David Saveanu
Reporter
Charles Larenas, a Parkland primary education professor, is seldom idle because of his involvement in Parkland and the community.
Larenas has been teaching for a total of 22 years and has been at Parkland for 10 of those.
He started by working with children in the elementary school system.
“I was in the K–12 system teaching 4th grade for two years,” he said. “And being a reading specialist and a coach for 10 [years], so 12 years all together.”
Larenas hadn’t initially begun on the path to teaching.
“I got my [Bachelor of Science] in advertising from the U of I and when I took the college and careers success course at the U of I as a junior I realized it didn’t fit me as a person,” he said.
The success course was described by Larenas as a similar course to Parkland’s current FYE-101 class.
“I had always had [pursuing] education in the back of my mind and that fit me better as a person,” he said.
He stressed the importance of classes like FYE-101 that teach the nature of different futures and may help put students on the track they need to be on for their success.
Larenas was advised to finish his degree in advertising, because he was already a junior, and afterwards get a master’s degree in education, along with a teaching certificate.
After the 12 years he worked in the K-12 school system, he switched to college because of an interest sparked by a teacher he had worked with.
“The first day of student teaching, my cooperating teacher mentioned that he was teaching [future] teachers at Parkland, and from that moment I had it in the back of my mind that that, teaching future teachers, would be a cool thing to teach,” he said.
“The time was right after having all that experience, with doing some consulting work and being a literacy coach and working with other adults teaching some Spanish classes here [at Parkland]…[after] all that, [I thought] the time was right to switch over.”
Larenas is also now teaching Parkland’s equivalent of the class that had benefited him so much in terms of his career.
“I teach all the education courses and I also teach FYE-101,” he said. “Presently I do all the FYE classes for the athletes; I try to get them to understand the student part of the student athlete.”
He spends his free time training for triathlons, though he hasn’t seriously raced in a while.
“I try to swim bike and run whenever possible,” he said.
After swimming, biking and running for 10 years, he finds it difficult to do it as competitively as he used to, but he still enjoys doing the three activities at less intense distances.
He also enjoys spending time with his family.
“I spend as much time as I can with my kids. Now that they’re older they don’t necessarily want me to spend time with them, so I take advantage of what I can get,” he said.
Larenas spends his summers helping students with families that travel a lot because of work; he makes sure they get the educational support they need that they may not get because of the constant travel.
It also gives students an opportunity to teach and get more experience as educators.
He used to be the sole teacher of the program but he is now the director of the program and places his former students in the classrooms.
“Former students are the licensed teachers, and some present or former students are the paraprofessionals,” Larenas said.
Larenas is also the advisor of Club Latino, which seeks to promote awareness within the Parkland community of “Latino/a heritage and culture,” and the Parkland College Student Education Association.
More information on Club Latino and the PCSEA can be found on Parkland’s website, under the “About Parkland” heading. From there, hover over “Department Office Directory” and then click on “Student Life.” An info box on the left-hand side of the page has link to the “Clubs and Organizations” page.