After graduation, I decided that I would “ find my roots”, it was the early 70’s after all, and I applied to college in my parents’ homeland, Puerto Rico. There, I received my B.S. in Secondary Education with a double major in English. Right after I graduated, I was hired as a high school English teacher, which I absolutely loved.
Working in a Catholic high school with many seasoned administrators, gave me the opportunity to expand my responsibilities. I became experienced in many roles throughout my fifteen-year career, there; everything from Middle States evaluator to Dean of Discipline to Dean of Students to College Counselor.
It was time to move on, and that brought my family to Costa Rica, where I was fortunate enough, to continue my career in teaching. I was hired at AIS as a consultant for their upcoming MSA evaluation and stayed on. There, we all had several hats, as in all small international schools. I became head of the English Department, member of the discipline committee and part-time college counselor.
After many years at AIS, I was offered a position as full-time college counselor at CDS which meant leaving the classroom. At first, I longed for teaching but, after close to eleven years, I have seen hundreds of students realize their dreams of attending institutions of higher learning all over the world, and still feel the excitement as their acceptances come in.
After forty years as an educator, in many different roles, I look back and never regret a day and always will be grateful that I found my vocation.