Danielle Delgado

I would say a lot of my success is being surrounded by really great educators, really strong educators. Having a very supportive family, because being in education is a service, so with any service comes sacrifice, and they definitely sacrifice their time with me. And a lot of my energy is spent by the end of the day, so them being supportive is a big one. But then, also, my drive. I don't take it lightly that I am taking care of and supporting other people's children, and that's their most precious gift, so I make sure that I show up and show out every single day and give it my all.

Make sure that you take care of yourself first. Because, whatever it is that you're working on, whoever it is that you're taking care of, they're only going to be as good as you are. So, making sure that self-care and prioritizing yourself, knowing that that's not selfish, that that's something that you have to do in order to be able to give your best to whatever it is that you're working on. It took me a long time to learn that.

I learned a lot of lessons this past weekend at the Remarkable Woman conference. Coming into the industry, I would say, be humble enough to receive feedback, but sure enough of yourself to know when it's okay to make decisions on your own and stand up for something that you believe in, or that you know is right.

I would say challenges would be some of the barriers that we're currently facing in education, which can range from anything - if ICE happens to be in the air, then that decreases student attendance, because families are no longer feeling safe to send their kids to school. When the EBT cards or food stamps were frozen for a while, that impacts our families as well. So there's a lot of circumstances that do not have to do with the school itself, but affect the community. When they affect the community, it gets brought into the school as well. So I work really hard on making sure that no matter what is happening outside of this building, whether for staff or for students, when they come here, it's a safe learning environment for them. It feels like home, it feels like family. I really spend a lot of my attention to building that sense of community. I can't do anything about what happens outside of here, but I certainly can help what happens here.

I would say making sure that I spread love and care as much as I expect to receive it. And then, with that comes honesty. Sometimes that leads to difficult conversations, but that's how everyone learns and grows, and relationships form and build. But yeah, I would say love and care.