23 Aug
by Derrick Vander Waal
SIOUX CENTER, IOWA – Leonardo Gabriel Marquez always got this bit of advice from his grandmother while he was a child growing up in Mexico:
SIOUX CENTER, IOWA – Leonardo Gabriel Marquez always got this bit of advice from his grandmother while he was a child growing up in Mexico:
No matter what you do, help people.
That’s exactly what he’s doing now as a new dental assistant at Promise Community Health Center in Sioux Center.
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| Leonardo Gabriel Marquez takes one of his first steps in his dental career by serving as a dental assistant at Promise Community Health Center in Sioux Center. He chose the career path because he desires to help people. |
“I want to help my community,” he said. “I am so lucky because people are very kind with me. People never told me anything bad about my background, but I know there are other people that don’t have the same situation as me. There are people from other countries – Mexico or Guatemala – that always live afraid of the situation. Fortunately, that’s not my case. I really want to help my people and make those people feel comfortable coming to the health center.”
Leonardo grew up in Colotlán, Jalisco, Mexico, and graduated from high school there in 2010. His family then moved to Rock Valley.
Leonardo stayed in Rock Valley for about six months, but he decided to return to Mexico in 2011 for dental training at Universidad Guadalajara Lamar. He knew it was a career where he could help people because he had a cousin who worked as a dentist. He completed his studies in 2015 and then served his social service for six months as the dentist at a small clinic – completing the requirement in half the time because he put in double the work.
He then moved back to Rock Valley in February with hopes of saving enough money and learning to speak English well enough to be able to enroll in the Dental International Student Program at a university in the United States to become a dentist here.
In the meantime, Leonardo decided that working at Promise would be the perfect start for him.
“This is a great opportunity for me to start my career in this country,” he said. “I came here six months ago, and I just wanted to learn the language and start to be an American more, but I found the opportunity to work here. I thought, ‘Why not?’ This is a huge step for me because right now I’m improving my English here, I’m working in my (career) area, and I’m helping my community.”
Leonardo has found Promise to be “the perfect workplace” for him because the main purpose of the health center is to help people – no matter their financial resources or their background.
“You just do it, and that’s the most important part,” he said. “That’s the benefit that I have for working at Promise – helping people no matter of nothing.”
But people are helping him, too.
“People help me a lot,” Leonardo said. “I don’t know how to speak sometimes. My pronunciation is bad yet, but there are people that are very patient with me and show me a lot of stuff. It’s nice because I receive information about my area in English, and I teach them a little stuff in Spanish. It’s like you teach me, and I teach you.”
Promise Community Health Center of Sioux Center is the only Federally Qualified Health Center in the far northwest corner of Iowa. Promise provides medical, prenatal, dental, vision and behavioral health services. To learn more, visit www.promisechc.org and watch this video. To read more Promise news, visit promisechcnews.blogspot.com.
MORE ABOUT LEONARDO:
Leonardo Gabriel Marquez lives in Rock Valley with his family. His interests include photography and traveling. He also likes going to tractor pulls, car races and other events in the area so he can learn more about and experience the culture of northwest Iowa.