Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr. Health and Public Safety Academy
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Bilingual Mathematic Ever since I was in high school, I was very enthusiastic to learn mathematics because my teachers and college professors were the major influences who inspired me to love math and science. Moreover, I knew I had to take advantage of my math and science skills in a career setting. Therefore, I set myself to two career goals that interested me in my life to either become an industrial engineer because of my employment experience working in the logistics field at that time or a mathematics teacher because of my analytical and mathematical capabilities. I made the decision to transfer after graduating from Middlesex County College to the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) to continue a career with mathematics and majoring in the field of industrial engineering. At this great polytechnic university, it was a tough challenge to accomplish the achievement of earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering. However, after four years of hard work, dedication, patience and the help of college peers, alumni, professors, faculty, support from the EOP advisors and the SHPE Program who were truly extraordinary to help me, I completed the amazing dream of graduating from a top public research university in 2008. After working in transportation, distribution, supply chain, and logistics for about ten years, I decided to shift to the field of education. Therefore, I prepared and studied a lot for the praxis examination from the State of NJ and completed the requirements of the Alternate Route Program for teaching. As a result, I passed the praxis test and earned my teaching certification in mathematics and bilingual education. In 2010, I began my teaching career as a high school mathematics teacher where I realized that I love being a teacher. As a math educator in the field of bilingual education, my goal is to encourage students to learn fundamental math concepts that are important for state assessments, life, and college aspirations. As well as academic preparation, I maintain a well-balanced multicultural relationship of understanding with my students that includes respect, integrity, and affection. These values promote our school culture to create opportunities and fairness to engage with our diverse student population and our community. As once a college professor told me, “You need to know your students individually”, for instance; their needs, their culture, their potential capabilities, their weaknesses, their strengths, and overall communication with parents is key to create an engagement for our student’s academic success. This is my daily objective. Aside from the birth of my three children, there has been no greater reward than being a bilingual math teacher.
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School Psychologist The factors that influenced me to choose this profession are, first and foremost, the desire to help serve students with unique learning needs so they can progress alongside their peers and to help ensure families from diverse backgrounds have access to the appropriate, quality education they deserve from the public school system. Given that students from diverse backgrounds are highly susceptible to prejudice and bias across various systems, I wanted to ensure I can give as much as I can within my professional role to combat this unfortunate occurrence. Further, I decided to begin my career at Elizabeth because of the high level of support and care that is afforded to the families of the community in efforts to fight ongoing academic achievement gaps, and to increase the likelihood of overall success for the students. Lastly, a tremendous influence for why I choose my profession is to ensure that individuals from diverse backgrounds have access to quality mental health supports and to challenge the negative stigmas related to acquiring mental health support that can be prevalent across various ethnic and cultural communities. I am so proud to be a school psychologist, especially within the Elizabeth Public Schools. In my role as a child study team school psychologist, my job is to facilitate and collaborate with the IEP team to develop and implement specialized plans (IEP's) for students who qualify for special education. Further, another integral part of my role is to conduct psychological evaluations, including intelligence tests, for our identified students so there is better clarity regarding a student's aptitude and natural potential within the classroom setting. Additionally, a passion of mine within my role is providing teacher consultation as much as feasibly possible, so our educator's feel supported when instructing our students. Lastly, within my role as a CST school psychologist, I provide school-based counseling services for our identified students who require a higher level of socio-emotional support and/or skill building opportunity while in the school setting.
