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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; This is arguably the biggest week of Shakir Soto&#8217;s life.</p><p>The start of the NFL Draft is a mere two days away. By Saturday, the GAR grad&#8217;s life will likely change forever.</p><p>But you wouldn&#8217;t have known that Monday afternoon as the former University of Pittsburgh defensive lineman played football with Heights M.L. Murray Elementary sixth-graders at their recess before speaking in front of the 100-plus students in the school&#8217;s gymnasium later that day.</p><p>&#8220;I grew up, I was in their position at one time,&#8221; Soto said. &#8220;I know how it feels to have someone come back and talk to you. It gives you hope.&#8221;</p><p>Soto has been speaking to Heights students ever since he graduated from GAR in December 2012 and enrolled at Pitt. It&#8217;s just one way he gives back to the community that helped shape him into the man he is today.</p><p>On Monday, the message was simple. If there was anything he wanted the kids to take away from his 10-minute speech, it was to just chase your dreams and never give up.</p><p>If he could influence even just a handful of the 100-plus students in attendance, Soto knew he had made a difference.</p><p>&#8220;They&#8217;re going to high school next year. A lot of these kids are going to GAR,&#8221; Soto said. &#8220;That&#8217;s where it started. That&#8217;s where that turning point is. That&#8217;s why I come here and talk to sixth-graders. It&#8217;s starts there. You get in their head and start changing them, it&#8217;s just going to shape a better future.&#8221;</p><p>When Shakir was standing in these sixth graders&#8217; shoes almost 10 years ago, things were different for him. Elementary school was before he focused on football and made that his goal.</p><p>Life wasn&#8217;t easy for him growing up. One of four siblings, Soto was living with his mother, Rhonda Vieney, and it was difficult for him to stay out of trouble. In fact, Soto had been &#8220;kicked out of elementary school three times&#8221; and even spent time at Dodson Elementary. When Soto was younger he often stuck to himself, and that was when he got into trouble.</p><p>But then things changed when he got to high school in seventh grade.</p><p>Soto attributes a strong friend group &#8212; Corey Moore, Lucas Benson, Vincent Phan, Brendan Seabrook, Elijah Gresham and Luke Height &#8212; and a sharp focus on playing football at the next level for helping him straighten out his course of action.</p><p>&#8220;I realized that if I wanted to play football I had to change my ways. It was something that my family kept preaching to me about,&#8221; Soto said. &#8220;Like the saying, &#8216;Birds of a feather flock together.&#8217; You are who you hang with, and I feel like that was important. Truly, honestly, I&#8217;ve had a lot of people, like adult-wise, that were involved in my life as I grew up and really supported me, but if it wasn&#8217;t for my boys that I grew up with &#8212; like we all stayed hungry and kept working hard together. If it wasn&#8217;t for them, I probably wouldn&#8217;t be where I am today.&#8221;</p><p>It also helped that Soto had good grades, too.</p><p>Even though Soto caused trouble at a younger age, he never let his grades slip. Soto said he always got A&#8217;s and B&#8217;s and finished high school with a 3.8 GPA. He even graduated from GAR a semester early so he could enroll at Pitt ahead of schedule.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s one thing I meant to say to the kids &#8212; grades are just really important,&#8221; Soto said. &#8220;If you can&#8217;t go through high school, college is way harder than high school. They don&#8217;t understand, grades are so important to do what you want to do in life. You want to be successful at something you want to do, the grades are important.&#8221;</p><p>One of Soto&#8217;s life goals as he gets older is to come back and host events for kids during the summer. If he gets drafted this weekend, or even signs on with a team as an undrafted free agent, giving back to the community will be that much easier to accomplish.</p><p>&#8220;I love the city of Wilkes-Barre with all of my heart. I wouldn&#8217;t want to be from or raised anywhere else,&#8221; Soto said. &#8220;That&#8217;s why I come to these schools, I&#8217;m trying to be a person who could make these kids do better, look more into life and more success versus them just going out there and doing bad things.</p><p>&#8220;I just want to change Wilkes-Barre from what it is today, and you have to start here. You have to start with the kids.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Former Pitt defensive lineman Shakir Soto gets a photo taken with students at Heights M.L. Murray Elementary in Wilkes-Barre on Monday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL042517ShakirSoto1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Former Pitt defensive lineman Shakir Soto gets a photo taken with students at Heights M.L. Murray Elementary in Wilkes-Barre on Monday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL042517ShakirSoto2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Soto interacts with students during recess. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL042517ShakirSoto2-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Soto interacts with students during recess. </caption1><photoCredit1>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL042517ShakirSoto3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Soto spoke told sixth-graders to chase your dreams and never give up. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL042517ShakirSoto3-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Soto spoke told sixth-graders to chase your dreams and never give up. </caption2><photoCredit2>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL042517ShakirSoto4-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Bobby Banks, 13, of Wilkes-Barre, holds a football while he listens to football player Soto speak. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL042517ShakirSoto4-1.jpg</photo3><caption3>Bobby Banks, 13, of Wilkes-Barre, holds a football while he listens to football player Soto speak. </caption3><photoCredit3>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>GAR grad Shakir Soto speaks to local sixth-graders</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By DJ Eberle</p><p>djeberle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach DJ Eberle at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @ByDJEberle</p></shirttailMeta></div>

A word to the rise: NFL hopeful Shakir Soto stops at local elementary school