Student spotlight

This archived article was written by: Terlynn Westphal

With a passion to help those around him, Fernando Jimenez is a social work major at Utah State University Eastern.
With the ability to peacefully “agree to disagree” in our extremely argumentative society, Jimenez wishes that people could share their opinions without provoking anger through the disagreement of others.
“If it were up to me, people would be more open minded. Personally, I feel like I am like that. There are things that I don’t agree with, but I can see where they come from and I’ll respect where they are coming from.” Jiminez plans to influence this issue simply through his social work career and the way he raises his future family.
Jiminez’s laid back personality allows him to make friends easily. In regards to his inviting personality, Alex Anderson adds“If Fern is dedicated to something, he will go the whole nine yards for it.” He feels that this is accurate, as reliability and hard work is something valued by his parents. “If you expect others to do something for you the best they possibly can, you should be willing to do the same for them.”
Although Jiminez spent 17 years of his life living in Logan, Utah, he was born in Apatzingan, Michoacan, Mexico. He appreciates the educational opportunities he has in the United States and plans to take advantage of them. “I have an aunt that is the same age as me. She would really like to go to college, but it is harder to go to college there than it is here.” He hopes to graduate from a university with a master’s degree in social work.
Jiminez knows that humans have a simple ability to learn from mistakes and to not repeat them. “That’s something that has helped me a lot up to this point. I feel that I have made mistakes, but I have learned from them.”