Former Stanford basketball player Isa Silva is working to make Mexico's national team.
Silva is using his farmworker roots as an inspiration to make it to the Paris Olympics.
"There's no better reward than representing a country and having that name on the front of your chest while wearing your family's name on the back," he said.
Silva in two weeks flies out to Nogales for the Mexico national team's training camp. On July 2, he will catch a flight to Puerto Rico for the Olympic trials.
"Depending on how we do in Puerto Rico, I think it gives us a chance of going to Paris," Silva said. "Hopefully I can make that final roster."
Silva was born in Sacramento but has dual citizenship. His grandfather immigrated to the United States under the Bracero guest worker program and picked crops in the Salinas Valley.
"I am super proud of Isa Silva and his history, his ties to the Salinas Valley, to the agricultural industry," Stanford professor Ignacio Ornelas Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez sat down with Silva and a few other summer school students to talk about the importance of staying in school – even for a star athlete with Olympic dreams.
"He has become a mentor to the Latino community across the country," Rodriguez said.
Silva is not sure where he will be playing college hoops in his final year of eligibility. But right now, his focus is on Paris.
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And for him, beating the odds has already been a slam dunk.
