A Caterpillar and a Butterfly
AVID Center Wednesday, January 28, 2015 at 8:20AM By Bill Madigan, AVID Staff Developer
AVID grad, Raquel Nunez
“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” -C. S. Lewis
Raquel was struggling with her college application personal statement for Pitzer College at Claremont. No wonder—the prompt was, “Describe an animal with which you share characteristics and show how that animal would benefit Pitzer College.” This was the 1994 application prompt probably devised by some wizened hippie. Well, Raquel had a start at least with the theme of a caterpillar and butterfly, but her essay lacked message or significant personal revelation. So I asked, “What is the most shameful or painful experience you have faced?” Raquel frowned for just a moment; then her eyes grew wide and troubled, “I know what to write, now.” She returned to her desk and started to write furiously.
She dropped her rough draft in my hands as she left class. I immediately read the piece, and I’m sure my eyes widened and looked worried just as Raquel’s had. She wrote about being jumped out of a gang. She told of her mother driving her to the parking lot of a school on a Sunday where Raquel got out of the car, was surrounded by six girls, and beaten. Based on the “code” of this event, her mother could do nothing but witness the savagery. She told of how she got back in the car with blood streaming from her mouth and a patch of hair missing near her temple. Raquel related that her mother kept her tear-stained eyes looking forward out the windshield as they drove home.
Her essay described the event without sentiment but with edgy detail. That year AVID awarded Raquel’s essay high honors and Mary Catherine Swanson chose to have Raquel and some peers act out the “jumping” scene at the Summer Institute in San Diego. I remember feeling so proud that Raquel was on that stage getting the appreciation and regard. Especially since I’m sure she never imagined her painful personal history would be displayed and honored. Well, little did I know that her trajectory would continue to arch ever higher.
She was accepted to Pitzer College and went on to graduate and get her teaching credential. She only sought my assistance a few times throughout her college experience. She had a few doubtful moments in her first few semesters, partly because she felt so out of place. She was used to her high school, Mount Miguel, which was and still is a very culturally diverse school. Pitzer was not so diverse then. AVID had done its job; Raquel was an underrepresented student in a great school. Well before AVID’s Higher Ed initiative, a few encouraging emails from me was all she had to keep her head up. I’m certain most of us in AVID underestimate the complex challenge of remaining in college when we don’t recognize ourselves in the student body. With the same toughness that she showed years before in her gang beating, she made it through. The key here is that the emotional, cultural, and social landscape of the college world is too often a wall too high to scale without caring, invested human beings holding vigil with you. The social/emotional need can’t be ignored, no matter what methods we’ve armed our college students with.
She taught elementary school for six years, focusing on her English Language Learners, especially. Then her passion to help the growing ELL population grew. Her work became specifically focused on ELL instruction when she joined San Diego Unified’s Office of Language Acquisition. In 2007, she became a certified Systematic ELD trainer to help the district reach its goal of training teachers at all 180 elementary schools. In 2008, she left San Diego to work for Mayor Villaraigosa’s Partnership for Los Angeles Schools (PLAS) as a member of the instructional team providing professional learning for K-12 literacy coaches. Last year she obtained her doctorate degree from Claremont McKenna in EL learner best practices (her dissertation is available online).
Dr. Raquel Nunez is an AVID success story of the highest order, and for me she is a blessing and inspiration. She is indeed a pupil that can teach the master many things, and I am very fortunate to have lived this maxim. As C.S. Lewis states, educators irrigate and create the environment for growth and fulfillment. I gave Raquel water when she was an AVID student of mine for three years. She, in turn, brings a river of water to thousands of students who will grow and be able to take part in our democracy. Knowing her story and watching her become herself has been one of the highest honors and rewards of being an educator I have ever experienced. Thanks, Raquel!
Bill Madigan has been an educator for more than 25 years. He has taught emotionally disturbed and at-risk students, as well as Advanced Placement® learners. He has also been an AVID coordinator and Elective teacher for almost 20 years. Bill has also been a Staff Developer both privately and with AVID, teaching brain-based learning, as well as English language learner best practices.
Want to read more great blogs from Bill? You can start here!
What Are We Doing When We Think?
Motivating Students: Could Pride Be the Best Incentive?
What About Latinas?
Invisible Curriculum
Mindfulness in Education
For more on AVID, visit http://avid.org/what-is-avid.ashx.
Reader Comments (4)
William Charles Madigan has inspired so many of his students and staff developers. Great story of grit and performance to scale the wall of Higher Education. Interestingly, Raquel has shown that AVID teachers like Bill never lose their class.
Hello my name is Jacob Padilla and I'm a concerned AVID student I need to explain, this to at least the people in this blog, AVID as a class isn't adapting as it should be. I see this all the time in my class in Tulare were we don't use the technology as we should, this could hurt the future of the students in my class none the less the students in the whole AVID program. The reason for this argument is that we could start using a similar program guidance such as a pre engineering class I'm also in. This class allows us to grow with a common goal of preparing use for college by giving us a education in our desired career path. Bit this is not the thing I want to bring up its the fact on how we learn and take notes, which is by using a price of technology that is connected to a world wide could of storage that can store our notes. This in turn means that student can then find what they need help on through past notes or have full conversations with other classes to find a common answer. And as a concered student I want AVID to change to a new age of achieving college dreams
Hi Jacob,
Thank you for your message about technology in the classroom! AVID sees the same need for more technology use that you express here. Please understand that we work with more than 5,000 schools around the world, and each school is working at different levels of technology usage. We have an entire team of people, called our Interaction Design team, working on this issue, so we can provide best practices and opportunities for schools to make better use of technology in the AVID Elective classroom. You can learn more about this in our recent Year In Review article, linked below, (page 18).
http://avid.org/_documents/2014%20Year%20in%20Review_web.pdf
For more on our thoughts about technology and education, you can see a blog from a member of our Curriculum team here: A 21st Century Troglodyte, http://avidcollegeready.org/college-career-readiness/2013/9/13/a-21st-century-troglodyte.html
Please know that we are working as quickly as we can to provide the absolute best resources to AVID school sites who utilize technology, so that they can then use that technology in the AVID Elective classroom! AVID Center does not have a say in what kind of technology is used at individual AVID school sites - that is up to the school and district staff, but for those interested in using more technology, we are working hard to be able to provide resources that make all kinds of technology successful in the AVID Elective class!
If you have any other questions, you can speak with your AVID Elective teacher, or email us at info@avid.org.
Thanks for reading our blog and for your comment!
How funny! I went to Pitzer and the Claremont Graduate School at the same time and as I was reading your story I thought, "I knew a Raquel that went to college with me, how funny." And then I looked at the picture and it's the Raquel that I knew!! Glad to hear she is doing so well and I look forward to sharing this article with my AVID kids!! :)