East Valley’s Acosta compelled to succeed

Raymond Acosta Jr. has drive. Literally and figuratively.

The 18-year-old, who is graduating this month from Spokane Valley’s East Valley High School, has always been a gearhead and also focused on making a good life for himself.

His family has always had a hard time, he acknowledges, and is still struggling. “I don’t want to struggle anymore,” he said.

He lives with his father, Raymond Sr., a maintenance supervisor, and two younger siblings. He has an older sister in Spokane, two step-siblings in Ohio, and his two youngest siblings live with his mother in Idaho.

He attended several elementary schools in Spokane and hit his stride at East Valley, where Heidi Youseph, a counselor there, recognized how dedicated he was to his career path and to complete his high school education.

She said: “Raymond is a young man who has demonstrated exceptional strength and determination as he focuses on his post-secondary goals.” He’s been attending the Skills Center for automotive training and is already enrolled for this fall’s Spokane Community College’s Toyota Technician and Education Network (T-TEN) Program, a partnership between SCC and the auto manufacturer to provide both classroom and hands-on automotive technician training.

He’s been working at a local tire store for some time and also recently taken on extra hours at a big-box store.

It’s always been about cars for him. Ever since he was a little boy, he’s been at his father’s side working on cars. It was fun for him and gave him the satisfaction of having a part in getting cars fixed up and on the road again, as well as being able to do things with his father.

When he was a freshman, they bought a gold 1996 Saturn SL2 for $95 for him. He and his father rebuilt the engine and suspension system and made other improvements (including adding a stereo system) to get the car operational again. He takes pride in the fact that the car he drives has been repaired and put in good shape with their own hands and skills, together, father and son.

Acosta said his father is open with him about mistakes he’s made in his own life and has talked with him about the fact that if he goes down certain paths, he’ll have a hard life.

“My dad always wants us to be good,” he said. “He tells us to do the things we need to do to be good, to pay our bills on time, to make good and smart choices.”

And so he knew that an education would be an important part of that, an education that would give him the credentials he needs for the life he wants to lead.

“I like school,” Acosta said, “but I see it more as a need, not as a want. So I’m sure not to be lazy. I do the work, all of it, even the work I don’t so much want to do, to get where I need to go.

“I want to work. I like work. I want to do good. And I want to get paid for doing good work.”