Fran Torres: The Making of a Teacher

“Teaching is such a productive experience,” Francisco Torres ’26 said. “You just feel it in your heart.”

When speaking with Fran, that sense of care is immediately apparent. For Fran, leadership and friendship share key qualities: attentiveness, compassion, and vulnerability. Conversations with him drift easily from his videogame and volleyball hyperfixations to family and friends, and eventually to his aspirations in education, all somehow connected by the same genuine appreciation for the people around him. In mentorship positions, he leads with what’s immediately in front of you — a warm smile, a soft voice, and a curiosity that makes every tangent or follow-up question feel intentional.

F.R.A.N: Family, Roots, Aptitude, Navigation 

“I’d say Inglewood, just because that’s where most of my memories were formed,” Fran said when I asked him where he calls home. However, for him, the single word “home” is misleading because it involves many more people, places, and layers.

Fran was born in Monterey Park, Los Angeles; raised in Koreatown, Los Angeles for a few years; lived in Mexico at age eight; moved back to Inglewood, Calif. where he lived from ages nine to 16. He currently lives in Hemet, Calif., with his mother, grandparents, aunt, two cousins, and two younger sisters, one 15 and one 18 years old.

Wherever he has found himself, Fran has found a way to exemplify love and support. At three, Fran started preschool a year early to accompany his cousin, in an effort to make the transition easier for her. “When she started going to preschool, she would cry a lot. My mom asked if I could go to school with her,” he recalled. This head start in education had a lasting impact, as he said, “I never complained … eventually that sort of love for school stuck with me.” 

Navigating responsibilities within his family helped Fran develop a knack for leadership from a very early age. “My dad was deported when I was in fifth grade. He died in 2019 when I was a freshman in high school. For a big part of my life, I’ve always been sort of the male role model in the family. That’s how I grew up, being the older brother of two little sisters, keeping a strong head,” he said.

Coexisting with his affinity for leadership, Fran took special interests from a young age. These interests ranged from the “Magic Tree House” book series to video games, which he began playing when his father bought him his first Nintendo DS in 2007. He grew to enjoy creating art, collecting volumes of the “Dragon Ball Z” Manga with his dad, and eventually volleyball — watching and playing the sport, in addition to collecting “Haikyuu!!,” a manga about high school volleyball.

Spinning the Web(b) of Community

Yet another major life transition came from Fran’s admission to Webb Schools of California, a private boarding school in Claremont, Calif. At the start of freshman year, Fran entered among a limited number of Hispanic students. Regardless, the school’s community created a sense of belonging for all students from diverse backgrounds. “No one treated me any differently than they would anyone else. We were all so kind, so close. No one assumed anything of me for being Mexican or low-income,” he said. 

The school’s administration also made substantial efforts to support Fran. After his father died, the first text he received was from his art teacher, Dr. Grecco. “She was like, ‘at any point, if you want to come over by my house, have some food, just hang out, please let me know,’” Fran said. Additionally, Webb fully covered Fran’s tuition after his father’s death.

It was then that Fran’s perception of leadership began to take shape. “I started to realize just how much my teachers cared for me,” he said. “I’m here because they want me to be here. I deserve to be here.”

Putting that leadership into action, Fran served as a dorm prefect during his senior year, where he was able to form connections through activities like gaming. “I was happy that I helped build that community … that really got me to think, ‘maybe I do want to be in a role where I can mentor students.’ I thought, ‘maybe this is a talent of mine,’” he shared.

He Who Would Climb the Ladder

After Webb, Fran moved east to Amherst. His college career kicked off with Summer Bridge, where he found immediate community and friendship. “All of my best friends are from Summer Bridge. Those three weeks that I spent with them were still the foundation of all my strongest friendships here. And for that, I am forever grateful,” he said.

Fran came into college knowing that he wanted to major in psychology, having developed an interest in the topic from his experiences with therapy in high school. “I thought, if I could help someone through their feelings and grief and emotions the same way that my therapist, Ms. Tappan, did in high school, that’d be so awesome,” he said.

Fran also quickly found that the classroom environments of Latinx & Latin American studies (LLAS) courses were well-suited to his learning interests. He cited two courses in his decision to major in LLAS: “Major Debates in Latinx/Latin American Studies” with Professor of Spanish and English Sony Coráñez Bolton, and “Literature and Culture” with R. John Cooper ’64 Presidential Teaching Professor of Spanish Paul Schroeder Rodriguez. “I learned so much more about Latin American culture and what it means to be Latino, especially in the U.S. … I was like, ‘yes, this is where I want to be,’” he said.

SME & Communit-E

Fran became a student museum educator (SME) at the Mead Art Museum — which he calls “easily the coolest job on campus” — during the fall semester of his freshman year, with visits to local schools like the Summit Academy, and began leading tours in his sophomore year. 

On a museum tour with students from The Amherst Public Schools’ Caminantes dual language program, Fran connected with a native Spanish-speaker who was extremely engaged in the tour. At the end of the tour, he said, “gracias, that was awesome.” Fran then realized the importance of connecting with students in this way. “I can teach in Spanish and connect with a kid who’s grown up in a predominantly Hispanic community, I can make him feel seen … studying in Spanish is such a valuable skill, and I hope to this day that he continues to do that,” he said.

Manager of Education Hannah Richards shared about the impact Fran has had on students’ learning. “A part of our work here is thinking about access from an equitable lens … so who’s going to need what isn’t immediately apparent unless we’ve been offered more information, but he has this sixth sense of what kid is going to need what kind of support,” she said.

This form of interaction with individual students has allowed Fran to appreciate the connections he has made with the broader community. “Amherst is so much bigger than people really give it credit … they don’t realize that Amherst itself is such a beautiful town with so much culture. There are so many beautiful, smart, amazing people here, and it’s through my job that I’ve been able to learn that,” he said.

This knowledge of the broader Amherst community was advanced by Fran’s work at Book and Plow Farm the summer before senior year. “It served as such an important reminder to me that if teaching doesn’t work out … I can still get that same feeling of helping people and helping the greater community, and be a part of something bigger,” he said.

Fran T. and ACVB

Fran became a member of Amherst Club Volleyball (ACVB) in his freshman year and began to see it as a major part of his life during his sophomore year, under captains Blair Chase ’24, Anu Daramola ’24, and Cindy Rosario ’24. “It was through them and playing with them that volleyball became one of my favorite things to do on campus,’” he said.

He furthered his involvement in ACVB in his junior year, when he became a Junior Captain, and in his senior year, as a captain. For Fran, valuing positive masculinity has been a major part of leadership. “I’ve always been someone who tries to lead with kindness and empathy, and I was really hoping that I would do that as a junior captain and as a captain,” he said.

He added that previous captains were his role models, particularly Chase, as they demonstrated support, welcoming attitudes, and positive masculinity. “[Chase] was very much that sort of positive masculinity … If I could be the [Chase] for someone else in the team, then that’d be perfect,” Fran said. “I myself try to be as vulnerable as I can with others, and I hope that the future of the team continues on that route.”

Student to Teacher and Back Again

Developing throughout his time at Amherst, Fran exemplifies how being a student and teacher must coexist to create community. “Fran is interested in students, but also what it means to grow as a teacher and learn what it means to be a teacher as well,” said Jasmine Hernandez ’26, who has been friends with Fran since they participated in Summer Bridge together. When she found herself looking for guidance on mentorship, he advised her that “being a teacher also means that you’re learning at the same time.” 

Fran began the Ed Pros Fellowship in February of 2024, where he joined a cohort of educators and students exploring diverse careers in teaching. “Fran was an asset to our group because he is such a calm, friendly, and transparent individual,” Program Director for the Loeb Center’s Careers in Education Professions Robert Siudzinski said. “Fran could laugh at himself and his mistakes, while always being skilled at finding something noteworthy and positive in someone else’s demonstration lesson or activity,” he added.

Furthering his experience in education, Fran spent time engaged in professional work with youth as a Webb Summer Fellow for the Junior Scholars Summer Program and a residential tutor for the Summer Bridge Program in the summer of 2024. At Webb, he met a student who had a negative attitude, and he made an effort to befriend him. At the end of the summer, Fran said, the student had warmed up to both himself and the program. “At the end, he pulled me aside and talked to me about basketball and how much he’s gonna miss this experience,” Fran said.

Siudzinski expressed that this unique, holistic approach to teaching makes Fran well-equipped to become an educator. “He understands that his students will be … individuals who have complicated lives outside of his classroom or studio, and what happens ‘out there’ most certainly impacts what happens inside the classroom,” he said.

“Fran will care about who he teaches, how he teaches, and what he teaches, and that’s a potential recipe for a promising professional educator,” Siudzinski said.

After Amherst, Farewell Fran

After graduation, Fran will return to Los Angeles to work for Teach For America, a nonprofit organization that recruits college graduates to teach for two years in low-income urban and rural public school districts. There, he will apply his teaching experience in the classroom with mild-to-moderate special education students. “The reason why I chose special education is because I know there’s a need for it all around the world, especially in California, and I’ve already done work with special education through the Summit Academy … and I had a blast,” he said.

As his time at Amherst winds down, Fran is looking toward his future in education. “I think this is true for any profession, you expect the hard times to outweigh the easy times … But I think with teaching, it’s gonna be one of those where the good will always just outweigh the bad … because if I know I’m making a difference in one person’s life, it’s all worth it,” Fran said.

Jasmine echoed this attitude. “I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do in the future. He has this confidence in him, but it comes from a very genuine place,” she said.

Throughout our conversation, Fran used the phrase “I owe who I am today to …” numerous times. One thing is certain — someone with immense gratitude for those who have taught him, from professors to volleyball captains to peers, stands as a reflection of their lessons while emulating a character and presence that is uniquely his.

“To laugh, love, explore, connect, share, and shine … are some of the many contributions that Fran Torres has illuminated during his time at [Amherst],” Siudzinski said.