Why is it important to have mentors and family involvement with our children and in the schools? For any school to thrive and be successful bridges must be built between the local school and the community. Mentors are the pathway that can model connection and step in areas that might be void of support, such as a missing father or an emotional and spiritual absentee home. Mentors can provide one on one attention that at times make it challenging for the teacher and counselors to fulfill with the large demand and amount of students.
Bio: Benigno Lopez Jr. has been teaching for over 27 years. Was recently the winner 2022 Ida S. Baker Diversity Educator of the Year for Hillsborough County. Born in Philadelphia, Lopez, a graduate of Southeastern University and Nova Southeastern University with a bachelor’s degree in general science and secondary biology and a master’s degree in educational leadership, has worked for HCPS for 18 years. He is currently Shields’ success coach and science teacher. He has a passion for serving the community by advocating for resources for underserved students. He has developed free sports programs, outreach resources and mentoring initiatives through his nonprofit, Life Coach 180. He has developed “Social and Emotional Lesson’s for the district and created several web-site platforms
https://sciencebuddy.net/ for teachers and students at his local school. Life Coach 180.org
https://lifecoach180.org/ is a motivational site providing free life coach tools for underserved families. He is a motivational speaker with his National, life Coach 180 podcast
https://anchor.fm/benigno-lopez which provides resources and tools to meet spiritual and emotional needs. He is the Area representative for Fellowship of Christian Athletes
https://my.fca.org/donation?name=benlopez in the South County Area serving Ruskin’s, Wimauma and Riverview. Mr. Lopez also known as Dj Lopez is a National disc Jockey for music stations such as Spirit FM 90.5 and a producer for various National and local hip-hop artist
https://djlopez.bandcamp.com/music. Mr. Lopez is the proud father of two children Ben Lopez his son, who has followed in his steps as a dj and national producer winning two Musical Dove Awards. His son is also an engineer and is active in serving his community and local church. Keila Rose is the oldest and she has developed and created
several non-profit for homeless advocacy campaigns and raised money by creating spa days as well as feminine hygiene products for woman in homeless shelters. Keila also known as K_LA a female rapper advocating for young girls and inspiring
poems for various publications and currently finishing up a children’s book to help the parents of premature babies in the nicu. Keila is also a motivational speaker sharing her story that took her to the top of the medical profession as a doctor and choosing a new path in philanthropy.
teenagers to follow their dreams by currently developing a site: Aboutusmagazine. She has written
