Whether you have him right now or had him in previous years, one thing I think all students of Mr. Solorzano can agree on is that he has a way of teaching that isn’t seen in a lot of teachers, his mentality. In his class, Mr. Solorzano always mentions one quote that his class should live by: “You can have fun, but you first have to do your work and do it right.” 

 South El Monte High School Junior Jose Salazar, when asked how Solorzano’s mentality and work ethic has applied to the classroom and how it has affected him as a student said, “I like his mentality, it inspires me to be better in school and outside of school.” You can catch Mr. Solorzano in room 167, listening to his music or working on his next plans for students to work on.

If you were to ask Mr. Solorzano, “What is one thing you live by? ” it would be, “Don’t quit, don’t ever give up, don’t quit school, love your family.” 

When asked as a teacher what motivates him to continue to teach he said, “I’ve taught from all levels, seeing my students respond well.” 

Mr. Solorzano enjoys assisting students in establishing a solid foundation on which to build because, as he stated, “I taught college for 11 years, in Fullerton, for 2 years at USC, then switched to high school, and many thought I was crazy; I said, ‘Students in college were already at that level; I wanna help those get to college.'” He also stated, “many of my HS students are the first to graduate from high school and go to college.”

Mr. Solorzano said this when asked about his mentality for wanting to become a teacher, “I wanted to help people, raised by parents that were consistently helping others my dad would say ‘honor the dead by helping the living,’ my mom was pro-education and had a no excuses mentality. ” He continues to preserve that mentality his parents passed on to him by teaching, “I’ve taught from all levels, AP for 16 years and seeing my students respond well, when I came to south the principal saw my track record for my years of teaching, I asked for the freshmen and sophomores to teach.”