My high school education was completed at Van Nuys High School in Van Nuys, CA. The school is a math/science magnet center which provides for enriched academic experiences in the sciences. I took honors and advanced placement chemistry, physics, math analysis, and calculus.
My first two years of undergraduate work were completed at U.C. San Diego before transferring to UCLA for my remaining two years of work towards a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies. I graduated in 1993.
My teaching career began in August of 1994 in downtown Los Angeles. Concurrently I participated in the Los Angeles Unified School Districtıs Intern Program which is a two year teacher credentialing program.
I have been a bilingual teacher in the 5th grade teaching full bilingual classes where most of my students are either low in English proficiency skills or are recent arrivals from Latin American countries who speak little or no English. I strive each year to improve their English skills enough to place them in a transitional English program or perhaps even to mainstream them into the English curriculum. This generally occurs with students who have been in this country for at least a few years.