Diverse & Together: Marco Saucedo

Marco Saucedo entered college with a desire to get involved and learn about others and in his senior year, it's safe to say he's completed that goal. Involved in student government, Greek Life, and as an arts and sciences ambassador, Saucedo added K-State cheer team member to his resume when he tried out and made the team as a junior.

Saucedo is a Vail, Colorado native, Mexican-American, first-generation college student and a valued member of the K-State Wildcats - a family that is Diverse & Together.

There's a handful of out-of-state students who attend K-State, especially in Athletics. You're the only one from Colorado on the cheer team. What was it like growing up there?
"I spent my entire life (in the Vail Valley). I think it's the best place to grow up. And I know everybody says that about their hometown, but it was so inclusive and diverse because it is a tourist attraction, the valley itself. No matter the time of year we were interacting with students from other parts of the world. I was just like okay, everything's normal, the whole labels and all that wasn't a big deal."

Growing up in Vail, every summer kids coming to work internships, tourist during the winter, did you speak any different languages because of that, or exposed to different cultures that maybe you wouldn't have been if you hadn't grown up in that melting pot?
"I spoke Spanish because anywhere I went you could speak your language and everybody's okay with it I did learn some French because there were a lot of French exchange students that were coming to it. It was just a free for all, you could just kind of speak whatever you wanted to speak and everybody would understand what they were saying even if they didn't speak the language. There was never any difficulties, not even with my parents, because everyone was just comfortable.They knew they could speak it in the way they knew how to say it and they knew others would understand."

Stereotypically thinking, Vail is either rich people visiting or people who work there, is that how it works there?
"When we refer to we live in the Vail Valley, it's a valley that consists of five or six towns. So Vail, Vail, is where the tourists live. They're not actually in our town. The elites of our town, like construction companies or super rich people do live there year round. As you progress down the valley, jobs kind of diminish in value. So we live toward down valley. My dad's a foreman of Gallegos Corporation. So his bosses live up in the valley, while we live down in the valley. You can see it just driving by. You see Vail and you're like 'Wow look at all those houses.' You could fit ten families in there and you'd all be comfortable. As you go down, it gets more middle class, that single family, two bedrooms, two bathroom kind of houses. That dynamic isn't noticeable to people in the valley. People who live down valley work up-valley and people who live up-valley work down-valley. It's just intermixed, and you don't notice it until someone from out of town comes in and notices the gradual change."

You mentioned your dad works in construction and your mom is a housekeeper. Do you know much of why they came to the United States?
"My parents are from Mexico. They moved here when they were 16. I always bring that up. I'm like yes, I'm Mexican. That's good, I'm a first generation student, so everything I do my parents are always like 'Good for you. You're the first family member out of our entire family to even do that, to even get to college and do what you're doing.'

"My dad has been here since he was 16. At first, I did not want to get compared to my dad at all. I don't want you guys to say that I am exactly like my dad. But like, as we get older and move on, I realize that my dad and I are the exact same person. He told me that when he came here at 16 he didn't have any money in his account, he didn't have any identification, all he knew is that he was going to come here and work as hard as he could for whatever future he was planning. At that same moment I looked at myself when I was 16 and I literally did the same thing he did without even realizing it. When I was 16, I had moved out of our family home to my grandmother's home because I had planned for the future and wanted to go out of state for college. I did it subconsciously, but now that I look back at it I'm like, 'Oh my God, we are the exact same person.' My dad, he is a leader. I worked for my dad one year, and he was doing the same job I was doing. That's how he helps his workers, that's why people love my dad because if you ask him to do something, he is there.

"My mom lost her dad when she was like four years old so she didn't really know him, then my grandma got remarried and she also moved here with their entire family. Their entire family just ended up moving, I think. They kind of did the same thing, they both ended up working in a hotel in Vail at ski resort at the same time, and that's just kind of how they met. They got married in Vail at like 21, had my brother at 23, and they've just been in that area since. They tell me this all the time, they're like 'This is all we are giving to you because we have nothing else to give you. This is like, our will to you. This is what we will leave to you because we're paying for your school. That's kind of where we are at right now, And I know that they get super emotional, they came to our first football game and they just like, you're about to graduate, that's so cool. And I'm like, 'Well you guys are graduating with me because you helped pay for it, you guys are right there with me.'"

You have a unique characteristic that most people probably don't notice about you. You're color blind. You enlisted in the National Guard and wanted to be on the bomb squad, but soon found out you couldn't do that job. What was it like discovering you were color blind?
"When I was 18 I enlisted without telling anybody, in my entire family, until I did it. I was going to make it an entire life career. I told myself I could so do this. I was like, okay cool, I want to do medical or be on the bomb squad. I like intense, high pressure situations where I have to figure it out or it's done for essentially. Especially with a bomb, you have one option or the other. That's when I learned I'm colorblind. The day I was going to go off to basic [training], they were doing some tests and told me they were going to need to change my job. They told me I couldn't do this. I asked why, and they told me I didn't pass any of the color tests. They asked if I noticed I took five or six of them, and I said no. I thought it was normal, they said I had failed every single one. I was an eighteen year old learning I'm color blind. It did explain a lot of my childhood situations. Clothing wise, I never matched, but my parents were always like, 'You were a kid. We thought you just wore whatever you wanted. They'd just never payed attention to it, until I brought it up. I showed them the tests and that I'd failed every single one."

You described being color blind as seeing a cloudy day, saying the colors are grayscale. Did you have any notable experiences which were a result of your color blindness?
"My first year and a half here at K-State, I did not know K-State was actually purple. I thought it was blue. It really threw me off because University of Kentucky Wildcats are blue, K-State Wildcats are blue. I didn't understand how that worked when we would play each other. It was just really confusing for me, until I joined K-State cheer. After practicing our 'Purple and white, fight, fight, fight' cheer I had this sudden realization. I mentioned it to one of my friends that was sitting next to me, and they just busted out laughing. Everyone asked what was so funny and she told the group that I didn't know that K-State was purple until two seconds before then. It was just great."

The last couple months included Hispanic/Latino heritage month. What does it mean to be hispanic...culturally is it a big part of your life?
"This month doesn't really do much. It's more like I do it on a day to day basis. I've never been like 'Oh my God why are they saying that to me.' I'm more like, I'll explain to you how it actually is. Like Cinco de Mayo, it's not Mexican Independence day. I know a lot of people in my family that get offended when people ask them that. I'm like no, this is the opportunity where we get to help somebody, and educate them. There's a lot of things about other cultures, if somebody told me, I'd probably have a lot of common misconceptions. But if they explained it to me I'd be like 'Oh thank you. Thank you for letting me know.' I've never gotten mad about any of that because I want people to know how our culture works, and I want to know how their culture works and what they do. The month isn't really a big situation it's more of a day-to-day basis. I'll educate you as long as you educate me in a respectful manner. I've never gotten mad at anything racial-wise because I just want to help people understand it. If you want to understand it and take my explanation, that's cool. If not that's okay too, because we're entitled to our own opinions."

You moved to Dodge City to live with your Grandma because you knew you wanted to attend college out of state, but receive in-state tuition. You also mentioned being in the National guard and working at Fort Riley, you knew K-State was close. How did you decide you wanted to come to K-State?
"So the whole college thing was super difficult for me because no one in my family has ever done it. I didn't have anybody to really ask questions, I just knew I kind of wanted to go out of state.

"I got a tour by myself, I just walked around. Kind of like that Bill Snyder story of just drop me off and see who I meet. That's literally what I did, I didn't even know who Bill Snyder was back then. I just did it by myself, I told my parents 'I'm just going to drive up there.' They didn't have any tour dates when I wanted to go, so I was like, 'I'm just going to walk around.' People were like, 'Are you lost or something?' And I was like, 'Yeah, I'm just walking around, giving myself a tour.' I got to meet so many people, I got to be shown the library by some students. I don't remember the names at this point. The union, Anderson Lawn and the building itself, and the president's house. I just got to a few basic buildings. And, just interacting with the people, like Bill Snyder says all the time, I was like 'Okay, I'm coming here.' And my parents said, 'Are you sure you don't want to come home?' Nope, I'm coming here. 'But you haven't seen any of the other universities,' 'Nope, I'm coming here.' K-State, it just felt like the whole family thing, it was small but big and you just felt connected to everybody. It made you feel good and made you want to be a part of it."

How has your experience at K-State been? Have you felt welcomed and a part of the community, here at K-State, as a Hispanic-American?
"I remember coming to K-State. Kansas is not like Colorado in any aspect. At first I didn't know anybody. I missed my first semester of college, because of boot camp and all the technical training I had to go through. At first it was rough because everybody in Kansas is predominately white. I was like I'm not going to let that stop me. I don't think I've ever let anything stop me from getting what I want or doing what I want. I did realize in order to become more of the K-State Family I needed to become more involved. I applied to a lot of different clubs and organizations at K-State and didn't get into everything at first. I felt I was carving a way for other people, so it's not like 'Oh I came here and never made new friends.' I'm so okay with getting more involved. As I said, I like to learn about everybody. All those opportunities have helped me feel welcomed. Everybody always asks me how so many people know me. When they walk with me they're like 'Everybody knows who you are.' That's because when I join something, I join it because I'm going to invest myself into it. I'm not going to join something and be like, 'I'm just here today, just to do whatever, or just to put it on my resume.' The things you join, you have to get something out of them, or it's like why did you even join?

"It's just been a good experience. I've learned so much, just about my own culture and about other people's cultures and how to move it forward based on all the history that has been behind it. That's where I've been the most open about learning everything. Talking to people is my favorite thing. I give campus tours to everybody on campus, doesn't matter your major. I'm a scholars tour guide for the college of arts and sciences, but it doesn't matter, I can give it to anyone. I just love learning from the small conversations and understanding how people do things in different places. I like combining it all, so when I do get to work a different job somewhere, I can understand. It's called the world-traveling concept, where I can put myself in your world and take a few steps in your shoes, then take myself back into mine. I've done my fair share of things that I'm content for graduation. I've done so much and I feel so content with K-State and the whole Family aspect."

Speaking of getting involved, you're on the cheer team here at K-State. Your younger sister was the one who got you involved in cheer. What is that like for you and your sister?
"She loves the idea of me doing cheer and I love the idea of her doing it. She looks up to me, but she doesn't realize that I also look up to her, even though she's only nine. So she's never going to know that until she's older, when she can understand that concept. We just get along so well, we're always texting back and forth.. She has her K-State cheer uniforms that she wears to school. She'll be like 'Yeah, my brother's on the cheer team at K-State.' She'll wear her whole two-piece outfit. It's just cute."

Watching your sister cheer was the inspiration for you to try cheer. You said you're a novice when it comes to cheerleading. How did you make the K-State team? Did you just show up to open gyms and try out?
"I didn't know we had a cheer team. And I came to every football game so I don't know how I just didn't know that. But I guess it's just always overlooked until you're actually there and then you're like oh my God, these kids are running back and forth and you didn't even notice that there's 10 of them over there, five of them over here. There's promos, videos, whatever the case is. I was just looking around because I wanted to get more involved on campus, aside from already being an arts and sciences ambassador, being on the executive council of my fraternity, being involved with other clubs. I'm just doing a bunch of random stuff, and I was like 'I just want to try to fit something else into my schedule that I probably shouldn't.' I just contacted Coach (Ruoff) and I was like, 'Hey, I'm really interested in cheering.' I've been interested but where I grew up never offered cheer and my sister is doing it, so why not just do it? Because, when I graduate, I might not have a chance to do it again. I started going to open gyms, got the basics down, made it that year and then this year, kind of a little bit of a higher level than what I was doing last year."

What has your commitment to cheer been like...what's life like as a cheerleader?
"I relate it to any minority in the United States. Cheer is a very underrated minority in the sports world. Everybody just kind of overlooks it. People even noticed at football games the hundred other things we're doing besides cheering on the sideline. Time-wise, it takes up most of my day. I'm already in 16 credit hours and they're all 600 level classes. All my classes require a lot of work inside and outside of class. So trying to balance all of that is a lot of work. But I enjoy intense, high pressure situations where people think I can't do it. I love it. It's been one of the greatest experiences because I can learn from other people. I like the path that we're taking. We're slowly moving up. I'm excited to see what the future holds for the team. When they're competing at the highest level, I can say I was there when we first started competition and it was rough and had so much to do. K-State cheer is pretty great.

"Ever since I joined the cheer team it's opened my doors up to the even different kinds of people. Cheerleaders are a different species. They are the most energetic, high skilled athletes. You're doing so many different things at once and you're putting them all together. You have to focus on everything at once. I really, really am grateful that I get to be a part of this team because of the whole traveling, meeting new people and opportunities like this, where I get to speak about where I'm from and what I'm doing"

Now that you're close to graduating, you talk about how you and your sister look up to each other. Do you kind of find yourself setting an example for your sister?
"It's not even so much setting examples for my little sister, it's my brother and cousins too that are right behind me. I was also the child on my mom side of the family that has no close cousins. All my older cousins are like four years older than me and then all younger cousins are like six years younger than me. It was like, I never hung out with any of them because I was like 'You're too young' and then all the older kids are like 'Well you're just too young for us, go play by yourself,' but recently my little cousins that just started middle school and high school were like 'We wanna go visit you because we want to see what K-State is like,' and I'm such an advocate for them coming here even though they're like 'I want to go to KU' or somewhere else. And my sister, she's nine years old and she's like 'I'm going to K-State.' I think that's just super cool to be setting an example for them, but at the same time more and more emotional and nervous towards graduation because I'm like 'Wow, I'm the first one to actually do it.' It's been emotional, my first school day of the year when I was like 'Hey, my name is Marco Saucedo and I'm a senior in political science,' then there's like an awkward 15 second pause because it was suddenly like oh, I'm a senior."

What are your specific passions or future career goals?
"At the moment, I just want to work a decade or two in different government organizations so I can learn everything I need to know, so I can get an idea of what's going on. From there go back to Colorado or wherever I end up living and then start up in political campaigns. Maybe even be in the House of Representatives, or a senator or even a governor. My dream job would be to be the chief of staff of a governor or a senator or the president. I would like to be the person that advises them through different situations. I would like to be that middle person to help other people understand. I would like to do like Landon Lectures. I think it would be so cool to talk in front of so many people. Speaking at high schools would be cool too. That's like a pivotal point for them. That's when they're formulating those preconceived notions of how politics run and how to view other people. I would want to be that person who reminds them that that's not the only option. You have the concept of world traveling, or the idea of taking a couple of days in another person's shoes. When you get to college you have all these awesome options."

K-State Athletics views diversity and inclusion as a critical element to its mission of solidifying its status as a top-tier Division I Intercollegiate Athletics program. The K-State Athletics FAMILY consists of individuals with a vast range of experiences, beliefs, values, intellectual capabilities and cultural views. Respect for these unique characteristics allows for our student-athletes to achieve their full potential while enjoying the benefits of a rich learning environment. K-State Athletics seeks to achieve sustained championship levels of success by providing resources from both within the department and across campus to promote respect, inclusiveness and the sense of FAMILY we all enjoy as K-Staters.

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Players Mentioned

Marco Saucedo

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