LA Students Surprise Teacher With New Car After Secret Fundraiser

LOS ANGELES, CA — Math teacher Julio Castro started his first Thursday of the new school year much like he has every work day for the last couple of years: He woke at 4:30 a.m.; rode a scooter for more than six miles to the Metrolink station near his apartment in Valencia; then scootered again for another mile to the Yula Boys High School campus. All in a day’s work (prep).

The 31-year-old teacher suspected nothing out of the ordinary when he was pulled into a meeting to talk about what classes he would teach this year and how he spent his summer.

Meanwhile, outside the meeting, hundreds of students excitedly scurried out of their classrooms and into the gym to pull off the perfect (and long-planned) scheme. They were getting ready to surprise their hard-working teacher with a new car they spent months raising over $13,000 to buy.

It was a lofty goal, but Yula Boys High School student Joshua Gerendash was committed to getting Castro a car he would love: a navy blue Mazda sedan, complete with black leather seats.

Thursday’s surprise was nothing short of a well-orchestrated dance, thanks to months of planning and behind-the-scenes efforts of some committed students.

While Castro was away in his morning "meeting," the students gathered for a fake “teacher appreciation assembly,” during which gift cards were raffled off to teachers. Castro was called into the gym just in time for the “grand prize” to be announced: a video prepped for Castro with students explaining what makes him so special.

Little did he know what awaited him after.

After the video played, the students were dismissed "back to class," but instead shuffled into a human tunnel outside the gym— leading straight to the Mazda outside.

Castro went through the tunnel a few minutes later, surprised as students popped off confetti canons and cheered. His walk landed him right in front of the car: where he and the students were met by a security guard, who was “frustrated” that the car was illegally parked.

The surprise climaxed when Castro found the car’s key inside a strategically-placed piñata. The crowd of students erupted with joy. The shy teacher Castro was clearly overwhelmed, but his long-confused face broke into a smile as his students came up to hug him.

Castro told Patch after the event that the assembly and “raffle” were exciting— but he was disappointed he hadn't submitted his name.

Still, he was shocked when he was called up to the front of the room, but remained clueless to the scheme centered around him. A secret scheme that started with an idea to help Castro via a number of fundraisers at the school, including a basketball tournament, a family movie night and an online campaign.

To sweeten the deal, some community partners were inspired to join the effort along the way.

The Change Reaction, a Los Angeles-based philanthropic organization, matched the students' donations. Galpin Mazda, where the students eventually purchased the car after shopping around, donated around $5,000 to the effort, according to representatives.

The students were also able to throw in a year of gas and insurance for Castro, bringing the grand total to around $30,000 raised.

Castro's Road To Yula

Castro's students have always been impressed by his dedication. But they started to realize his commute seemed extraordinarily difficult, and was cutting into Castro's time with his girlfriend and young children, according to Gerendash, who started planning the surprise at the end of last school year.

The timing of Castro's commute varies day to day, and for a while he would add another three to five miles on scooter to teach at the Yula Girls school nearby. He repeats the same process to get home at night, usually after his kids have gone to sleep, and he works through his lunches and grabs extra shut eye on the bus.

"I made a choice. I could have worked somewhere else," Castro said. "I had an offer to work near where I live but ever since I started working here they opened doors for me, they accepted me as a family member so that was really nice. You can't buy that."

Castro was a natural-born teacher. He started teaching in middle school, when his friends would exchange snacks and small sums of money for tutoring, he said. He graduated from Downey High School and eventually the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"I was always teaching math, ever since middle school I taught math, I was tutoring a lot of kids — my friends. I first started off with someone offering me a bag of chips, someone offering me a dollar," Castro said. "Little by little my friends liked the way I talked so it became a side thing throughout high school and college and it paid a lot of my tuition for it."

In college, Castro realized that the classes he was a teacher's assistant for would have higher passing rates. He was invited to teach a math course as adjunct faculty at UC Santa Cruz, and teaching became a career from there.

He started working at the Yula Boys school around 2019 and currently teaches Algebra 1, Precalculus, Statistics, Algebra 2 and Geometry.

"I focus a lot on motivation, get them motivated to ask for help. It's not about knowing the answer it's about how to get to the answer," Castro said. "I show them hard work pays off, and this is proof that this is true. Keep doing what you're doing, you'll be noticed, you'll be recognized. But do it because it comes from your heart, don't do it because you're waiting for a prize. I didn't expect this."

Hard work is in Castro's blood, he said.

His commute feels like nothing when he knows how hard his parents worked to immigrate from Peru just for him to go to school, he said.

"My family does the same thing as I do. I know you guys might think of it as unique — every single family member that I know works even harder than I do. I have family members who don't have papers, aren't documented, have three jobs get paid less than me. They don't complain," Castro said. "I'm very grateful for what I have. I have an amazing partner, I have amazing kids. So this commute is literally nothing."

Castro is far more than a teacher to his students — he's a mentor and a friend, multiple students said in their tribute video to Castro. Students called Castro dedicated, passionate and giving.

"He's not the type of teacher to give up on his students,” Gerendash said. “He makes sure that everyone gets the material and understands it. He's a very giving and generous person. He really believes in his students and he shows it.”

Castro teaches with refreshing positivity and encouragement, always uplifting them and helping them feel capable, Gerendash said.

Many students said they struggled in math before Castro's classes.

"He was really the first teacher who showed me, in this way, that he cared about me. I guess I had a connection with him. I view him as more than just a teacher, I view him more as another person and I talk to him about non-school related stuff too. I look at him as a teacher and a friend," Gerendash said.

Setting a Generous Precedent

Though it may be one of the most elaborate, Thursday's surprise is not Yula Boys High School’s first grand gesture. The boys surprised Castro with an electric scooter just a year ago and gifted another teacher a nearly $2,000 gift before, Gerendash said.

Some of the older Yula students are hoping to set a precedent at the school, showing younger students the importance of giving back to their teachers and mentors.

"This is kind of the beginning of that for our school. New kids are coming in every year and I think that hopefully it will become a tradition to give back," Gerendash said.

The whole effort will be made into a documentary-style video by Dude Be Nice, a project that documents feel-good stories across the country.