“I want to do everything at high volume.”
Angel Maldonado, a Cheyenne-based business owner, community organizer, podcaster, member of a mayor’s council, and recent recipient of “Citizen of the Year” recognition, shared this description of himself in an afternoon visit to Triumph on September 16.
“The only thing you have is what’s right in front of you, and I’m going to make the most of it”, Maldonado continued, emphasizing that his many projects and nonprofit endeavors spring from a common source: a desire to empower a community.
The two instructors of the English 12 class, classroom teacher Justin Earnshaw and special education teacher Sandra Bott, invited Maldonado to speak to the seniors to support the course’s Project-Based Learning approach.
“We need to stop thinking ‘this town does nothing for me’ and ‘I don’t really want to see what’s in the community’”, Bott says. “If you don’t feel represented in the community, what can you do, as your own self, to change that?”
Bott met Maldonado through a few of his community projects, having since volunteered in support of recent events like the annual, nonprofit “We Got Your Back” back-to-school benefit, and thought that Maldonado might be the perfect fit our alternative school’s mission and students.
“He’s not like other speakers we’ve had in school,” says senior Bree Romero. “He just seems so real.”
Maldonado’s story is indeed alternative. A Brooklyn, New York native and US Marine Corps veteran, Maldonado first arrived in Cheyenne about 15 years ago with his wife, deployed to FE Warren Air Force Base.
“I definitely didn’t come to Cheyenne by choice”, Maldonado jokes. But once he was here, he set about finding a place for himself in the community, which on the surface didn’t match Maldonado’s experiences or attitudes. “Through some soil and some seeding, I’m always looking for a little personal challenge, you know?”
That personal challenge sprouted into Presidential Barbershop, now a downtown institution and the hub for Maldonado’s many community endeavors. He credits the good leadership he observed in the Brooklyn barbershops of his youth for mentorship, seeing a niche in the Cheyenne community that he thought he could fill.
Throughout his conversation with students, Maldonado referred to one of his routines for self-check and self-actualization. “You know that Michael Jackson song, ‘Man in the Mirror’? That’s what I do. I check in the mirror for that one-to-one convo. I feel Love, Care, Respect. If you see those, nothing is too hard or complicated.”
Bott and Earnshaw hope that Maldonado’s visit can inspire the Triumph seniors, who are creating their own projects in response to community needs and their own “Year 13” plans; that perhaps they can broaden their perceptions of what can be achieved in a school project.
“If we can do anything, as individuals, that empowers us to make a change, well, isn’t that something we should do?”, Bott asks. “It starts small.”
One small start is the Brown & Gold initiative, an effort Maldonado promotes on the podcast Wyoriginals, to wear the University of Wyoming’s colors on Wednesday, thinking about the values and meaning such apparel has for us. The senior class hopes to spread the message and start participating in the trend here at Triumph.
“Wouldn’t that be awesome, if you guys got something started here that took over?”, Maldonado asked. “That’s how it works – what’s in front of me, and where can it go next?”
