11/30/2022
Education and Outreach
“I am honored and humbled,” says Stephen Blanco, director of mariachi at Las Vegas High School (LVHS), of winning a 2022 Heart of Education Award in April. “I am in my first year of eligibility for the Heart of Education Award, so I did not think that I would be chosen, since I am so new to teaching. It was a wonderful surprise.”
As a nonprofit, The Smith Center created its annual Heart of Education Awards to celebrate Clark County School District (CCSD) educators who go above and beyond. The center recognizes over 700 finalists each year at a red-carpet event, and thanks to generous support from the Rogers Foundation, the top 20 teachers each receive a $5,000 cash award, a medallion and a $1,000 donation to their school.
Community members nominate teachers for the awards program each year, and nominated teachers submit applications that undergo a thorough review process.
This recognition should not have come as a surprise to Blanco, the founding director of LVHS’s mariachi program, as his accolades are many. These include being named a semifinalist for the 2022 Music Educator Award by the Recording Academy and Grammy Museum.
His administrators have taken notice, too.
“Stephen Blanco came straight out of college to establish the mariachi program at Las Vegas High School, and created an educational experience that honors our students on a cultural level,” explains an LVHS administrator. “In the three years since its inception, Mr. Blanco has managed to build the Mariachi Joya program into an internationally recognized performing group.”
Not only did Blanco build an acclaimed mariachi program, but he successfully steered his talented group of high school students through a pandemic.
“When we went virtual for nearly an entire year, some students couldn't find a reason to get up in the morning,” says Blanco, who had to quickly figure out a way to bring music back into the lives of his mariachi students. “One weekend, a student leader emailed me and told me that he and others felt anxious, depressed and couldn't find any motivation in their lives.”
He assured the members of Mariachi Joya that everything would be okay.
“We didn't have a choice but to make our world better, when it wasn't getting better on its own,” he says. “I challenged them all to take their feelings and emotions into their own hands, and despite the gloomy outlook of our world at the time, channel those feelings into something. That something became our debut album ‘JOYA.’”
Blanco came up with an idea to record an album that his students could make in seclusion.
“I spent many hours fundraising for recording equipment, and learning how to produce a record. I delivered a microphone to every student's house,” Blanco recalls of the record, now available on Apple Music and Spotify. “They would then send me their individual recordings, according to our production timeline.”
Word spread quickly about the album. The Biden Inaugural Committee reached out to invite Mariachi Joya to perform at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration.
“In the weeks leading up to the performance, I worked day and night stitching together our group’s at-home recordings to create a video performance of our feature song, ‘La Tierra del Mariachi,’” Blanco explains of proudly representing Nevada at the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“We were on a great trajectory before the pandemic, but an album definitely was not a part of the plan,” he adds. “We knew that recording the album was the best way to allow many people to still enjoy our music, even though concerts were not permitted. What we didn't know was that millions would hear our music during the Biden inauguration.”
Blanco was not the only one who was surprised when his name was called as a Heart of Education Award winner.
Mariachi Joya performed during the awards ceremony, so his students were on hand for the honor.
“It meant the world to be nominated by students for this award. I give them all my heart and soul, and they give that in return on stage during every performance,” Blanco says. “It was hard not to tear up reading my nomination essays. My students were there as soon as I walked off the stage at The Smith Center. They took the award as a win for all of us, which is exactly what I wanted. It was such a privilege to have them there.”
LEARN MORE
The nomination period for The Smith Center’s Heart of Education Awards runs from November through January each year. To learn more about this awards program, visit www.TheHeartofEducation.org.