Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1205100
27 | WEAnews Q&A With ESP Evangeline Trevino-Linton Eva Linton is an ELL Paraprofessional at Parkside and Southside Elementary in Powell, and one of only forty Education Support Professionals (ESP) across the nation to be accepted into the National Education Association ESP Leadership Institute (ESPLI). WEA had the chance to sit down with Eva, to ask her about her expectations and aspirations in advance of the institute. 1) What motivated you to apply for NEA's ESP Leadership Institute? I love being involved with Powell Education Association and WEA. I've learned so much and made a lot of friends. I believe in the power of common goals and action. Both of my dads, and my grandfather were members of their unions and I always remember the community and family it created. 2) What are you hoping to take away from the experience? Even though there are many ESP working with common goals in our state, we are so diverse and scattered. I'm hoping this experience will help me build a community for ESP in Powell and across Wyoming. We need our brother and sister bus drivers, who are the first faces that our kids see every day, to know how important they are. We need our custodians to feel that their needs are a priority. With a strong ESP base we can do it. We have to do it. 3) Why are ESPs so important to students' overall academic experience and achievement? ESP help with academics, but there is so much more to learning than curriculum. When our students are fed, in a clean and safe environment they let down all of their walls and grow as people as well as students. Classrooms couldn't run as smoothly without their paras. My own kids' kindergarten and first-grade paras are part of our family. They love my kids as much as I do. 4) Why are you a WEA member? I have had great experiences with the unions that my family was involved with in Michigan. I was a union kid, it only made sense that I would continue to be part of a union as an adult. I mean— organizing and hard work are in my blood. 5) What does your continued involvement in WEA/NEA mean to you? It means community. It means that when I have an issue, I have someone to talk to. It means that I have resources at the tips of my fingers. The people that I have met through WEA have become an important support group for me. 5) Anything else you'd like to add about the ESPLI? I'm nervous! I have so many thing I want to learn. I'm extremely excited for our first training, I've already met some of the other ESPs and I can't wait to pick their brains. Eva Trevino-Linton, second from the right, attending the New Educator Conference in Houston. 2019.