Personal Background
   As a young person, I viewed my world as diverse because of the different colors and languages and hometowns represented in my family, but as I got older I rapidly began to feel the internalized racism and colorism, self-hatred, and cognitive dissonance that brewed within me because of what I had been taught. With college and travel came the unending process of unlearning my biases and learning to love my Blackness, my Latinidad and the Black and Latinx communities for everything we are and all we have to offer the world. I became a teacher to bring what I learned about diversity and community funds of knowledge to the classroom. 

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Knowledge and Understanding
My understanding of diversity is stepped in the disability studies concept of the cultural construction of difference. People who are labeled disabled are simply marginalized for not having the proper socially negotiated skillset that the community they are in has set up. In this way, no one is disabled, but we’re all variously abled, which means, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, socio-economic status, etc. everyone, every community, has skills, practices, traditions, etc. that others can learn from to create a more robust worldwide experience. A fight for diversity, equity, and inclusion, therefore, requires highlighting, learning from, and implementing what we learn from varying communities and the processes they use to survive and thrive. 

Once we accept that diversity is beneficial to society, inclusion (of diversity) is a logical value to follow. Equity may be the most difficult of the three for many people in the United States in particular to implement, not because it is inherently challenging, but because of the individualistic culture that most people here ascribe to. Having more diverse representation amongst people who would not otherwise see or care about issues of those who they do not believe are “like them” can lead to awareness, which can lead to empathy, and then to equity.

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Research
During my time as an undergraduate, I majored in English with a concentration in creative writing as well as Spanish language, literature, and culture. I studied abroad for a school year to complete the majority of my Spanish degree, during which I interacted with a variety of people, gained more humility, and truly learned to appreciate what other countries and communities have to offer. I culminated my English degree with my senior project where I created a contemporary version of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience; I explored topics such as racism, police brutality, privilege, poverty, sexism, abuse, and other issues that impact marginalized communities. 

My research areas include how the intersections of race/ethnicity, language, and gender impact one’s educational experience. I received my Master’s in Education from the Learning, Diversity, and Urban Studies program at Vanderbilt University where I emphasized in language, culture, and identity. I primarily focused on English as a Second Language education (ESL) and English Language Arts education for students who speak multiple languages or multiple dialects of English (i.e. African American Vernacular English). Because of my own background as a Black Latina, I have instinctively felt the similarities between Black and Latinx experiences in the United States, especially in English education as both are expected to learn the mainstream English dialect as well as academic English to be seen as literate. Translanguaging– code-switching and code-meshing– in academic/formal writing was my main area of interest.

The capstone project I did for my Master’s explores the historical execution of ESL and how it may be improved through the use of a poetry unit. The main goals of the unit are to improve English Language Learners reading comprehension and production of written work by bolstering student identity through validation of their home cultures and languages. The unit seeks to make these personal connections through the use of code-meshing as a means of validating students’ languages, and through culturally relevant resources to validate students’ multicultural backgrounds. 

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Teaching
I expand more on how diversity, equity, and inclusion apply to my practice in my Statement of Teaching, but overall, my approach to teaching is centered on promoting social justice and equity through culturally sustaining pedagogy. I strive to create a space where students' diverse cultural backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are acknowledged and celebrated and where all students have equal access to learning and can connect their learning to their lived experiences. One way I do this is by having community members bring their expertise into academic spaces as a means of including community funds of knowledge into my curriculum. For example, David Inocencio from The Beat Within did a lesson on poetry and expression as freedom in my class. Since then, my students have been able to submit their writing to his literary magazine biweekly for publishing.

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Service/Professional Activities
In the summers of 2018 and 2019 I worked with the 2020 conference, which gives teenagers the opportunity to learn about and create solutions to social justice issues with local organizers and educators. I have also taught during my school’s summer bridge or summer credit recovery every summer since I was a student teacher. Summer bridge’s vision is to promote equity by primarily recruiting students who are not on track to graduate, introducing them to the pacing of high school, concepts they will need to know, and building community amongst them so they feel a sense of confidence going into the school year. 

During the school year, I have worked outside my role as a teacher in several ways as well. One has been as the faculty advisor for the Black Student Union on campus. This role allows me to uplift students who have been told repeatedly that they do not belong and cannot succeed in academic spaces. I help them make space for themselves to belong in a historically unwelcoming environment so they can find success. Additionally, I have worked on the school’s hiring committee. It is important to me that people of color have a variety of opportunities and not just lower level service jobs, so I made it my primary goal to diversify the racial and ethnic demographics of the faculty on campus to be reflective of the student body. Finally, I have worked on the instructional leadership team at my site through which I presented staff-wide professional development on one of our school’s critical learner needs: “Black and Brown students feel loved, valued, invested in, and listened to.” I created space for critical self-reflection amongst my colleagues where they were asked to look at their own practice and bias to determine how to serve a diversity of students, not just the historically successful ones.

Since becoming a teacher, I have also attended continuing education opportunities. One of note is my certification in basic restorative practices (namely, preventing, de-escalating, and repairing harm).