Josh Rivera
He pursues his dream while finding time for others
The typical week for Josh Rivera is perhaps anything but typical for someone his age.
The soft-spoken 24-year-old works full-time during the week as the head supervisor of housekeeping and a Spanish interpreter at Comfort Suites in Coralville. He takes online courses through William Penn every Thursday night and every other Saturday. He leads a Sunday school youth group and is in charge of evangelism at the West Liberty Pentecostal Church, where his father is the minister.
And once a week he gets the opportunity to do what he wants to do for a living — teach.
Rivera substitutes once a week at West Liberty Middle School. He used to work there as a teacher’s assistant until the hotel opportunity came along.
“Josh is a model citizen in every way,” wrote Lori Fiebelkorn, who works with Rivera at Comfort Suites and nominated him for this section. She describes him as “positive, caring, hardworking, honest, respectful, loyal and willing, along with too many other attributes to mention.
“Josh is responsible for organizing a library within his church and has spent many, many hours and his own money to build this library for all the people in his church to enjoy. … Josh is one of those rare people that make everyone’s ordinary day a lot better. Josh would be the last person to say any of these things about himself or take credit, but he truly deserves to be nominated for this feature.”
Rivera is on track to get his associate’s degree in May and has another year to go before he gets certified to teach pre-K elementary.“I worked at church as a children’s minister and working with kids has inspired me a lot,” he said. “My mom was a teacher and my sister is studying to be a teacher, and just going home knowing you’ve made an impact in somebody’s life (is rewarding). That makes a lot of difference.”
So does the work Rivera has done leading church mission groups that have gone around the world helping families in need, with trips to Texas and Honduras scheduled for the next several months.
You might wonder why Rivera spends so much time doing so many things to help others.
“It’s the gratitude I have for my Lord and savior Jesus Christ,” he said. “My dad has strong convictions, strong faith, and that has translated to my life.”
— Andy Hamilton
