Idaho teacher makes ‘Great Immigrants, Great Americans’ list. He’s ‘pretty darn unique’
When Jorge Pulleiro was in third grade, he met a teacher who changed his life. Growing up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he had been bullied as a kid. Even his teachers, he said, were “not kind enough.”
But this teacher was different.
“She let me know that I was important and that I had a future and she believed in me,” he told the Idaho Statesman in a video interview. “So at the age of 8, I knew somehow I was going to be found in the classroom teaching.”
He was right. He came to the U.S. several years after graduating high school in Argentina, attended college at Brigham Young University, and then served in the U.S. Army. After all of that, Pulleiro found himself back where he knew he belonged — in the classroom — trying to be to his kids what that teacher was to him: a friend, mentor and leader. Most recently, he taught Spanish language arts in the dual immersion program at Wood River Middle School in Hailey, in which students learn in English and Spanish.
Recently, Pulleiro’s work in the classroom was recognized with two honors. Pulleiro was named Idaho’s 2021 teacher of the year and, at the end of June, he was given a new accolade: He was named to the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s annual list of “Great Immigrants, Great Americans.” Pulleiro was one of 34 people the organization chose to recognize who had “enriched and strengthened our society and our democracy through their contributions and actions.” He was joined on the list by the creator of language-learning software Duolingo, the chairman and CEO of Pfizer and the deputy White House national climate adviser.
“Sometimes you wonder if it is worth it, all the sacrifice and everything you do, and I’ve been very nostalgic lately, being gone from my country for 25 years,” Pulleiro said. “Then to receive this recognition is an answer that it is worth it, that it was worth it.”
Growing up in Argentina
Pulleiro said his mother valued education and inspired her son to do the same.
“Everything that I am, I owe that to my mother,” he said. “Even though she didn’t have formal education, she believed in education and she taught me the value of education.”
Growing up in Argentina, Pulleiro’s education was different than it is in the U.S., he said. The classes are rigorous, and from his experience, teachers would teach things a few times, and if a student didn’t understand it, they were often on their own.
But that one teacher he had in third grade, he said, was the “epitome of love and compassion and understanding.”
“I remember that she would spend time with me if I needed help and she didn’t make me feel like I was stupid or anything like that, and she was just an angel,” he said. “I would love to tell you that I had many teachers like her, but I didn’t. She was the only one, and so I wanted to be like her.”
Pulleiro graduated from high school when he was 17. He was also studying English in a British academy after school. He graduated from the academy and, when he was 18, he was able to start teaching.
He taught at three different schools in Argentina before he took a break from teaching to go on a mission trip in Uruguay. When he came back, his friends encouraged him to apply to go to college in the U.S.
“For me, that was a dream,” he said. “I didn’t quite believe that it was going to come true, but I had nothing to lose and so I took the exam that I needed to take and applied to BYU in Provo, Utah, and I was accepted. And so I left my country, my culture, my everything.”
‘An extremely hard decision’
Pulleiro said he didn’t know what it was going to be like to leave everything he knew. But he couldn’t miss out on that opportunity.
“Sometimes it’s so easy to criticize, to judge, immigrants that come to the U.S., no matter how you come to the U.S, whether you cross the border illegally or you fly legally with all the documentations,” he said. “It is an extremely hard decision, especially in the Hispanic community. We are extremely close to our families and our culture and everything that represents us.”
After he was accepted to BYU, he said, he got a scholarship and was able to get the visa he needed. It was almost like everything was handed to him, he said.
“I remember telling my mom, ‘If you tell me to stay, I will do it,’ and she said, ‘How will I say that, you have everything. … Just go, I’ll be here and I’ll be protected and I’ll be OK,’ ” he said.
He came to the U.S. in 1996 and met his wife on the first day of school. Sometimes you “have to take risks if you want to succeed in life,” he said.
“Just dive in,” he said, “and take advantage of the extraordinary opportunities.”
When he was at BYU, he decided to join the U.S. Army. After he graduated, he enlisted and served for six years.
Getting back to teaching
When he was getting out of the Army, Pulleiro decided to once again do what he loved the most: teaching. He joined the Troops to Teachers program, a program that “provides funds to recruit, prepare and support former members of the military services as teachers in high-poverty schools,” according to the U.S Department of Education.
Pulleiro first got a job in John Day, Oregon, teaching Spanish and leadership. While he was there, he did his master’s through Eastern Oregon University. He hadn’t been brought up in the U.S. education system and, in his first job, he said he wasn’t familiar with how some things worked.
In his role, he was also in charge of organizing a number of events with the student leadership team — such as prom — events he had never experienced himself.
“I had no idea what prom was,” he said. “We don’t do any of that in Argentina. … The focus is on education.”
But while he was there, he made an impact on the students he had. Ember Conner, a student of Pulleiro’s in Oregon, said he exemplified everything you would hope a teacher would be.
“No matter who you were, you were always welcome in his classroom,” she told the Idaho Statesman. “He was always happy to have you.”
He valued hands-on activities — an immersive learning experience.
“I think that he was pretty darn unique,” she said. “He’s always fun and he’s just got that vibrant personality. He’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime teachers.”
In 2012, Pulleiro and his family came to Idaho when he was offered the position in the dual immersion program at Wood River Middle School. When he was there, he founded an immersion trip with a school in Madrid, Spain, to give his students the chance to use everything they had been learning. One year, the students were even able to meet the king of Spain, he said.
“It was rewarding to see my students apply the language and for them to see, ‘Wow, I can do this,’ ” he said. “It was just incredible.”
‘It’s all about them’
When Pulleiro found out he was named to the “Great Immigrants, Great Americans” list, he said it was even more of a shock than when he was honored as Idaho’s 2021 teacher of the year.
“I sat in front of my computer and I got this email saying, ‘Congratulations’ … and I just thought, ‘Is this a joke?’ ” he said.
He doesn’t know who nominated him for the honor. But he said it is humbling to receive the honor alongside others who have had such prestigious careers and come from incredible backgrounds.
He spent time reading the bios of each of the 33 other people he shares the recognition with, and he said he is “perplexed” to be alongside them.
“I’m honored to be Latino and to represent my brothers and sisters from all over Latin America and all over Spanish-speaking countries in the world that are here working so hard to improve this amazing blessed country that I love so much,” he said.
“… I know that there are so many of the immigrants that are worthy of this title, and so I share that with them.”
Pulleiro will soon be starting as the new associate principal at Twin Falls High School. In that role, he said, he wants to be the leader students and teachers need.
“I want to be a mentor, a friend and I want to be the type of leader that is an educational, an instructional leader, not just for our students but also for our teachers,” he said. “I want to be there for them and I want them to trust me and know that I’m here for them to share my knowledge, my experience, everything that I’ve learned humbly.”
As he continues to teach in this new role, his passion for kids and forming a connection with his students remains just as strong.
“Sometimes, I don’t want to go to school, for whatever reason, but I push myself because I know that my students will be there,” he said. “It’s all about them. It’s all about relationships, the relationships that we form with them.”
The students are always there, he said — with their jokes, their laughs — and he strives to be there for them.
“Without them, I couldn’t be the educator that I am. Everything I do, the classes that I take, the professional development courses that I am part of,” he said, “everything is to become better for them.”
