by Marya Barlow
Each morning Dulce Lopez greets her eighth-grade students at the classroom door with a friendly handshake. The gesture clearly conveys Lopez鈥檚 enthusiasm for teaching science and serving as a role model for future generations.
In Anacapa Middle School鈥檚 dual-language science program, Lopez teaches three classes a day in Spanish and three in English. In her first year of teaching, she鈥檚 also helping develop and pilot the school鈥檚 Spanish-language science curriculum.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what really drew me to my position颅鈥攖o be able to teach science in my native language,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 want to be the science teacher I didn鈥檛 have. Going through my education, I never saw many people like myself represented in science. I want students in my classroom to know they can grow up to be anything.鈥�
A first-generation college student from Oxnard, Lopez enrolled at 海角社区CI in 2013 as an Environmental Science & Resource Management (ESRM) major and quickly 鈥渇ell in love鈥� with environmental science education.
鈥淲hat I loved about ESRM is how hands-on it was,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 had opportunities to do undergraduate research and service-learning projects on the Channel Islands, in New Orleans, and in Costa Rica. Those experiences really helped me set myself apart from others and stand out when interviewing.鈥�
While attending 海角社区CI full-time, Lopez seized opportunities to work, teach, and conduct research. Among them, she held jobs as a park ranger in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and was a student assistant and STEM educator in the 鈥淐rossing the Channel鈥� program, a federal grant-funded initiative providing classroom education, mentoring, and outdoor experiences on the Channel Islands for Oxnard middle and high school students.
鈥淢y students inspire me each day to be a better teacher,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 want to provide a lot of hands-on opportunities for them to learn science by experiencing it.鈥�
Lopez recently completed a summer research fellowship with the STEM Teacher and Researcher (STAR)
Program, where she worked on a large-scale ecological restoration project on the Channel Islands with scientists from the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.
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漏 Fall 2019 / Volume 24 / Number 2 / Biannual