“I teach Spanish 3 at Irvington.

I grew up in a family where most of my family members were our teachers. My father was a teacher for over 44 years. Since I was in elementary school, I used to arrive to my dad’s classroom early and look at the chalk on his desk and pretend that I was a teacher. Every time I saw students approaching my father, they showed a lot of respect towards him and his profession. I  pictured myself doing the same thing as my father for the community. I wanted to serve the community by being a teacher. 

When I was completing my teaching credentials, I originally was a student teacher at another school in Fremont Unified School District. I visited Irvington and attended its “Españolandia” event and when I entered the gym, in that instant, I knew that Irvington would be the best place for me to fit in.

My favorite part about this school is its diversity. I really enjoy seeing students from multiple backgrounds as an immigrant. Every time I walk into the cafeteria and see a Día de los Muertos decoration, or mariachi music, I feel that a part of me is healed. Seeing things that represent my culture and country at school makes me feel excited about being here on campus. 

As a teacher, I like to focus on teaching my students grammar. I also enjoy teaching  culture alongside the linguistic aspect of Spanish. I’m very grateful for my students. Every card I receive from them is a gesture of support. It makes me feel super special when they tell me that Spanish is their favorite class. 

My advice to high schoolers is to enjoy the process. They have to be happy on campus and always set up their goals. Most importantly, my advice is always go to college. They must go to college to finish a career because that makes a huge difference in their life. Coming from a person who couldn’t go straight to college, I really struggled emotionally and financially because of that and I always wanted to finish my career. And it took me nine years to go back to that. If I had gone straight to college, it would have been much easier. I want students to know that taking college as a path leads them to do great things in life.”