Episode 1 - Dr. Salvador Bueno: From 0.0 GPA to Dr. Dad

Dr. Salvador Bueno grew up in East Oakland. Expelled from two high schools. Continuation school. A 0.0 GPA. By the time most people had written him off, he was already just trying to stay alive.But something changed. A wife who believed in him. A grandmother who prayed for him. A soccer flyer on a community college wall that led him to a coach who saw something worth developing. None of it was a straight line. None of it was easy. He tested at a seventh grade reading level when he started college. He failed classes. He took out loans he couldn't afford. He sat at a kitchen table during a pandemic, writing his dissertation while his abuelita was dying in the next room, and he made a decision to finish.Today he is an assistant professor, a founder, a researcher, and a doctor. But the title he leads with is dad.In this episode, we talk about identity, about what it means to rise out of an environment that never expected you to, about the financial mistakes he made along the way and what he learned from them, and about what financial dignity actually looks like when you build it from nothing.This is the kind of story our community needs to hear. Not because it is perfect. Because it is real.If you know someone who needs to hear this, share it with them.