High School Dropout to Harvard: My Life with Dyslexia

By: John D Rodrigues

Narrated by: Morgan Ingraham

School was a struggle for John D. Rodrigues. He knew he was smart, but teachers and classmates didn’t believe him. All they saw was a kid who wore freakish orthopedic shoes, couldn’t sit still in class, and struggled miserably with reading. At age 16, John had had enough. He dropped out, certain he’d never return to school.

Thanks to a chance encounter, John discovered ice sculpting. Here, finally, was something the young man was good at, and he took to it passionately. His talent for releasing beauty from massive blocks of ice led to jobs working in famous hotels and on cruise ships. He was happy, but his failure to graduate tugged at the back of his mind.

The failure, as it turned out, wasn’t John’s. It was the fault of the school system that had never diagnosed his dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Armed with strategies that played to his strengths, John passed remedial classes in community college and then went on to study at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley.

In High School Dropout to Harvard, John candidly recounts his inspirational journey and dispenses hard-won, practical advice for others who may be facing similar challenges.

©2012 John Rodrigues (P)2018 John Rodrigues

An Inspiring Book on Overcoming Dyslexia

John D Rodrigues has written a wonderful book here. I didn't consider myself well-informed when it came to Dyslexia, and I think I learned quite a bit form reading this. Harvard is an exceptionally difficult college to attend; I absolutely commend the author on their hard work and persistence. Never give up on your dreams!

It's very moving to hear Rodrigues mull over some of the important points in his life, right from childhood, that made him who he is today. No matter the obstacles or the people who told him he couldn't achieve his dreams, the author succeeded in defeating these impediments diligently. The author has a very interesting history. I was surprised to see hear of how many places he has been to and the jobs he has worked.

The orator, Morgan Ingraham, is quite good. His intonations are exactly on point to emphasize the sentence. I think this narrator was wonderfully chosen for this book.

High School Dropout to Harvard: My Life with Dyslexia is a heartwarming and informative novel, but it is more than that. It is the fascinating and motivating story of a man's journey through life, and how he achieved things he only dreamed were possible. Always reach for the stars. Enjoy!

Dyslexic chef finds destiny in powerful memoir

Imagine attending school in your orthopedic shoes, not being able to read, write, and spell properly, and always being the butt of children’s taunts. Imagine succumbing to the lowest opinions of your critics, forcing yourself to graduate high school, staying close to home, picking the safest job, and never finding your true love – all because you listened to the nasty things that the crowds had to say about you. That could have been the fate for the chef-turned-author, John Rodrigues.

Somehow the velvety voice of the narrator, with its soothing cadence, eased the disquiet of this listener, while learning about John’s experiences as a dyslexic exposed to the wait-to-fail model of education. By the same token, the positive aspects of this disability, such as gifts for visual thinking, story-telling, and creativity shine through in this patchwork quilt of experiences that doubles as his memoir.

From a childhood of struggling with words like caterpillar (‘capapillar’ according to his pronunciation) and being surrounded by Louisiana gumbo smells emanating from his Grandma’s kitchen, we are taken on a delicious joy ride through the youth of someone who refused to quit – earning recognition as a chef and ice sculptor par excellence. He also confronted his ‘learning Everest’ by attending Harvard. Along the way, he married his true love and welcomed a baby daughter.

This story should inspire everyone run down by outer voices to listen to their inner voices and go find their respective destinies.

An inspiring story

An inspiring story full of obstacles that are overcome, self-discovery, and acceptance. John D. Rodrigues wonderfully describes his journey in life and provides so many details that you can picture his world with ease. Rodrigues struggles with school in his younger years; he suffers from dyslexia and ADHD- although this is unknown to him for many many years. The relationship between Rodrigues and his father is a painful one; his father constantly puts him down and makes fun of his shortcomings. I really feel for Rodrigues younger self; instead of having a support system to help bring him up he was surrounded by naysayers. There are two people that Rodrigues mentions that I believe helped give him the confidence and the belief that he could accomplish anything; his grandfather and Chef Collins. Before these two I don’t think Rodrigues had ever been praised- his grandfather taught him to carve wood and later Chef Collins helped Rodrigues refined those skills to become an award-winning ice sculptor.
Morgan Ingraham narrates this story and he does a great job! With a soothing clear voice, he does the proper inflections to keep the true heart of the story and I didn't have the trouble of tuning him out - which has happened to me with other audiobooks! Ingraham kept my attention throughout the book and I definitely recommend this to everyone.

Excellent Book about Perseverance

High School Dropout: My Life with Dyslexia by John D. Rodriguez.  

This is a fascinating and inspiring memoir of a student's struggle to overcome the odds and achieve his goals. He is not even diagnosed with Dyslexia until he enrolls in college and relates stories of his early obstacles at school and home as an unrecognized learning disability. 

Most to be admired is the author's positive attitude throughout.  When it seems most would have given up he chose to persevere with his dreams including enrolling at Harvard University. He takes what is considered a disability and turns it into his strength. He has analyzed his way of thinking and used it to his advantage to work smarter not harder.

This is an inspiring read giving a look at how a visual thinker views the world.

What an amazing story!

The Author shares his story of growing up with dyslexia, and issues he had in school from it. From being accused of ill behavior over something that he couldn't help, to people looking down on him for poor grades instead of helping him - he overcame it all by walking away from it!

I spent my night listening to the story of how a simple after school culinary class grew into working with renowned chefs and becoming an ice sculptor on cruise ships! Wow! What an exciting time that must have been, especially when one of their co workers decided to take photos in a no-photo area, which resulted in them getting chased down by locals and almost thrown in a foreign country's jail!!

But what makes this story so close to me personally is going back to college. I'm almost 40 and back in a community college, so it really makes me feel like the sky is the limit so long as I pace myself and understand how to move forward. His book really is inspiring, and reminds me of another person who said "If you feel something, believe in yourself and just go for it!" Seems that's the only way to live sometimes!

Thank you for sharing your amazing story, and showing that us underdogs can rise to the top too!! The entire last chapter and afterword just me smiling the entire time. One thing is for sure, you got some great stories for your daughter!

A compelling book

John Rodrigues’ ‘High School Dropout to Harvard: My Life with Dyslexia’ is mostly about his life dealing with dyslexia. But for the most part, the book is about extraordinary people and their more than exceptional lives. Rodrigues grew up in a home that did not tolerate his learning disabilities. School was pretty much the same. He was punished at home and at school for being different. Rodrigues as a child had to wear orthopedic shoes. He remembered that he always stood apart at the playground. He recalled one day at recess second graders coming up to him, inquiring what was wrong with his feet while the other exclaimed that he walked funny. He couldn’t explain to them that while in his mother’s womb his feet had to crowd against her as he grew inside, which was why he had ‘Frankenstein feet’ or ‘freak shoes’. But this wouldn’t be his only deformity.

Rodrigues began to dread reading aloud in class. Whenever his turn came around, he would find any excuse possible to get him out of the class exercise. But no excuse could exempt him from reading every time. Whenever he came upon a word he didn’t know, he would stutter and eventually something would come out. It would most of the time come out wrong and the teacher would then correct him. Then the excruciating task would be over, and he would sit down in his seat humiliated. Because of this, he began to see himself as a ‘bottom-dweller’ within the school academic ranks.

Looking back onto this as his adult self, Rodrigues advises those with learning disabilities to not see their weaknesses as just weaknesses themselves. Rodrigues gives us an example from his life: the ‘freak shoes’ had another side to them. In a different light they could be seen as strengths. Rodrigues goes on to tell anyone with learning disabilities to focus on their strengths.

One thing no one told him while growing up was that he had a different brain as he began to fail his classes. That he needed to work differently. Due to his plummeting grades, he began to cut classes.

Rodrigues says that dropping out of high school was one of the best decisions he ever made and attributes attending Harvard to dropping out of high school. One of the things Rodrigues makes it a point to drill across to readers is that he tells us to focus on our strengths and to hone that skill and on things that you can do. He credits that dropping out of high school allowed him to focus on things he can do, therefore allowing him success on a skill that taught him visual thinking.

The book also follows through with some interesting tidbits into his vocation as an ice sculptor and cooking instructor. It takes us through his travels and adventures as he lends his cooking expertise on cruise ships.

An inspirational account that takes us through a mindset that struggles with dyslexia, all of Rodrigues’ life, he has been doing what he was precisely wasn’t supposed to be doing and this is why he ended up in Harvard. If he had progressed through life attempting to fit in into the linear thinking mold, he would never have dropped out of high school, and therefore experienced all the adventures and exotic places he was able to travel to if he hadn’t focused on his strengths and therefore going down the path less traveled.

A well-written book, Rodrigues speaks from the heart telling us his compelling story. The narrator also does a job well-done at times narrating with passion whenever the passages bequeath him to.

Rodrigues gives readers many a sage advice, guiding those with learning disability with a steady hand inspired from his own personal life history.

An informative and motivational book, readers not just with dyslexia but also those who maybe are in a rut will find this book extremely moving and stimulating. A quick read with short chapters, this is a book that informs without slogging down readers.

Quick and to the point, ‘High School Dropout to Harvard: My Life with Dyslexia’ is an entertaining book filled with fresh insights and a riveting account into a life dealing with dyslexia and much more.

This story is so inspiring!

John is a true inspiration. Although I am not dyslexic I can relate to most of this story. I too dropped out of high school homeschooled myself and went on to Culinary school and am currently a sous chef. At the time no one thought I could make it on my own and go so far but I did.
Not only did he prove everyone wrong but John didn't stop at ice sculpting or his cruise ship life. He went on to teach culinary students and when he got his fill he moved on to more challenging things. He did what most people wont. Go back to school after you already have a successful career. I have thought about a new career path. I too get bored of the same thing after I have mastered it or met my goal. Working on a cruise ship sounds wounderful. I can imagine all of the amazing things he has done and people he has met.
When John left his teaching job and went to Berkely I was very curious as to how he would go from there to Harvard. I felt at that point he was already very accomplished. Clearly he wanted to test the limits. Could he actually do it? He already had a promising future and snagged a great internship but when Harvard calls you better drop everything and run.
Listening to his story has me thinking of going back to school. It's never to late and John is the perfect poster child of over coming obstacles and dreaming very big while working hard to acheive your goals.

Great story to read with your kids.

I had heard about this story from a co-worker before and simply did not take the time to read it. Thankfully there is audible, so I was able to listen to the story while doing house chores. This was my first ever audible purchase, and I will be making more in the future.
This is a great story for people who feel that they are being misunderstood. I feel that many teens and child can relate to this, because there aren’t many teachers that take the time to get to know a study. The student is made fun of by his father and his teacher, Rodriquez, reminds him throughout the story that he is stupid. ADHD, Dyslexia, and making other learning disorders are hard to pinpoint. It takes a teacher that cares to notice a child struggling and that it’s not something they can control. Nonetheless, the teacher does end up notices metal bars in his shoes and quickly finds out that he can “out-kick” everyone in kickball. Rodriquez finally takes his disorder into consideration and the story begins to unfold differently.
The author makes the story easy to follow, and I was shocked by how short the audible version seemed. Just a little over two hours. This story is very inspirational, and I feel would be great for a parent to read to their children. Even if they do not have a learning disability some of their classmates might. I feel that this would provide a better life lesson than your popular Harry Potter books, but I do very much love those as well.

Incredible book and well plotted

Nice book to read. And a matter of fact is that the story is a true and clear reflection of our lives.
As for our character John Rodrigues, school was hell to him. He believed he was smart and intelligent but his teachers and classmates didn't believe that. They mocked and despised him from the way way he used to dress to his poor reading skills.
At the age of sixteen John decided to quit school because he had had enough of of the mockery.
He then found something he could do happily and with alot of passion. And this was ice sculpting. This talent earned him many gigs in famous hotels and on cruise ships.
Despite his success and good life earned from his talent, he still wanted to be a graduate. He later decided to join college, then later went to Harvard and the University of California.
Very nice book that shows the society we live in and will highly recommend it to readers of all kind. Nice work again and thumbs up to the author.

An interesting and inspiring memoir

"High School Dropout to Harvard" is an interesting and uplifting book. The author provides an in-depth look at the highs and lows of their life personally, professionally, and academically. Important people in their life, such as their father, grandfather, and a mentor are described in vivid detail even when that detail portrays them in a negative light.

The description of living with dyslexia is excellent in this book. I was particularly taken with how the author felt ashamed of having a learning disability and wanted to hide it whenever possible. For example, they would avoid reading out loud in class as much as possible.

The author's personal weaknesses are highlighted, but so are their strengths. Their skill at visiualizing 3d space allowed them to quickly thrive as an ice sculptor for instance, and their strong interpersonal skills were a great asset when they later worked on cruise ships.

This book is full of good life advice, such as how networking and personal connections are major assets. In the author's case he was able to land a steady job shortly after dropping out of high school when he brought the name of his mentor up during a job interview. People with dyslexia can also get a lot of lifestyle tips from this book, as you might expect, but there are also plenty of good insights in here for people without dyslexia. I also think it's great that this book is available in an audiobook form, since that should be a significantly easier way to absorb the book for people with dyslexia, and in particular young people who can get a lot of help and guidance.

Overall this book is a nice success story about someone who was able to succeed while not even being able to name or identify their learning disability until fairly late in life, and I hope it inspires others to succeed as well.