 |
| · · · · · · · · · |
|
Pomona College Magazine is published three times a year by Pomona College
550 N. College Ave, Claremont, CA 91711
Online Editor: Mark Kendall
For editorial matters:
Editor: Mark Wood
Phone: (909) 621-8158
Fax: (909) 621-8203
PCM Editorial Guidelines
Contact Alumni Records for changes of address, class notes, or notice
of births or deaths.
Phone: (909) 621-8635
Fax: (909) 621-8535
Email: alumni@pomona.edu
|
|
| · · · · · · · · · |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Middle-school miracles
Science teacher Enriqueta Ramirez ’00 just pulled off another
middle-school miracle.
She gave squirt bottles full of water to 30 eighth-graders so they could
clean their lab equipment, and not a single student dared to spray
another student. They knew Ramirez wouldn’t put up with it.
Ramirez sets high expectations from day one. She’s not shy about blowing
her keychain whistle to get students’ attention. “I hardly crack a smile
until October,” she says. But once she has students’ respect, there’s
plenty of fun. Some days she’s egging kids on to throw paper airplanes,
with an academic purpose. She has them pose questions about an
experiment on the folded-up paper, and whoever picks it up has to
answer.
 It’s just one of many creative methods she uses to spark students’
excitement about science at a middle school in a low-income neighborhood
of Pomona. “They never do the same thing every day,” says Ramirez.
Ramirez’ commitment to quality teaching in a challenging environment
made her a natural choice for Pomona College’s 2005 Inspirational Young
Alumni Award.
Ramirez once was a teen-aged mom surviving on minimum-wage work and
welfare. Today, she is a one-woman magnet school, drawing students into
science with a mix of high expectations and fun. She maintains her
classroom commitments despite a hectic home life, raising four kids as a
single mom.
She loves teaching science because it’s such a hands-on subject.
Constantly on her feet, she moves from student to student to monitor
their work. “She always checks that we get it,” says student Tlaoli
Garcia.
Her personal dress code epitomizes her approach, her ever-present white
lab coat announcing how serious she is about science. “I’m a nerd and I
don’t care,” says Ramirez.
But you’ll also notice big, funky earrings dangling from her lobes.
She’s the kind of teacher who thinks nothing of handing her cell phone
to students helping her after school and telling them to order a pizza.
Sharing the background and culture of most of her students helps. She
speaks to them in “Spanglish” and they tell her she reminds them of
their mother. Some face big problems at home, and she hears more than
her share of heartbreaking stories.
“I have a soft spot for people who suffer,” says Ramirez. “I’ve been
there, done that.”
Growing up in Ontario as the oldest of four siblings, Ramirez always
loved school. “It was the highlight of the day for me,’’ she says. “I
just never gave up on that.”
But the teen years brought trouble. She wound up out on her own, a young
mother struggling to survive. Still, she stayed in school and even took
Advanced Placement classes, earning her high school diploma in 1991. She
worked minimum wage jobs and collected welfare, living on rice and
beans.
The turning point came at a truck stop in Ontario where she worked as a
cashier. Usually, the lonely truckers talked her ear off. Then Ramirez
met one who did some listening. “You’re too smart to be working here,”
he told her. “You need to go to school.”
Those words stuck with her. In time, she enrolled in community college,
where her instructors quickly saw her potential. One encouraged her to
join a summer program at Pomona College, where she worked with Biology
Professor Karen Parfitt, and soon she was enrolled at Pomona full-time.
She credits Pomona with instilling in her a commitment to excellence.
“I’m rigorous with the kids,” she says. “I have high expectations. That
comes from Pomona.”
Her Pomona years weren’t easy. Going to college while raising kids was
so stressful she would break out in hives, and she didn’t have time for
the extracurricular activities typical of Pomona students. “My friends
were the custodians and the teachers, but not the students, because I
didn’t have anything in common with them,” she says.
After earning her biology degree, Ramirez planned to become a doctor,
but she needed money for her family. She decided to go into teaching
with an emergency credential.
She visited Pomona Unified School District to drop off an
application—and wound up interviewing on the spot. Asked where she
wanted to teach, she decided on middle school, telling them to send her
to the school that needed the most help. They sent her to John Marshall
Middle School.
Her first year was “terrible.” After enduring a series of substitute
teachers, the students were bouncing off the walls. Her teaching
style—mostly college-style lectures —didn’t help. “I learned really
quickly you don’t teach middle school that way,” she says.
So she decided to go back to school, attending Claremont Graduate
University for her teaching credential and master’s degree in education.
That training plus more experience transformed her teaching style. Now
she heads the science department at Marshall and was chosen as the
school’s Teacher of the Year in 2003.
Students like her so much that the threat of getting removed from her
class has become a powerful disciplinary tool. Nobody wants to miss out.
“She makes learning fun,” says student David Gonzalez.
—Mark Kendall
|
|
|
|
