Mr. Nicolas Canastuj started teaching online at Mission High School in 2020 during the pandemic and has made a lot of progress for his community.
Mr. Canastuj didn’t always want to be a teacher, he actually started with computer engineering, but his fiancée, girlfriend at the time, made him realize that he enjoyed helping out people.
He said that if his girlfriend hadn’t asked him about it, he probably wouldn’t have been a teacher.
“I think I would have stuck with computer engineering, and I probably wouldn’t have liked it,” Mr. Carnastuj said.
Mr. Canastuj’s friend, a teacher who used to work at Mission High School, managed to help him get a job at Mission. Ever since then, he finds work really fun helping kids, even students that are not in his class.
Something you should know about Mr. Canastuj is how proud he is of his Latino heritage.
“I’m definitely proud of my Latino heritage. I am Guatemalan, and I’m glad that I get to see [Guatemalan] students… I’m glad I could represent them here in the school.”
Many of his students can’t believe that they have a Guatemalan teacher. When Mr. Canastuj was a student, he never had a teacher that represented him. He was the only Guatemalan in the school. His first year at Mission felt very different. He was at a school where most of his students are Guatemalan, making him feel a sense of belonging.
“I feel connected, and I feel like it should be the same for everybody, whether you’re out of school or at a university. Feel proud of what you do and make sure you represent yourself in the best way possible.”.
What do you do after school in your free time?
“In my free time, there’s three separate things that I do. One, I watch a lot of wrestling, like WWE. I just want to go watch an event on Monday, live in Sacramento with my fiancée and our best friends.
I also play a lot of video games. I’m currently playing Minecraft and Fortnite. So I’m playing a lot of that right now. I love playing that game, Minecraft. (My fiance and I play) Fortnite together, we play Minecraft. We have a three-year-old world.
Number three is just watching TV. So I’m currently watching Bob’s Burgers. I’m also watching a bunch of other shows. One called Abbott Elementary. My favorite shows are sitcoms.”
What advice do you give to the seniors?
“Enjoy the ride. It’s gonna be hard to figure everything out right away. So think about what you want for yourself at the time, and if things change, that’s totally fine. So don’t worry about being perfect because not everyone is perfect. No one’s perfect, actually but just be true to yourself. Make sure that you’re happy with what you do. If you ever need support, reach out to anybody, whether it’s staff, teachers, friends, family.”
How about advice for your newcomers and freshmen?
“This is emphasized twice as much. Find help, find your resources, because this is a brand new country and you definitely have people around you who want to help you. To plug this in, I have a newcomer club, so you need more direct support, we have this program to help you out.”
