Photography by Yuvie Styles.
Alejandra Zendejas found her voice through sneakers. She was a quiet kid who focused on her schoolwork. She was a middle child, with an older and younger sister. And she was the daughter of immigrants, who came to Oak Cliff from Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, when she was 2 years old.
By the time she was a middle school student at Greiner, Zendejas, though shy, was looking for a way to express herself.
So when her older sister, Andrea, started collecting unique sneakers, Zendejas was all in.
The sisters bonded over finding cheap sneakers at the thrift store or online, or convincing their parents to buy them a pricier pair to share.
“I remember in school, people would be like, ‘Your shoes are so cool,’ and they thought we had a lot of money because of the shoes we wore,” Zendejas says. “In my head I was like, ‘We got these on eBay.’”
Sneakers became a way for Zendejas and her sister to express themselves. She says she always felt a little more confident on days she was rocking a new pair of shoes.
That experience is the basis of Pasos For Oak Cliff, the nonprofit organization Zendejas co-founded in 2020.
Zendejas became passionate about community service while a full-ride scholarship student at the University of Texas, where she joined the school’s LULAC chapter and served as president. Her time in the organization opened her eyes to her potential for community impact.
“I had the assumption that if I’m not a citizen or if I can’t vote, I can’t make a difference,” Zendejas says. “I learned that’s not the case. Having a voice and telling other people how to vote is having a voice in the community.”
After graduating with a math degree in 2017, Zendejas returned to Oak Cliff, where she started tutoring students.
She became friends with and later started dating Jesse Acosta, a recent UT grad who was teaching at Kimball High School. They two bonded over their shared desire to serve the Oak Cliff community directly, even if they didn’t yet know how.
They also bonded over their shared love for sneakers.
Within the first few years of her career, Zendejas became discouraged after turning down multiple Oak Cliff families who could not afford her company’s fees for tutoring.
“I had people contacting me asking for help for their kids who were in my area. And when I would bring it up to my boss, they were kind of like, ‘We can discount them some,’ but it was too expensive,” Zendejas says. “And so that’s when I started doing it on my own, because it’s not about the money.”
When the pandemic began in 2020, Zendejas and Acosta knew it was time to focus on helping students in Oak Cliff.
Zendejas recalled the confidence her sneakers had given her as a student, and they decided to hold a shoe drive. In that first event, Zendejas and Acosta gave out 150 pairs of shoes to students in need.
That was the beginning seed that has sprouted into Pasos for Oak Cliff. In the last three years, the organization has gifted students with 3,000 pairs of shoes.
“When we go buy shoes, it’s just like, ‘Oh my god, I never thought I would be doing this.’ It’s something to help other people, and it’s something I like to do,” Zendejas says. “Knowing that I’m doing it to help other people is so cool.”
Pasos for Oak Cliff hosts shoe drives for students whose families may not be able to afford new sneakers regularly. The organization also hosts a summer school program for middle school students who may need to brush up on subjects such as math, literature and the history of sneakers.
For high school students, Pasos for Oak Cliff helps provide opportunities for service hours and gives scholarships to college-bound seniors.
As the organization has grown, so has Zendejas’ ability to mentor students who come from a similar background that she did, she says.
“It’s a big thing, encouraging students to go as far as they want,” Zendejas says. “I believe that a lot of the students here don’t have that support, and if we can provide that for them, they’ll be able to go as far as they want.”
Zendejas now works in insurance, but she still tutors and offers test prep for high school students. Her pricing is flexible, she says, to accommodate students whose families may not have the resources to pay for the extra help.
This summer, Pasos for Oak Cliff’s shoe drive will also be an opportunity for students to pick up backpacks and other school supplies they might need for the upcoming school year.
Zendejas says she hopes to eventually transition to working for Pasos for Oak Cliff full time, but for now, she is doing alright juggling three jobs.
“Seeing the kids’ reactions, it makes me getting home tired worth it,” Zendejas says.
