In 2001, Oscar Mendoza retired from a 31-year career at Saginaw’s Delphi automotive plant. Although he worked periodically as a substitute teacher, the father of two and grandfather of three didn’t expect he’d start a new full-time job.

All that changed nearly two years ago, when Oscar was called upon to serve as the enrollment coordinator for the then newly established Saginaw Area Catholic Schools (SACS) system, which networks the city’s Catholic schools into a single organization, rather than former single-parish, single school model.

Oscar’s main task has been to help open the doors of the Catholic schools to new students. He often meets with families who face fi nancial struggles and are concerned about meeting tuition costs.

He sat down with FAITH Saginaw to explain why he, the fourth of nine of Mendoza siblings who graduated from local Catholic high schools, feels so inspired to meet that challenge:

My family journeyed from Texas to Michigan with other families in the back of a panel truck in the early 1950s. My father was looking for employment. Of course, I was born in Texas, but we came up here (to Saginaw) when I was around 4 years old.

When we got here, we were befriended by a lot of people in the community around St. Joseph Parish which was the area where we grew up. They introduced my parents to Catholic schools and said that your kids should come here.

Of course, some of our relatives were here and their kids went to Catholic school, so it was more or less understood that if you were Catholic, you would go to Catholic school. But the barrier was how we would pay for this.

From what my parents have told me, we had a lot of people who were good stewards with their gifts of treasure and they would help pay for our tuition. But as we started getting older, my parents felt that they needed to do more.

As a family, we worked the crop fields to obtain the tuition we would need for the upcoming school year. We would hoe sugar beets out in Munger or go up north to pick strawberries and cherries. One time, we even went up to pick green beans and cucumbers.

Then we would come back in September and we would pick tomatoes and potatoes on the weekends and after school. For 12 years, from the middle of June until the end of September, we were working the fields.

All of the money that was made from those years of work went toward paying tuition. I never knew how much my parents paid, but I know it was quite a bit because all nine of us graduated from Catholic school.

I tell people about this because in the culture we live in nowadays, people think, ‘Well, how could you do that?’ But we did it. And many of my relatives did the same thing because Catholic education was important to us.

We were not involved in any organized sports. We could not belong to any Boy Scouts or Explorer group because that would cost money. We never played in any organized anything because all of our summers were spent working.

But yet, as I reflect, those summers that we spent as a family were the most enjoyable times of my life because of what we learned about team work and family spirit. That is what my parents instilled in us. They knew that Catholic education was what their family needed and they devoted a large part of their lives to see that that was what they got.

We stopped working the fields when I was around 22, but the concept of always sacrifi cing and always putting school and faith first is still fixed in my mind.

What do you do to sell Catholic education?

I never tell anyone what school they should send their children to; I never say, “You need to send your kids to our Catholic schools.”

Instead, I present our high graduation fi gures and our high academic scores and I mention the quality religious instruction that goes on at our schools. I just present the information parents need in order to make a prudent decision and let them decide.

My role is to present the quality product that our schools provide in a caring, informative and pastoral manner. However, it’s up to the family to decide if they want it.

Is Catholic education a good product?

It’s a wonderful product. It’s a great product. I did some of my five years of substitute teaching in our Catholic schools and it was a joy watching our young people grow in a love for Jesus Christ and our Catholic faith.

We prayed at the start of school; we prayed for special intentions; we prayed before lunch; and we prayed at the end of school. I could easily see the forming of moral character in my interacting with students and I came to sense their true love for what God has created.

Our schools always score high on any scholastic achievement scale and they routinely have the ability to “humanize” knowledge and help our kids to go beyond memorization of facts. We have great teachers who just have the ability to get our kids to live what they are learning.

Let me just get on my soapbox for a moment and say that if we want to maintain a Catholic Church that is educated on social justice issues, committed to bringing about the kingdom of God, committed to helping the disadvantaged and faithful to the teachings of the church, then we all need to support Catholic education.

Is Catholic school affordable for anyone who wants it? Or is it just beyond the reach of some people?

Yes, it is affordable, but it calls for some sacrifice. It requires adjustment in life style and a re-evaluation of priorities. It requires a self examination by parents or guardians on how best to bring up the greatest gift God has given them – their children.

It is not an easy road to follow. If it was easy, our schools would be bulging at the seams.

However, I’m here to assist any family that wants this kind of education.

I present myself and my early family upbringing as examples of how far one can go to get what you want.

Catholic education should never be viewed as beyond the reach of anyone. If it’s what you want for your family, it can be affordable.