Milary's Educational Journey Map

My educational journey map begins at the elementary school level. My elementary school made an imprint of who I am today. I attended the Garden City Elementary School, where the population of the teachers and students were white. I believe that one or two students, including myself, were part of the minority percentage. Throughout my elementary education, I was silenced by my educators from using my first language. I repeated the first grade because my English did not meet their expectations. Due to being held back, I was bullied for being the oldest in the classroom and physically not fitting in with the rest of the female classmates. This led me to sign up for cheerleading to build self-confidence and create new friendships.

Throughout Kindergarten and fifth grade, I was pulled out of class for extra English reading and math support. I was constantly being tested on my reading skills and my English-speaking abilities my parents would come in for meetings about how I needed to work on my English at home and my parents needed to learn English. This resulted in my parents hiring a tutor after school where I would practice my language and work on homework. 

Moving forward to the middle school years, my English was up to par for the Cranston Public education. I was put into regular education classrooms and was not being tested. I used less of my first language and more of my second language. I began to hide my identity and began to feel ashamed of being Latina and Dominican. However, in my classes, I was the teacher's pet. I always organized the classroom and followed the rules. I became more vocal in asking for help on assignments. I stayed after school for extra support. I was molded into a great student and graduated middle school with honors and academic awards.

During my middle school years, I was the captain of the cheerleading team and participated in All-star competitive cheerleading. Outside of school, I engaged in Latin folklore dance for Quisqueya in Action. These were the years I began to deal with my identity crisis. 

During my high school years, my passion for education began to spark. I was not a full A and B student, I struggled at the beginning of my high school years. I failed physics twice, was accused of plagiarism, and was put into low-reading-level classes. The upside of my high school journey was that I joined the  Career and Technical Program Child Development.  This program allowed me to work with preschool students, create lesson plans, and intern at a preschool center. My interest in having a teaching career blossomed. 

I participated in beauty pageants at, the Hispanic United Development Organization (HUDO). I received the title of Princess HUDO, which opened the doors to new opportunities. One of the opportunities was community service in the city of Providence. I taught the youth of HUDO Latin dance and modeling. I volunteered for community events and participated in fundraisers one of my biggest accomplishments while being Princess HUDO was creating a lot and a dance program for an afterschool program known as Providence After School Alliance (PASA) at two middle schools Roger Williams and Gilbert Stuart. I competed in another pageant, Miss Dominican Republic of Rhode Island. During my duties I worked a lot with the youth, I taught Latin dance, donated toys, clothing drives, and hosted special events. This was the moment where I realized I wanted more than just sit in a classroom but my passion was teaching.

My senior year, I graduated with a GPA of 2.5. I did not have a great support system during my college advising, my guidance counselor did not help me with applying to college. She believed that I did not have the grades and confidence to apply to college. I was fortunate enough to have my bestfriend help me with the process. I applied to Rhode Island College two weeks before graduating high school and received my acceptance letter. 

Everything was going great not until 2016 through 2017 everything turned cloudy. I lost my job, my car, dropped out of college, my mom ended up loosing her vision and was battling depression, on top of it all my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimers. I honestly realized that I can’t just stay still I need to move forward. So, 2018 I believe a lot happened within that year. Positive things were happening, I decided to take a class to become a teacher assistant, applied for a teacher assistant position in the Providence Public School Department. Started paying back school and got my life back on track. In the spring of 2018 my friend invited me to her YDev pinning ceremony. I heard these amazing speeches and how the program changed their lives. The next day I emailed Corinne.

After graduating with my Bachelors degree, I wanted to continue to grow. I graduated with the Rose Butler Browne Award and a scholarship. I decided to use that money to put it towards getting my immigration law certificate and my career coach certificate. I then expanded to applying to College Leadership of Rhode Island, where I graduated with leadership skills and networking opportunities. After my graduation, I decided to apply for my master's in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at  Rhode Island College. I also applied for a Graduate assistantship, Allied. While being in the program I began to lose my passion of youth work. I knew I wanted to work with students who were underrepresented in the school system, I also wanted to advocate for bilingual students. As time went on while I was in the program, I knew this was not for me. After I graduated with this, I applied for the development masters in this program I hope to find my why again.