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South Bend teen runs tax preparation business, sells insurance and plans more

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Editor’s Note: Each week for five weeks, we’ll be profiling two young people who are making a difference in the South Bend region. Whether they’re already in the spotlight or have escaped much public attention for their efforts, these young people are committed to making life better for their neighbors. Watch for them online every Sunday and Tuesday, and in print Monday and Wednesday.

SOUTH BEND — Business owner. Mentor. Insurance salesman. Broker.

If an 18-year-old man talks about his plans to start a church, become a financial planner, and go to college, he might be someone you want to get to know.

Ezequias Calleros is a tall, engaging presence as he talks about his goals, achievements and philosophies.

Calleros started his own tax consultancy at age 15 and keeps his confident voice in check, as if his next challenge is just around the corner.

“In my family business, I love growth and seeing things grow from the ground up, more than anything, helping people,” he said. “Everything I do, I can help someone grow. Life insurance is a great example.”

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Days by appointment

Ezequias is a person who works by appointments. Four days insurance and taxes are his “business side.”

But he is very keen to teach and the Mondays and Tuesdays in his schedule are reserved for teaching.

“I have a heart when it comes to teaching people,” he said. The American Dream Project, a program run by his sister, Alexandra Calleros, where he does marketing with an agency run by family members, is where he serves as a student coordinator. He does things like SAT prep, college applications, FAFSAs and other tasks at his sister’s organization.

He says he tries to make the hour-long class fun, organizing quizzes and bringing pizza so it doesn’t feel like school.

“When new students come, I notice they’re all so shy, but by mid-spring, as we’re getting closer to summer, I notice they’re all hanging out, they all know each other,” he said. “They’re all used to it by now.”

Inspiration from a parent

Calleros’ mother always wanted him and his sister to be at the forefront of education. In kindergarten, he could read at a second-grade level.

After attending Darden Elementary for elementary school, he was homeschooled along with his sister Alexandra, who was seven years older than him. Ezequias would receive most of his education through online resources, including the Ivy Academy, a program where students can earn college credits while in high school. All classes transfer to an Ivy Tech course equivalent. Students can either go to Ivy Tech for classes or, as Ezequias did, take them online.

After a brief stint at Purdue Polytechnical High School, he enrolled in South Bend Virtual School, where he graduated from high school in February.

Elisa Calleros, Ezequias’ mother, said she was a strict disciplinarian for both her own child and her daughter, never taking “no” for an answer.

“As parents, we were consistent with discipline, and mediocrity was never acceptable in our household,” Elisa Calleros said. “They were always taught to look for answers.”

She said she prayed to God for years for a son after her daughter was born, and she promised that he would be raised to honor God. As for Ezequias’ plans to become a church pastor, his mother said his work ethic and success will prepare him for leadership.

Alexandra says it was her mother and father who inspired her and Ezequias to achieve success, but also to give back to the community through volunteer work.

“It was a blessing,” Alexandra said of homeschooling with her brother. “We spent most mornings finishing up our schoolwork, and the rest of the day my mom would drop us off at volunteer locations.”

“Our schoolwork and grades always came first,” Alexandra said. “She always made sure we were doing well academically, and then we got into volunteering, and that’s how we got so involved in the community.”

He planned to attend the University of Notre Dame in February, but last August he said there was a “shift in his mind” and he felt a call from God to become a pastor and start a church.

But building churches takes time and money. He said he asked his dean, Anne Coglianese, to teach his final semester of classes in the virtual school, which he completed in February.

Ezequias said this gave him time to enroll in a real estate program at Cressy & Everett. He also studied for two weeks in January after graduating from high school and earned a license in Indiana to sell insurance.

“I have a lot of free time, which is a shock for a lot of people and also for me,” he said.

Ezequias says three things motivate him: God, his family and the competition.

“God is at the center of everything,” he said. “When I was baptized, I decided I would give my life to God, and everything I did would be for the growth of the church.”

But the competitive juices flow through Ezequias. “I like competition. Anything that can be competitive,” he said, “let’s say finance, you have to be the best of the best.”

A young volunteer

“The person who set me on this path since I was a baby was my mother,” he said. She always made sure Ezequias was ahead of the curve when it came to milestones. “She set me up for success, I guess,” he said, laughing. “She always pushed me to do my best.”

His volunteer work during his homeschooling years opened his eyes to the point where he learned that people are different, “and there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said. “It opened my eyes to be compassionate.”

After that he worked at Reins of Life, therapeutic horse riding. But only one day, because the horses scared him too much.

He then went on to volunteer at the Harrison School, where he said he was able to speak Spanish with people who were studying English as a second language.

“Not all the teachers are bilingual and some of the students come from homes where only Spanish is spoken and watch cartoons that are all in Spanish,” he said. “My first day I felt like I was really communicating, but I was about the same age as them and some people thought I was one of them, but I had my volunteer badge.”

From the age of 11 to 16, he volunteered every Tuesday and Thursday. His years of dedication were recognized in 2023 with a volunteer award from the Boys & Girls Club.

He saw children he worked with go from kindergarten to fifth grade. He even met a family through his tax office that Ezequias knew through the Boys & Girls Club. “He called to get his taxes done and they recognized me at the tax appointment,” he said.

His life, his conditions

Ezequias is so busy, but he says he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’ve never seen myself as anything else. I’ve always done things my own way,” he said. “Just do my own thing, and people are always like, ‘When do you have time for this or that?'”

He didn’t go to prom. No field trips, but he says he’s so busy. “And I believe that being busy is better than not being busy,” he said. “Having time to grow when you’re young is better for flourishing later.”

He said he had to fill in a lot of the socialization he might have missed with the people he worked with in his assignments. “Even though I’m their teacher, they can talk to me, and they’re all about my age,” Ezequias said. “They all think I’m older than them, but I tell them I’m only 18.”

College, then church

After high school, Ezequias plans to enroll at Liberty University for online classes. His motivations for life and his desire to be part of a church stem from his mother’s desire for her son.

“My main goal is to help build a church and help people find God,” he said. “That’s always been my end goal. It was my mother’s prayer, but it became my heart’s desire.”

Because he has about two years of college from his Ivy Academy credits, it will take him about two years to earn a bachelor’s degree in religion, after which he plans to pursue a master of divinity degree. He also sees work toward an eventual law degree, he said.