Personal Statement
Personal Statement
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I am the proud daughter of immigrant parents, product of the public school system and English educator with five years of experience in a Title I high school. Being a former English Language Learner and first-generation student, I remember how reading and writing helped me develop my voice and agency. When I was little, I remember assisting my parents by translating legal documents, doctor visits and parent-teacher conferences. It was through my elementary school English that we navigated the structures of the American legal, medical, financial, and educational systems. Interestingly, these were the same systems that the dominant elite built against my ancestors and other marginalized people to maintain their power. A victim of this system, my mother, who dropped out of school by third grade to work, always told me “mija, tienes que seguir estudiando para conseguir un buen trabajo.” Now, as an educator, I use language and education as tools for resistance, authenticity, and change.
As a teacher with five years of experience, I have learned immensely about myself, my evolved teaching philosophy and my students. I began my teaching in a virtual classroom in the middle of the pandemic. While I was never taught to teach virtually, I created meaningful connections with students. When we returned in-person during Spring 2020, I noticed a desperate desire in students to discuss the implications of the current sociopolitical turmoil. For the rest of the Spring semester, we discussed the racial justice, equity and social justice. This semester sparked my research of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP), youth advocacy and authentic writing tasks. In addition to enhancing the district curriculum to meet student interest and sociocultural identity, I have led my English team with innovative writing pedagogies to cultivate a grade-level writing community. For instance, I have coordinated grade-level class collaborations, project based curriculum, and professional development to cultivate a literacy community for students. In my classroom, students feel accepted, valued and liberated through the enriching influences of culturally relevant literacy tasks.
In the summer of 2024, I completed my Master’s in English Education through Arizona State University and became a recipient of the NCTE Early Career Educator of Color (ECEOC) Award. Through my studies at Arizona State University, I have evolved my lessons to spotlight student’s experiential knowledge, cultural contributions and learning style. My thesis titled “Illuminating Student Voices: Using Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in Authentic Writing Tasks,” explores how student-led research paired with multimodal writing can elicit writer identity and community. This unit includes social justice vocabulary, multimodal projects, an argumentative research project and social justice book club. This research highlighted my position as an educator of color as I strive to provide students with powerful writing pedagogies that can motivate students based on their personal connections with selected topics and encourage them to authentically write.
My experience as a researcher through the master’s program has propelled me to study how the implementation of community service opportunities in student-led research positions students in their communities. This research in affiliation with NCTE involves parent consent forms, student questionnaires, community service affiliates, a community gallery walk and educator’s toolbox for like minded educators to achieve this experience in their classrooms. As I reflect on my accomplishments and role as a first-generation Latinx educator, I recognize that there are greater contributions I can make towards literacy instruction. My goal is to illuminate multicultural and marginalized youth voices and invite students to share their distinct stories to challenge oppressive structures through storytelling.
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