One of the cool things I think that sometimes folks don't know about me is that I love to go to flea markets and hang out in their shop. I think that's kind of just cool to like look at old things that have represented this entire other historical time. I- from a really young age my parents made the decision to send me to Catholic school. My parents were immigrants to the country, they come from Mexico, and obviously we-just like most people in the immigrant experience, didn't have a lot of resources but sending me to Catholic school is a really specific decision on there and to try to give me the opportunities that they think- that they at the moment thought were the best. What that ended up happening though is that it gave me a really big tool perspective at a very young age as to what educational opportunity could look like.

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So I attended Catholic schools from first grade all the way into high school. My cousins who lived all over, mostly South Central and sort of the southern region of Los Angeles, I knew what my schooling looked like and then I knew what my cousin's schooling looked like. And I knew by the time I was in high school that there was- inequity existed. I couldn't name it at the time, I didn't know what that really meant, but I also understood that it was having deep impact on my family members, that their future at that point would most likely look very different than mine.

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What I find really concerning around some educational environments is that students in particular who are experiencing perhaps schooling opportunities that are limited, less in resources, the pedagogy isn't on point, you know like the the quality of instruction isn't really engaging- they come away with this impression that this is as good as school gets, this is as good as schooling and this whole educational project is. And I know that that isn't but I don't know if a lot of our students out there really know that. One of the classes that I designed is called, "Building Culturally Responsive Catholic Schools" and for the primary or the impetus for that course really was because I was doing research in Catholic High Schools where I would talk to students, mostly young men of color in particular, and what I found is oftentimes that sort of the missing factor is we don't want listen to student voice. We don't listen to kids when they're telling us the truth that, you know this is great this philosophy or this these Catholic social teaching principles are really great that you are teaching me but they don't mean anything to me if I can't apply them to my real life. And so in buil- in developing the course, "Building Culturally Responsive Catholic Schools" we really sort of start from the vantage point of like let's figure out where kids are primarily now and really let's think about the way that the curriculum can really be more meaningful for them and their daily life and their experiences. And so for at least for that class, we oftentimes really think about the socio and the political and economic realities of our students and really think about how do we bring that into the classroom, that should really be our starting point and then we can kind of overlay the principles around Catholic education that we think are important and sort of see how that can fit into that but but that doesn't work unless you're really engaged with kids and their own experiences and they're sharing sort of what they're going through.

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One of the best parts about working with specifically in the School of Education and USF is I would say is really rooted in the USF and the school of that sort of mission and philosophy. It's a Catholic Jesuit institution and so because of the principles around just sort of Ignatian pedagogy and Catholic social teaching, I find myself situated in a place where the mission that I subscribe to is also reflected in schools. Most of us here as professors are encouraged to work within communities, to not just sort of sit here at the ivory tower and sort of just teach our classes and then go home. I think that when universities make a commitment to really work in society and in communities I think that's a really powerful statement. Here at USF that's that's been encouraged at the beginning and it makes me super sort of- I've been really just sort of pleased with it with that approach to talk to the professorial work.

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