September 18, 2026
Michelle Mittelman and Haley Randall
Juan Pablo Esquivel ’14 champions educational equity and the power of community
Esquivel during the Surge Fellowship Convention in San Antonio describing his Phi Iota Alpha Fraternity gold belt buckle. Photo: Surge Fellowship
As a Surge Fellowship recipient, Juan Pablo Esquivel ’14 is examining the systems that influence educational opportunity and imagining how they can become more equitable.
Esquivel has always seen education as something more than what happens inside a classroom.
A Chicago educator who has spent more than a decade working to expand opportunities for students, Esquivel has witnessed firsthand how access, relationships, and resources can shape a young person’s future.
Through the Surge Fellowship, a 10-month cohort-based experience that connects, accelerates, and empowers emerging leaders of color in education, Esquivel is taking his work one step further.
“When I was selected, it was an affirmation of all the work I’ve done,” Esquivel said. “I immediately thought about all the students, families, mentors and colleagues who helped shape my journey and career.”
The power of community
Becoming a teacher was not originally Esquivel’s goal; he studied sociology and anthropology and Spanish. Growing up, he rarely saw educators who looked like him. As a Latino student, he never had a teacher who shared his background.
“Honestly, I didn’t think a male Latino could teach STEM or could be a teacher,” he said.
That changed while at Lake Forest College. Esquivel credits his professors with recognizing his potential and challenging him to think critically about systems, social change, power, opportunity, and responsibility. His studies in sociology and anthropology helped him understand how those systems affect communities.
Esquivel also experienced the power of being known. “I had professors who didn’t just see me as another number,” he said. “They actually got to know me, worked with me, got to know my passions and what motivates me.”
He carried this experience with him after graduation while working for City Year Chicago and Teach for America in Miami, Houston, and Chicago, developing a broader understanding of urban education.
Esquivel’s commitment to students is deeply connected to his own identity. As a first-generation American whose parents were born in Mexico and came to the United States as teenagers, he understands the complicated process of navigating heritage, identity, and opportunity.
Esquivel believes Latino leaders bring cultural awareness, multilingual perspectives, strong community connections, and relationship-building skills to education. Just as importantly, they give students the opportunity to envision themselves in roles they may never have considered possible.
“When people see someone who looks like them do X, Y, Z, they’re able to see, ‘I’m able to get through it,’” Esquivel said.
Esquivel’s experiences in the classroom reinforced something he had begun to understand at Lake Forest: education can be a powerful vehicle for transforming your community.
Left: Prom at Baker College Prep in 2019. Right: Esquivel coaching the Baker Bobcats regional game in the fall of 2018.
During Latinx Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, Esquivel is celebrating the contributions, history, cultures, and resilience of Latino, Chicano, and Hispanic communities and recognizing the diversity within them.
From the classroom to systemic change
Esquivel’s commitment to equity has also led him beyond the classroom and into larger conversations about educational policy.
Through the Surge Fellowship, he is developing a Freedom Dreams project focused on how schools are funded in Illinois. Specifically, he is examining the relationship between property-tax-based school funding and educational inequity.
The question builds on the critical thinking skills he developed at Lake Forest: What systems shape communities, and what would happen if those systems were designed differently?
The fellowship also connected Esquivel with educators and thought leaders from across the country, expanding his network and giving him new strategies for advancing equity-focused initiatives.
“It’s challenged me to think bigger about the impact I have,” Esquivel said.
Esquivel is putting that perspective to work through his involvement with Advance Illinois, where he serves on the Educator Advisory Council and helps advocate for education policy.
His long-term goal is to influence systems and policies that improve educational outcomes for historically underserved communities while helping develop the next generation of education leaders.
Photos: Earth Day at Mansueto High School in 2024.
A Forester call to action
When Esquivel thinks about his legacy, he doesn’t focus on titles or accomplishments; he thinks about his students.
“I hope they remember that I genuinely cared about them,” Esquivel said. “I hope I helped them become the persons they are today. I helped them believe in their potential.”
That impact sometimes reveals itself years later, when former students reconnect to share what they are doing with their lives. Esquivel recently celebrated his birthday with an indoor soccer game attended by friends, family, and more than 30 former students and colleagues.
“It just shows even the small things students will remember,” he said.
For current Foresters who want to create positive change in their communities, Esquivel keeps his advice simple: “Stay curious, build genuine relationships, and don’t underestimate your ability to make a difference.”
Leadership, he said, isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about being willing to learn, serve, and act when your community needs you. It’s a philosophy that has taken Esquivel from Lake Forest College to classrooms throughout Chicago and now into conversations about educational policy and equity. But at the heart of his work remains a simple goal: helping young people believe in their own potential.