Not giving up, just getting started...

For those of you already familiar with my work within Modesto City Schools, Stanislaus County, and the State of California regarding the education, empowerment, and equitable opportunities for the immigrant, refugee, and asylum seekers in our communities, thank you for your continued support. The launch of this consulting service is an extension of the passion I have for these deserving students and families, which includes all historically marginalized, underserved, and under-represented living among us. 

For those of you unfamiliar with the joys and struggles experienced over the past decade within the Language Institute, I invite you to spend time in this site’s gallery of pictures, videos, and articles which summarize the journey my students, colleagues, community advocates, and I endured over the years. 

Seeing student faces, hearing their voices, witnessing their promise firsthand, is more impactful than any words I could find to describe their limitless potential and our commitment to social justice. Then I hope we can take some time to connect this encapsulated experience with the oppression, exploitation, and dehumanization systems- such as the public school system- have been imposing on disenfranchised communities for centuries. We know our story is just one of many.

While what we experienced was not novel, it should not be accepted or tolerated. I resigned from my classroom position in December of 2019, knowing that receiving a paycheck from an institution unabashedly rooted in systemic oppression was not an option which allowed me to sleep at night. I never imagined the day where I would not be a classroom teacher, but my capacity to make meaningful change within the system had run its course.  So here I am, today- in the middle of a global pandemic and national movement for full racial equality- embarking on a new adventure. These are uncertain times for everyone, but what I have come to realize is there is no place I’d rather be in this moment of history. 

So in addition to utilizing this blog to highlight the personal stories and experiences of the students who have inspired my new career, I will also seize this opportunity to allow you to get to know me a little better. My goal is to illustrate that the services I offer are not just a result of degrees and professional experience, but more importantly an accumulation of the personal observations, reflections, and conclusions I have come to as I witnessed, firsthand, the reasons there is such an extensive and unwavering academic achievement gap in the majority of American communities. 

While the focus of my career thus far has been within education, I have come to realize just how interconnected all systems are, and you can’t address the injustice in one without the other. Students exiting the system of public education inevitably become a member of another. Recognizing that education is a pipeline to their destiny, and that the educational system should provide them the support, empowerment, and agency to define that destiny on their own, is what educational equity is truly all about. Too many have had their destiny decided  for them. 

And for those adults who left the system of public education without the social justice they so desperately needed to close that gap, and are working and functioning within systems as adults that still do not see value in their unique assets, you are why I want to contribute the concepts of equity and inclusion beyond education.  

I am filled with so much hope and have  faith that the tough times we are going through as a nation will lead us to a better place in the end. I remember the day after the 2016 election like it was yesterday. My immigrant, refugee, and asylum seeking students felt like their humanity was on the ballot- and they lost. We cried tears of sadness and fear, shared words of cautious optimism, and tried not to dwell too much on the unknown. None of us could focus on anything but wrapping our heads around our new reality. It was as if we were collectively mourning the death of their American Dreams.  I don’t know who to give credit for this analogy, or if it was born from a group conversation, but I recall with great clarity someone mentioning a comparison to a slingshot. English learners always benefit from visuals, so after a quick sketch on the side board everyone understood the reference.

While a slingshot might seem like a weapon of harm aimed right between their eyes, the hand drawn illustration on the board helped them see it from a different angle. From a less formidable side view we analyzed the steps in using a slingshot. What they decided was the projectile object, which some argued symbolized society while others personalized the object a little more,  had just been placed into the device and the upcoming years would be the tension of being pulled backward. Backward in terms of equality, empathy, hope, and humanity- each had their own vision of what “backward” would feel like, all equally valid.  Of course at that time it was only speculation. Fast forward to 2020 and now we know it to be their truth. We agreed that if we could endure that temporary pain of being pulled backward, and remember we are all in this together, when the hand finally releases the object- imagine the speed at which we will all rocket forward, together.

My voice and my services are my part in releasing that tension, and letting my students' dreams soar again, for the unseen and unheard in my community and the millions of others around the country alike.