Mind, Brain, and Teaching Grad @ JH

My name is Octaviano Merecias-Cuevas 

When a good friend told me to apply to the Mind, Brain and Teaching Graduate Certificate Program at Johns Hopkins two years ago, I laughed, me? Naah? Excuses, fears, limiting beliefs… but deep inside there was a lingering feeling of impossibility. Me? Former ESL student, indigenous farmworker, migrant, first-generation high school student who came to this country to work in the farms? I'm sure you have set your self limits too? No? 

Come on! It took me 6 years to finish my bachelor's in science just because my English was elementary.
"I don’t belong there," I said, "that's for smart people." 

Confession: occasionally, for the past two years I visited the website of this university and daydreamed. I'm sure you can relate of something similar, can you? 

The limiting beliefs caused me not to apply two years ago. That limiting believe, especially when you have failed many times and people expect you to continue failing.  Have your fears caused you to come up with excuses? Have you ever failed so many times that you decided that to stay safe and quiet may be the best thing?  


A few months ago, one night after giving a bilingual presentation to families, students, teachers, and administrators on the importance of education. I reflected on how I’m motivating people to follow their dreams and pursue their careers. I have delivered trainings, seminars, lectures, talks, in various settings including out-of-school and school enrichment k-18 programs, in the barrios of Southern California and Oregon, to indigenous communities in Mexico, at local universities, to jornaleros(day laborers) learning how to write, to graduate students, to first-generation students, to young people in various prisons in Oregon. I reflected on my journey as an educator with the understanding that I have much to learn still.  

So that night I applied for this program, a long shot, I said. I couldn’t sleep after submitting the final application. It was the letters of support from my superb colleagues, collaborators, mentors and friends, Dr. Juan Trujillo(OSU) and Dr. Jean Aguilar Valdez(PSU) that gave me peace of mind knowing that there are people who know my work for many years.

I was accepted into the Mind, Brain, and Teaching Graduate Certificate Program at Johns Hopkins University; a two-year rigorous program. 

To better serve as an educator, as a teacher, trainer, facilitator, and education advocate I must dig deeper into the applied research from the fields of cognitive science, psychology and brain science, neurology, neuroscience, and education. John Hopkins University has this superb graduate certificate program designed to do just that.  

There’s no financial aid for professional graduate certificate programs. The fear of debt (millennials trending nightmare) but also a very common anxious worry for POC and migrant communities. The program costs are between 10-15K. Fundraising for others is easy and exciting, fundraising for yourself is terrifying. 

I have fundraised and asked for money for many non-profit organizations where I served, volunteered and supported; that was an easy task. To ask for funding to support my own education that’s nerve-wracking process; I’m shaking just by writing this piece now.