Who is Michael Cervantes?

Mr. Cervantes has been endorsed by Marquis Who’s Who as a leader in elementary education.

Mr. Cervantes has a long and successful career in elementary education, which has spanned nearly 40 years. Since 1976, he has been employed with the El Rancho Unified School District in Pico Rivera. Teaching every grade level from kindergarten to fifth grade during his tenure at the district, he has been teaching second-grade students since 2005. He also taught Spanish as a second language for the gifted and talented education program, chaired the school district between 1990 and 1991, and continued to serve on the planning task force since 1990. Additionally, Mr. Cervantes taught third and fifth grade and was a bilingual teacher at the Valle Lindo School District in South El Monte from 1972 to 1976.

Mr. Cervantes established the New World Scholarship at California State University in 1996, the Renaissance Man/Woman Scholarship in 2000, The Leader Scholarship in 2002, the Community Service Scholarship in 2012, and 2019 the María Dolores Memorial Scholarship. He also established the New World Essay Scholarship at San Gabriel Mission High School in 2015. He served on multiple committees within his district, including as a secretary for school-wide effectiveness and as the chairman of the essay committee and the literacy and leadership committees. Moreover, he served as a union representative for the district’s phase II budget committee.

Mr. Cervantes is a leader in his professional field and a dedicated member of his local community. In 2000, he served as the Modified Day Committee’s union chair and the Mission Fiesta’s official photographer from 1995-2021. His community involvement extends to his role as a co-editor of the San Gabriel Mission Souvenir program and a publisher of the El Rancho Federation Teachers Unity Newsletter between 1990 and 1994. He has actively participated in his church, where he has served in numerous capacities, including as a eucharistic minister and coordinator of eucharistic ministers, and in August of 2024, he became the President of the San Gabriel Veterans Memorial Coalition. This further demonstrates his commitment to community service.

Mr. Cervantes’ academic journey is as impressive as his professional one. He is an alumnus of California State College, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1971. His pursuit of knowledge continued with the attainment of a Master of Arts in education in 1978 and another Master of Arts in Chicano studies in 1985. His academic prowess is further validated by his certification as an elementary teacher and a bilingual specialist in the state of California.

Mr. Cervantes has been on the Alumni Association scholarship committee at California State University since 2000. He was recognized as a grantee in his field in 2019 with a San Gabriel Mission High School Alumni Recognition Award and a Chicano/Latino Department Spring Newsletter Recognition Award. A celebrated Marquis listee, Mr. Cervantes has been featured in Who’s Who in American Education, Who’s Who in the West, and Who’s Who of Emerging Leaders in America.

In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who’s Who community, Michael A. Cervantes has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website.