John Esquibel '19 Recruiting Profile

My name is John Esquibel.  I am 18 years old and live in Taos, New Mexico where I was born and raised. I have always been very active in everything since I was about 4 years old.  I have played soccer and hockey since I was about 4, even playing on travel teams and competing all over the Southwest.  I am currently on the varsity Soccer, Track and Hockey teams.  Last year, I ran in the 400m relay where we ran and won in state.  I was also a member of the high school hockey team that won the pure division state championship.  Besides sports, I am also very active in the culinary arts program.  I volunteer my time to cook lunches when our student run café is open.  Also, I am a hockey coach for 4 and 5 year olds.  This brought me out of my comfort zone because I am such a quiet person.  It has also taught me patience.  The little ones don’t know how to skate very well and so I am constantly having to help them get up off the ice and show them proper techniques to skating.  I have played piano for 10 years and no one except for my immediate family know I have this hidden talent.  I can easily entertain myself and do not normally need someone to keep my mind busy.

My mom does have a college degree.  But in Taos, no one can really use such a degree.  She is a teacher and dreams of seeing me going above and beyond what is offered here in Northern New Mexico.  For the longest time in my mom’s family, I was the only grandchild; until my brother was born when I was 12 years old.   My mom’s sister was also a huge influence in my life.  She was an avid reader and passed that love on to me.  When she was a little girl, she loved Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.  She passed her Hardy Boys collection on to me and I was reading those novels when I was in the third grade.   About 5 years ago, my aunt started acting very weird, it actually turned out to be was Frontal Temporal Degeneration.  I was the only nephew she knew and so seeing her so sick now and not recognizing me is hard.

My dad is my biggest influence in my life.  He graduated high school and did about a year of college before dropping out and returning home.  He works as a plasterer in Taos.  This is very demanding work and hard work on the body.  My dad figured he would be young forever and that his body would be able to manage such demanding and hard work.  I see how hard my dad has to work every day just to barely pay the bills.  Medically, the past few years have not been good for him and my parents have endless medical bills.  My dad is a recovering drug addict.  For the first years of my life, he battled drug addiction.  Despite this problem, he was a hands-on dad.  I don’t remember him not being there at everything for me.  My mom stuck around to help him battle through his addiction.   Everything I do is so I don’t go down the same path my dad did when he was younger.  My dad talks to me constantly about getting that education and working on my dreams and to never give up.    

I have always loved to play with Legos.  I love to build different things with them.  I think this is what drove me to want to be an engineer.  I have always loved the stars and have thought about majoring in Aeronautical Engineering.