Her Story
About Monique
I have been in education for 7 years now, and my current title is ESL Specialist, where I help students whose first language is not English, supporting them linguistically and academically. I've been in this role for just a year now. I started off as a 4th grade teacher in Providence, Rhode Island for 5 years, and then I moved to Connecticut, which led me to be a 3rd grade teacher in New London, Connecticut. What really led me to this current position was my experience as a student myself, growing up in a predominantly Italian town. I'm biracial, and so not having someone that looked like me, that representative example in the school system really stuck with me, and I wanted to kind of give back in that sense. That's what really led me into the education world in general. My main area of expertise is family partnership between the school and families, specifically multilingual families. I received my doctorate at Northeastern, and my dissertation focused on family engagement and how schools can really support families and their children's learning journey. Day to day, I teach kindergarten through 8th grade. I start my day at the middle school supporting 5 students where we work on building their vocabulary, and then the rest of the day is spent at an elementary school where I service about 30 students, again building their vocabulary and helping them linguistically. Beyond that, it's constant collaboration with teachers and administrators on how to better support our students, in addition to collaborating with the ML coordinator of the district and the superintendent, thinking about new ways of supporting students and what best strategies to implement now and for future years. The most rewarding part is definitely the students and seeing them coming in with no English vocabulary at all, and then just seeing them on their own at lunch or recess, interacting with their peers and talking to them, and bringing in their own culture within the classroom. I also really enjoy learning and observing what all the teachers are doing in their classrooms and seeing the hard work that they put into all their students.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Monique
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say to constantly remind yourself why you went into this field in the first place. It can be a very daunting job where you don't feel like you have enough time in the day, you don't feel supported all the time, or sometimes you feel that what you're doing is not good enough. But reminding yourself why you got in this position in the first place, and also being kind to yourself in general, whether it's career-related or not. You're doing your best. The students appreciate you, even though sometimes it may not feel like it, they do. And you are making a difference in at least one student's life.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think the most challenging would be just not having enough time, and what I mean by that is I service about 30 students in 2 different schools, and so I think I could definitely work with each one more. But not enough funding, not enough resources contributes to not having the one-on-one time that I would hope for to help them. And so that would probably be the most challenging aspect, is just having enough time within my schedule.
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