Finding Purpose in Serving His Community
Written by Angel Chang, Marketing and Communications Manager
It doesn’t take much to notice that the early childhood education (ECE) field is predominantly women. Some men might go against the norm and be curious to give ECE a chance. Few men might even want to develop a career in it and take on leadership roles. Fewer men would then admit they just love what they do. That’s where we meet Argenis Del Rio.
A born and raised Bay Area native, Argenis was the youngest of three brothers that grew up around rough parts of Redwood City to Mexican immigrant parents. He credits being the “baby of the family” and had his older brothers to help take care of him, teach, and raise him.
For college, Argenis studied finance at San Francisco State when he took up a part-time preschool aide job in Belmont, an affluent Bay Area town, for its flexible hours. He had a little nephew at the time and was open to working with kids.
That job became the seed for Argenis’s passion for education and eventually moved him to change his finance studies to child development. “My brothers weren’t happy about it,” he recalls. With one brother as a dentist and another brother in cyber security, his brothers were worried about low wages as a teacher. “I didn’t care,” he says.
It was the connection Argenis had with the kids and the staff that felt so natural. Argenis served both as a preschool aide and a teacher all while finishing up his studies at Cañada College, San Jose State, and Pacific Oaks College where he completed his bachelor’s degree in Child Development.
When asked when his brothers eventually came around to support him, Argenis says, “Them seeing my work ethic. They know that I’m a hard worker.” Argenis rose up in leadership roles and served as an Assistant Program Director in Belmont before wanting to serve a different community that felt closer to home.
“Open House nights there would be packed,” he remembers. “Kids had private lessons, and tutors came to pick them up.” Parents would be enthusiastic about supporting the school, but also sometimes disrespectful.
“I was getting kind of tired of them saying we were just babysitters,” he says.
In 2011, Argenis took on a role to become a director at a Redwood City preschool center. He was committed to making a difference to the community he grew up in. He admits that his parents didn’t prioritize education, but he recognizes how important it is to lay the foundation at an early age. “A lot of families here are not that involved,” he describes. “It’s frustrating when as a teacher and director, you have these meetings and out of 20 kids maybe 5 show up, so we think about what else we can do.”
He was in this year-round role for nearly 6 years working weekdays from 7 am to 6 pm, before he considered a switch for family planning (with his late wife who he also met in the field!) that allowed for summer and winter breaks. Cue Izzi Early Education (then IHSD).
At Izzi Early Education, Argenis served as East Palo Alto Head Start site supervisor 3 years before taking on the Children’s Services Manager leadership role and supporting the teachers and staff.
To men who considered joining the field, he wants to say, “Don’t be afraid of the stereotypes.
Don’t be afraid of the negativity that you are in the female field. There’s nothing wrong with that. Rather, it shows your strength. You can be sensitive. You can be loving. You can have all those feelings too.”
Argenis is currently back in the classrooms in a support role for teachers working with challenging behaviors and early literacy with our SEEDS partnership. We’re so grateful for always bringing his positive energy and always thinking about what more he could to do help out.
“It’s important to show to kids that males have feelings too,” he says, and we couldn’t agree more. Thank you Argenis for sharing your story and commitment to early childhood education!
