A vibrant way of life

Though the halls of Wenatchee High School walks a man with a bright beard and brighter personality, leaving passing students in wonder of just who he is.

Today the mystery is put to an end. Meet the man behind the beard, Deandre Lester.

The Beginning

Lester was born and raised in Chicago, and when he reached college age he was ready to branch out. He first attended Michigan State, and transferred to Illinois State shortly after.

Being a college student, Lester really had no concrete plans about where he wanted his life to take him yet. But life does go on and took Lester right along with it, so he decided to go out for his bachelor’s in biology.

“When people go off to college they don’t always really know what they want to do. I did have this idea in my mind that went go to college…and, boom, have life planned out. So I went to school to study biology, and found out that I hated all of the classes. I hated amino acids, I hated hormones, I didn’t even like the sight of blood… but I had already invested three years of my life in this degree, so I couldn’t just turn around and do something else. What would I do?”

Lester continued on his path and ended up graduating with his bachelor’s in biology. This is where he hit another roadblock: what would he do after college?

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew I liked volunteering and giving back, but I didn’t know where to go from there. Then I realized that I had never left the country, I’ve never explored, I’ve never traveled, I’ve never seen different ways of life… A friend of mine told me about this program called the Peace Corps, as he was thinking about joining himself, and so I researched it and ended up really liking the idea.”

The Peace Corps is a volunteer program run by the United States that tries to help promote world peace and friendship. By sending American citizens away to various other countries, they promote an exchange of culture between America and other countries, while aiding developmental processes.

Lester was ecstatic about this idea, and decided to take the journey through the long two and a half week application process. During this time, he also started working at a pharmacy in his college town.

“Before I applied, I have to admit that I really did think I was the cream of the crop,” Lester said, “I looked at myself and was very proud — I had a degree in biology, I worked at a pharmacy, and I volunteered a lot through mentor programs and was also past of the big brother organization. I was sure I was going to get in.”

The Brick Wall

Lester didn’t get in.

“The denial definitely humbled me, and showed me that I still had work to do,” Lester said.

He was determined to move on, and figure out the next step to his journey. “I said to myself that I need a change of location, I need a change of career, I need a change of everything. When they denied me from the Peace Corps they told me that I didn’t have enough experience working with children, so that encouraged me to come to this other organization, called AmeriCorps, to get that experience.”

The AmeriCorps is a volunteer civil society program, which, once one applies and is accepted, will position them in different specters of work all over the United States. It is essentially a domestic version of the Peace Corps, and volunteers can either spend ten months or a year of their time in a new location to help meet critical community needs in education, public safety, health, and the environment.

Lester ended up applying to become a math intervention tutor at Orchard Middle School. After five interviews, he got the position, and had to face the transition from Chicago to Wenatchee.

“I had never heard of Wenatchee before — I didn’t even know how to pronounce it. I didn’t know what to expect. But I decided to go for it because I really wanted something new in life.”