Melissa Jimenez

My parents are Mexican immigrants who instilled hard work, love for community, and love of heritage in me. Growing up in Indio, California I saw so much opportunity to give back to my community and was inspired by the many excellent educators that I had in elementary, middle, and high school. The motivation for how to improve myself and how to enrich my vibrant community came to me in school; so I set off to become an exceptional teacher and learn how to best equip my community.

I have had the privilege of piloting ethnic studies at my site as well as World and US history where students have gone from thinking history is boring to it becoming their favorite class. This year, many prior students are graduating and asked me for letters of recommendation. So many have stated that in my class they were able to learn about how politics affect people which has led them to want to study political science, history, or even consider teaching history as a future career.

I would use some of it as a classroom snack budget, teenagers are always hungry and I try to provide snacks for them whenever I can. I would also want to invest in a color printer for class materials. I would also use some of this to pay off my student loans and some of my mortgage. Teachers can give more when we have less to worry about.