New director of Hola Carson City a man of a dozen hats

Rafael Lemus calls himself "a man of a dozen hats."

On a Wednesday, Lemus, 24, runs from being an English as a Second Language classroom assistant at Empire Elementary School, to classes at Western Nevada Community College, to directing Hola Carson City and finally to coordinating activities for the group Youth Alliance.

On Saturdays, he works with juvenile offenders in Reno, but he devotes Sundays to playing soccer.

"Life is good, but it just gets better," he said.

In a few years, Lemus has gone from a high school dropout to a college student devoted to working with local youth.

"When I was younger I was always around other people, but I was the spectator," he said. "It wasn't until I grew up that I realized life included me. I want to make Carson City or wherever I live a great place to live. If you have something to share, pass it on."

Three years ago, Lemus started Youth Alliance, a group that promotes responsible behavior in young men. He got the idea for the group while at a Latino youth conference in San Antonio, Texas, when he was 18.

At the time, teen pregnancy was a big issue and while there were parenting and other programs for girls, there weren't many programs for young men. At 18, Lemus recognized he didn't have the education or experience to teach teens about responsibility.

But he could coordinate events, find speakers, learn to do icebreaker activities and lead group discussions.

Now the group of up to 16 "boys only" meet weekly to discuss their lives and listen to talks ranging from sexual responsibility and drug use to history.

"Some of these kids don't have the opportunity to hear, 'How's your day, son?'" Lemus said. "We joke, we talk, we're just being guys when we're together. We have a room full of guys talking about what's important to guys.

"Like any other youth program, they'll leave, but when they don't have anything else to do, they come back. When they come back, they come to listen. I like to do the program.

"What keeps me on the hook is when they come back and say, 'You made a difference.'"

Once he had a speaker talk about drugs to the group but felt that many of them were bored with the barrage of information. He had the group memorize facts about certain drugs and their side effects and then present the information to Carson Middle School's English as a Second Language class.

Lemus hasn't always been as ambitious.

Born in Mexico City, the Lemus family moved to the Los Angeles area when he was 5 years old. From then until he was 16, he said, he was surrounded by people in the Hispanic and African American communities.

Lemus grew up in Compton, Calif.

"I felt like I belonged to something," he said.

The family moved to Carson City eight years ago and Lemus said in moving from "brown to white" he began to see the world differently.

"Even the way the police system worked, I felt suspect," he said.

Once a sheriff's officer stopped him because there had been robberies in the area. Although Lemus had done nothing wrong, he remembers the officer saying, "I will see you again."

"I told him, 'Not like this, you won't,'" Lemus said. "At first I hated the police. Later I learned it's not the police, it's that officer.

"These are the things that pushed me. Sometimes Latinos are comfortable with being pushed aside. They want to stay where it's traditional. I like to see the way people evolve."

Lemus didn't finish high school, not because he was a "problem kid" but because "school was geeky." His attitude changed after he worked for a year for $4.75 an hour and "didn't see my life going anywhere." He went through adult education, got his GED and enrolled in community college classes. Now he sees a future in teaching or counseling.

Lemus worked with Hola Carson City as a teen, and when Nevada Hispanic Services needed a new director for the bilingual youth program, "I was it." He also serves as a facilitator for Stand Tall, a statewide effort against under-age drinking.

"I work with little kids, I work with juveniles. Now I just need to work with adults," Lemus said.

"I always tell kids to chase their dreams. This was a little goal, to make my own program. I did Youth Alliance and now I have Hola Carson City. You can reach your goals."

Lemus said Carson City needs role models for its children. His advice to adults:

"Never stop trying because you never know when you're going to hit it.

"Don't forget who you work for. You'll pester a thousand (kids) but with one it will click."