But they listen because I’ve been in that situation and know the importance of resilience. That is such an important skill to have as a human because life is going to come at you hard and you have to be willing to get back up.”
As Perez tells it, his childhood was less than ideal. His parents were consumed by addictions and struggled. Perez was constantly on the receiving end of verbal abuse and neglect.
“We don’t ask to be born into our situations with our parents,” he said.
He did excel academically, even testing well above his grade level as far back as elementary school. But it didn’t change how he felt about himself. It wasn’t until he was older that Perez realized his parents – especially his father – were still dealing with their own childhood trauma.
His father, for example, was abandoned by his own father, extremely dyslexic and dropped out of school in the third grade due to bullying and verbal abuse.
He internalized that hurt and emotion, later projecting it negatively on his son.
“His word for me was stupid,” Perez said.
Through his anger and hurt, Perez counted the days until he turned 17. He couldn’t control what his parents were doing, and he was tired of being consumed by their struggles.
He walked away.
“Now I don’t think leaving high school was the best choice I could have made but at the time, that’s all I understood,” he said. “It was quitting school, start working, get on my own and get away from my parents. And to some degree, I thought that was necessary.”
Perez soon started a family and needed to provide. Here he encountered another hurdle – he didn’t have a high school diploma or the equivalency to find a job.
Perez searched for a GED program and found it at HCDE. That opened another door and he spent more than a decade working as a pastor.
At 41 years old and at another crossroads, Perez applied to Lone Star College. There were bumps, namely mathematics, but Perez soon realized he was more than capable of pursuing higher education.
“The day I walked across the stage, I remember having this mini conversation with my dad in my head,” said Perez, who graduated magna cum laude and later summa cum laude when he earned his master’s degree. “I said, ‘Dad, I’m not stupid.’ I wasn’t angry but to have that moment was fulfilling.
“Now, I know he regrets ever saying that to me. We have a very close relationship now. That moment gave me closure to that pain of my childhood. It took going through the process of education and jumping over those hurdles, that gave me the confidence to believe in myself.”
Perez worked as an academic advisor at Lamar State College Orange before getting into bilingual teaching. He served in newcomer centers at Cypress-Fairbanks and Katy school districts, implementing English immersion programs designed to aid students who are newly arrived to the United States with little to no English skills. He served in the dual-language program in New Caney ISD.
At all three districts, he did extensive translations from curriculum and lessons plans to schoolwide documents. Those skills made him the ideal candidate to be HCDE’s first translator, despite his original application going to Adult Education.
“Mark is a natural communicator and possesses the leadership skills we needed to establish and cultivate the translations program at HCDE,” Marketing and Client Engagement Director Stephanie de Los Santos said. “His expertise expands beyond translations and the support Mark provided has been instrumental in helping the MCE team continue to provide high quality marketing services.”
Perez was able to assist Adult Education and students at various functions in his first year, first at the graduation ceremony and then as emcee of signing day. That opened the door to his new position when it became available.
The chance to interact with adult learners on a more routine basis and get back into the classroom was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
It also brings him full circle, coming back to the program that propelled Perez when he felt stuck. He’s able to share his story with others and serve as a sounding board. He’s able to connect employers and community partners with the students and graduates.
“I’ve only been here a month, but in this month, I’m home,” Perez said. “Education gave me that sense of accomplishment back. You have to believe that you can do it but you have to prove to yourself that you can. That’s the message that I love to tell people about. If you are resilient and you keep coming, you can make it. And education played a big part in my life in understanding that.”
Harris County Department of Education is a unique educational entity that serves school districts, government agencies, nonprofits, and the public in the third-largest county in the U.S. Annually, HCDE serves a quarter-million students and educators through schools for students with profound special needs; one of the oldest adult education programs in Texas; Head Start early childhood education; school-based therapy services; and afterschool programs. HCDE also offers educators professional development and certification, school safety training, records management, and a purchasing cooperative. #SeeTheImpact at www.hcde-texas.org.
By: Harris County Department of Education
