A school bus called La Tortuga, a farmworker who went back to school, and 29 new graduates in San Luis

In 1967, a young man in Tucson bought a used 1957 Chevrolet school bus, filled it with books and drove it out to the farms.

He was the driver. He was the mechanic. He was the teacher. He named the bus La Tortuga, the tortoise. His first students were farmworkers in the pecan and cotton country of the Santa Cruz Valley, according to PPEP's own history.

That man was Dr. John David Arnold, and the bus became PPEP: Portable, Practical Educational Preparation. It started with a $19,000 grant from Tucson's War on Poverty agency, and it grew into a statewide nonprofit that runs charter schools, job training, housing, health and microbusiness programs, according to PPEP's own website. He was 84, KVOA reported. He died Oct. 9.

Most people in Yuma County have probably never heard his name. But a lot of people in San Luis have walked through one of the things he built.

Group 24

Two weeks after Arnold's death, 29 young people graduated from PPEP's YouthBuild program in San Luis, the program's 24th class, the Yuma Sun and Bajo El Sol reported Oct. 24.

The San Luis program is for low-income young people ages 17 to 24 who left high school without finishing, PPEP says. They work toward a GED, learn construction skills and put in community service hours while they do it. This year's group hit more than 4,000 hours of service with the Yuma Community Food Bank by April, the Sun reported then, and then moved on to fixing up parks and public spaces in Somerton.

The graduation turned into a tribute. Kari Hogan, PPEP's deputy executive director, talked about Arnold's 60-year career. "He was more than a leader; he was a visionary and a colleague," she said, according to the Sun.

It was also a goodbye to the man who had run the San Luis program since the beginning.

The coordinator

Jesse López retired Oct. 16. Group 24 was his last class.

His own story could have been a YouthBuild brochure, except he lived it first. López immigrated from Mexico in 1972 and worked in the fields for 15 years to help support his mother and siblings, according to the Sun's retirement story.

What changed things was a supervisor who asked him a fairly blunt question: why was somebody that young working in the fields instead of going to school?

He went back. He studied accounting at the college level, worked in accounting at Housing America, and in 2003 PPEP asked him to start up the new YouthBuild program in San Luis.

"I fell in love with it and said I would do everything possible to give back what I owe society," López told the Sun.

His students' work has reached beyond the classroom, from sorting and packing food for the food bank to helping improve Somerton's parks and public spaces. In 2019, LULAC gave him an award named for, of all people, John Arnold, the Sun reported.

"I feel that this mission has been accomplished over the years," he said this month.

What's worth noticing

There's a straight line in this story, and I don't think it's an accident.

A man drives a bus out to farmworkers. Decades later, a former farmworker who went back to school because one person asked him a good question spends more than 20 years in San Luis doing the same thing for kids who left high school early. And the last class he coordinates graduates in the same month the man with the bus dies.

Arnold put it this way: "Sí se pudo y sí se podrá," according to PPEP's biography. It was possible, and it will be possible.

The program doesn't end with López. If you know someone in South County between 17 and 24 who never finished high school, PPEP lists an appointment number of 928-627-3203. Its YouthBuild location page lists 731 N. First Ave. in San Luis. Call ahead before making the trip.

Sources

• Yuma Sun / Bajo El Sol (Roy Olivas), 29 YouthBuild students graduate in ceremony honoring PPEP founder, Oct. 24, 2026.
• Yuma Sun / Bajo El Sol (Roy Olivas), Mission accomplished: Jesse López retires after 23 years serving youth through YouthBuild, Oct. 24, 2026.
• Yuma Sun, A servant to his community: YouthBuild program coordinator honored, 2019.
• Yuma Sun, YouthBuild students surpass 4,000 hours of community service, April 24, 2026.
• PPEP, Inc., official website. Founding grant and programs.
• PPEP, Inc., Dr. John David Arnold. Founding history and motivational saying.
• PPEP, Inc., YouthBuild/AmeriCorps, qualifications and locations, checked Oct. 31, 2026.
• PPEP, Inc., History.
• KVOA, PPEP founder Dr. John David Arnold dies at 84.