From shelter to CEO: Alumnus exchanges survival mode for laser focus
Thirteen-year-old Luis Pedro Perez should have been playing Street Fighter II at the arcade with friends. Instead, he was sheltering at the Bridge Over Troubled Waters with family.
After his mom left her abusive husband, Perez couldn’t imagine life getting any darker. Then hope sprang up in the unlikeliest place: the 1994 Houston Rockets team. The reluctant sports fan rooted for the home team all the way to its first NBA championship.
Thirty years later, that moment of finding purpose sticks with Perez.
“This gave me faith that life can be so much more, and times will get better,” he said.
Somehow, Perez graduated from high school, but the hectic pace continued. Although
he took San Jacinto College classes off and on, he completed only one semester in
five years. Work always came first.
Perez might have continued at this pace except for a welcome disruption in 2016 — his daughter’s birth. Now controlling his schedule seemed more important than ever. With nearly two decades of telecommunications experience, he launched Collaborate Telecom, a technology solutions consulting business, in 2019.
He also re-enrolled at San Jac.
“My daughter motivated me to start my business, and my business motivated me to return to school,” he said.
Perez threw himself into full-time online business classes, working part time in the afternoons and knocking out projects on weekends. San Jac not only equipped him to run his business with confidence but boosted his GPA from 1.7 to 3.7, which allowed him to transfer.
“UH wasn’t going to take me as a sophomore or freshman with the GPA I had in high school,” he said. “San Jac gave me the opportunity to come back and get the education I wanted.”
Give yourself a vision for where you want to be 10, 20 years from now. Focus on specifics today that will help you achieve that vision.
After his associate degree in early 2022, a bachelor’s degree in business management followed in 2023. Perez’s training took Collaborate Telecom to the next level. The company expanded to partner with 200-plus telecommunications providers and suppliers and to serve customers nationwide.
Today, as a successful entrepreneur and mentor, Perez focuses not only on helping youth who are struggling to find their purpose but also on creating a legacy for his family.
“You have only one opportunity, and life passes very quickly,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like long ago that I was in the women’s shelter.... Give yourself a vision for where you want to be 10, 20 years from now. Focus on specifics today that will help you achieve that vision.”
Read more stories from the Chancellor's Report to the Community
About San Jacinto College
Surrounded by monuments of history, evolving industries, maritime enterprises of today,
and the space age of tomorrow, San Jacinto College has served the people of East Harris
County, Texas, since 1961. The College is ranked second in the nation among more than
1,100 community colleges, as designated by the Aspen Institute and was named an Achieving
the Dream Leader College of Distinction in 2020. As a Hispanic-Serving Institution
that spans five campuses, plus an online college, San Jacinto College serves approximately
45,000 credit and non-credit students annually. It offers more than 200 degrees and
certificates across eight major areas of study that put students on a path to transfer
to four-year institutions or enter the workforce. The College is fiscally sound, holding
bond ratings of AA+ by Standard & Poor’s and Aa2 by Moody’s. San Jacinto College is
accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
