Teenagers celebrate family | celebrate, family, fatherhood ...

Andres Reyna is having a big cookout today with family to celebrate his new fatherhood.

?I feel proud of myself, because being a father is not easy, especially going to school and having a job,? said Reyna, 18, the father of 8-month-old Andres Jr.

When Reyna learned his girlfriend, Joselyn Longoria, was pregnant, he said he was shocked. He wasn?t sure what to do, but he and Longoria, 18, figured out a way to manage. Before school finished for the summer, he was attending four classes in the morn-ing, leaving at 11 a.m. and going to work at Lopez Pharmacy at noon where he works making deliveries.

?I was coming out at 6,? said Reyna. ?That?s when I had time for the baby. The baby is the one that motivates me to keep going.?

Reyna, who has since graduated from Rivera High School, lives with Longoria and their son at the home of his mother, Rosa Reyna, in Cameron Park. His mother works at Little Caesar?s and sometimes helps her son and his family with expenses. Reyna, who now works 30 to 35 hours a week at the pharmacy, has some benefits that helped recently when the baby had bronchitis. Medi-caid also helped.

Reyna, with his close-cropped hair and wearing a red shirt, sat at a picnic table in the patio of his mother?s brick home. Two nieces played about as he discussed his plans to attend college and become an accountant.

Longoria, who just graduated from Hanna High School, had just finished bathing the baby. She said she was scared when she first learned she was pregnant, and then she was happy. She plans to attend the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College to become a respiratory therapist. Juggling motherhood and college won?t be easy, she conceded.

?It?s a lot of work,? she said. ?I will try to get a job, but probably he?s going to be the only one working.?

Parents at 16

Jose Aguilar, 16, is also celebrating his new fatherhood today by cooking out with family. He has great hopes for his son, Leonel.

?I am very proud of him because, well, it?s a new life that I brought and it?s very beautiful,? said the husky Rivera High School sophomore, who conveyed a maturity beyond his years.

?I enjoy it a lot,? he said. ?The little moments I spend with him sometimes, that brings a lot of joy to me.?

Aguilar lives with Soyre Rangel, 16, and their 4-month-old son at his mother?s apartment. His mother, Maria Hernandez, makes tamales to earn a little money, but they also receive government assistance. A big-screen TV stands against one wall, stereo speak-ers lean against another; ceramic fruit adorn the kitchen.

Piles of clothes sat on a couch. A cousin and a little brother milled about the small apartment.

Although Aguilar and his girlfriend weren?t practicing birth control, they thought they were being careful enough to avoid preg-nancy, so they were surprised when they learned she was expecting.

?I was confused because I didn?t know what I was going to do,? he said.

He?s still struggling with that issue. He?s submitted numerous job applications, but so far he hasn?t been able to find anything.

?It?s very hard,? he said. ?I want to buy him some toys but I can?t. We have some toys but we want to give him more.?

Aguilar plans to finish high school and go on to college himself.

?I want to set a good example,? he said. ?I want to get a music degree. I was in band. I played bass clarinet. I want to get into estu-diantina this following year.?

He wants to play guitar in estudiantina. He doesn?t have a guitar, but his brother is teaching him.

?My brother has a music degree,? he said. ?He lends me a guitar, he teaches me.?

The future

What are his hopes for his young son?

?I want him to finish school and get an education,? Aguilar said. ?I want him to be very successful in life and not get into any bad influences.?

Rangel also has big plans.

?I want to finish school and try to get him (the baby) everything he needs,? she said matter-of-factly. ?I want him to follow in my steps. I want to get a chemistry degree in college so I can be a chemistry teacher or a chemistry lab person, do research on plants.?

Having a child while in school did come with sacrifices. She was active in sports ? volleyball, cross-country, soccer, basketball, track, and softball ? which she had to give up, but she doesn?t blame the baby.

Keeping up with schoolwork while caring for the baby was also a challenge before summer vacation. She and Aguilar helped each other out.

?I ask him to take care of him while I?m doing homework,? she said. ?Sometimes I take care of him while he does his homework.?

Help from BISD

The Brownsville school district has numerous support services to help teen parents get through school, said James Whittenberg, an academic counselor at Rivera High School.

?BISD does have what we call drop-out prevention counselors or at-risk counselors,? Whittenberg said. ?Each high school has two, and they work with students that are at risk of dropping out of school or failing out of school.?

Whittenberg said counselors meet with young mothers and fathers twice a month to discuss any financial or other issues they may have.

?That?s in addition to the academic counselors that they have that work with them to help them with their grades,? Whittenberg said.

There is a school called Lincoln Park for young mothers.

?Being in and out and seeing the doctors and what-not and needing child care,? Whittenberg said, ?it is an alternative setting so they won?t fall behind with their grades.?

Whittenberg said the district has a pregnancy-related services department that helps them transition back to their home campus.

Teen dads

?As far as the fathers, we don?t have an alternative program for them,? Whittenberg said. ?The fathers unfortunately sometimes get overlooked, but it is a concern that we did address at our in-service at the beginning of the year to make sure that we?re helping the fathers as well as the mothers.?

Whittenberg said most fathers in the district do accept responsibility for their children and are involved.

?We have to check with the girl to find out if it?s the boyfriend ? who the father is,? Whittenberg said. ?But if they are a couple and/or if they have gotten married it?s a different story and we do what we can to work with them. It may be a situation where they come part of the day so they can work part of the day.?

Whittenberg said students could attend the Brownsville Learning Academy where the curriculum is more self-paced, allowing them the opportunity to work part of the time; they can even come to school in the evening if necessary.

Source: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/celebrate-127883-family-fatherhood.html

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