ALEX GUTIERREZ OF TEXAS LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY, a senior on the baseball team, has been selected the SCAC Character & Community Male Student-Athlete-of-the-Week for the week beginning February 22, 2016
The SCAC honors the efforts of student-athletes who excel in the field of athletics, and also serve their campus and community.
Gutierrez has lettered four seasons for the Bulldog baseball team, and he has made three post-season tournament appearances with the club. He has started for TLU at second base, third base and as a designated hitter.
Gutierrez, a Spanish major, will graduate from TLU in May of this year. He will enter graduate school in pursuit of a master’s degree, and he plans to study Mexican-American Studies or Bilingual Education. He would like to work either in the government or courts system as a translator or teach as a college professor.
In addition to his current college studies and his collegiate baseball career, Gutierrez works as a migrant student tutor for Seguin Independent School District.
“I tutor kids that are labeled at risk, meaning they are failing their classes, or they are constantly moving, or maybe they come from low-income families,” said Gutierrez. “So for some of the kids, I am just a mentor. I talk to them a lot. I talk to them about what is going on outside of school.”
“A lot of them I help them in any subject they need because a lot of them are mainly Spanish speakers or another language. They have trouble because they just moved here, or they don’t have friends. I become their friend. I help motivate them and say, ‘Hey, it is possible. You can do it. All you need to do is work hard.’ And I guide them through their work.”
Gutierrez is the son of Albert and Nelly Gutierrez of Pharr, Texas. Alejandro has an older brother, Oscar, and an older sister, Mayra.
“My father is from McAllen, Texas, born and raised, and my mom is from Mexico, from the city right next to where I am from,” said Gutierrez. “Both of my parents were migrants growing up. (My siblings and I) weren’t labeled as migrants because we were fortunate enough that my parents knew both English and Spanish, so they helped us into that stage of learning how to speak both and get the best of both worlds.”
“And I have had their support since day one. They supported me through my education. They were kind of raised through that stage where education wasn’t an option or a priority. They had to work, so they knew what it was like with the struggle that they had to go through when they weren’t able to get their education. They wanted to make sure I got mine and that I wouldn’t struggle like they did.”