Imagine being 8 years old and having to move from the simple life that is all you’ve ever known to a country 4,000 miles away . This is exactly what custodial night lead, Sam Gonzales experienced as a kid when his family left Utah for Peru.

  In Peru for over a decade, Gonzales witnesses many people enduring the hardships of poverty and it has shaped who he is and how he raises his children.

  “[I want them to ] value what they have, and one thing I was thankful for when we lived in Peru was that my dad had a very good job so we never had problems with money and stuff, but I had the opportunity to see people who struggled,” Gonzales said. “And I’m very strict with my kids about food and wasting food because I saw kids digging just to get something to eat.”

  He also learned from his time in Latin America, that it is important to be happy with what you have.

  “I guess when we’re in a country where things are a lot easier to get, we don’t appreciate [it], so I want them to appreciate everything that they are given,” Gonzales said.

  Living in a diverse place at an impressionable age really changed how Gonzales sees things.

  “The advantage of being in a different country [is that] your view of people and the world expands,” Gonzales says.

  This is a big contributor to why Gonzales chose to go to college for latin american studies at Brigham Young University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. Gonzales’ wife also attended BYU.

  Before coming to Combs, Gonzales worked in tech. support for Dell. After time, however, he was looking for a change of pace.

  “I was looking for something to do. I’d been doing computer stuff for a long time and it was stressful so I was looking for something a little bit different and [the] school environment seemed okay,” Gonzales said.

  When he isn’t working, Gonzales enjoys watching action movies and taking his four kids to Disneyland as often as he can.

  It just goes to show that everyone on this campus is more than just their job title. They are people who have experienced all different walks of life, who have children of their own and not just students.