Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/389203
12 Special Election Edition 2014 x AEA Advocate Vanessa Jimenez has been working in public schools for nearly 20 years and is a passionate advocate for children and public schools. She's worked in a variety of roles, including security officer, instructional aide, office assistant, dropout prevention advocate, administrative specialist, ELL tester and parent liaison, and community liaison. "I've done everything but custodian on five different campuses since my first day in 1995," says Jimenez. She did not begin her journey in public schools, but has found her calling in the Phoenix Union High School District. Jimenez' first job out of school was in the correctional department of the juvenile justice department, where she would see children like those from the neighborhood she grew up in. "I grew up with a private school education, but I lived in an inner city Phoenix neighborhood," says Jimenez. "So, every day I was bussed to my school, but my home and the kids I grew up with were in a low-income community. I started working in public education because I wanted to work with these kids before they got into trouble and reached this point in the system." Jimenez is the Membership Chair and serves on the Executive Board of the Phoenix Union High School Classified Education Association. She is currently a registrar at South Mountain High School in Phoenix after a three-year stint as a curriculum evaluation technician at the Phoenix Union District Office. "I missed working with the students and I'm glad to be back on a campus." Jimenez loves the variety of different work and learning new skills, but says her favorite job is working with the district's refugee migrant summer program. "The refugee program helps build culture; those kids bring so much for our schools and community," says Jimenez. "I've learned many lessons from our refugee students. They have taught me humility, appreciation, and about how wasteful we are and about the things we take for granted." Phoenix Union High School District provides a summer program for its incoming refugee students to acclimate them to American and Arizona culture and the English language before the start of the school year. Jimenez started the program in 2007 with her colleagues Dennis Ronan, ELL Department Chair at Central High School, and Dr. Michelle Delgado, Assistant Principal at Carl Hayden Community School. The program is funded by a federal grant through the Department of Economic Security. Jimenez, Ronan, and Delgado saw a need to give incoming refugee students the best start they could to the new school year, so they coordinated with different agencies to create a summer camp that would teach English to the students who come from countries all over the world. This year the program has about 45 students from Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Guatemala, Honduras, Iraq, and Nepal. Arizona is an ideal location for many of these children because of the similar climates. In addition to language instruction, the students are taken on field trips to the zoo and museums to learn about Arizona culture and to practice their English. They also visit the Arizona Capitol to learn about Arizona history and government. Representative Lupe Contreras of Legislative District 19 and AEA Lobbyist Jennifer Loredo visited the students at Central High School to welcome them to Arizona and answer any questions they had about the Arizona Legislature. Representative Contreras shared a story about his own father coming to the United States from Mexico at the age of 12 and provided encouragement to the kids. "My family has done the same thing your family has done and it is a beautiful thing to learn multiple languages. I want to encourage you to embrace the language of this country, but also never forget your own language from your home country. Hold that closely to your heart and hopefully you will teach that to your own children and keep that culture going. I know it's difficult being in a different culture Educating All Students ESP Action Be sure to check out these other stories for more opportunities to get involved and take action. 21 2014 General Election Recommendations 47 National ESP Day 48 What's Being Said About Education Support Professionals esProfessional