Crystal Urbina is a 2020 Teach for America (TFA) corps member teaching seventh grade English Language Arts at IDEA Mission.
What motivated you to apply to join Teach For America and choose to teach in the Rio Grande Valley?
After earning my degree at UTRGV, I found myself a bit lost for direction. Luckily, I found a job in production upstate where I would learn the real value of leadership, structure and humility. I started at one of the lowest level positions in a pepper production company, but by the end of my 2 1/2 years tenure I would hold a critical position in a multi-million dollar operation. In the beginning, the company required employees to work upwards of 19 hours a day. People who resembled my family worked from sunup to well past sundown making minimum wage in the hopes of providing for their families. I took pride in gaining foresight through my experience, but I could see every bit of progress made would go to benefit the bottom line and rarely, if ever, to those who worked relentlessly to the last-minute to create success. The lack of higher education and undocumentation status gave way to near unbearable working requirements. I could see I was swimming against the tide, time after time butting heads with management to remember the humans behind the labor. Weary from the daily barrage of maintaining a structure that cannot stand without the weight crushing all those underneath, I decided I could not continue to help hold this system up. No amount of management, mitigation, leadership training or pep talks from the COO and the CEO could keep me from ignoring my reality and my people’s reality. I resigned from my position and decided to work on my newly formed family and sought a slower paced job; however, I could not shake the responsibility of caring for my people and the need to bring change to an inequitable structure. An ad for Teach for America popped up in my Facebook feed one day not too long after my resignation and it offered an opportunity to make a difference in the life of children in low-income communities — including the very community from which myself and former employees had migrated from, my home, the RGV. The RGV has always been home, so naturally when I saw a great job opportunity here that would help me make a difference in the world, it became clear that Teach For America would be my next step. Teach For America strives to develop leaders who address systematic racism, inequity, and injustice in historically marginalized communities through the power of education. Thanks to Teach For America I’ve had the opportunity to teach students who will one day occupy leadership positions and change the world. What has been one of the most surprising things you’ve come to learn about education during your time as a classroom leader? The most surprising thing I’ve learned about education is that teaching is more than a job; leading a class is a privilege. However difficult it can be at times, every student who walks through my door carries with them the hope of a brighter future. It is my privilege to foster their best.
If you could change one thing for your students, what would it be?
If I could change one thing for my students it would be to do away with the need for lockdowns and hold drills. We all see the news and hear the stories and mourn the loss, but what most people fail to realize is that students and staff experience a gut-wrenching fear every time the school-wide intercom goes off outside its scheduled time, and that fear is even more heightened when announcing a hold or lockdown. Our sons and daughters all freeze, then react in a variety of ways: some laugh thinking it’s a joke, some stoically gaze at one another, some cry and some experience panic attacks then or after. All cram under my desk seeking comfort and protection. Terrified myself, I steady my voice to bring them some sense of serenity in the situation. If I could take away these scattered moments of psychological trauma, I would in a heartbeat.
What lessons are you learning now that will help you continue to work toward educational equity in the future?
Allow grace, not only for my students, but for myself too. I think everyone needs a little reminding that we are all students learning how to best navigate through life. We all learn at different paces, in different ways, and we are experiencing life in a variety of ways. This notion helps remind me that I know very little outside my own experience, and I need to be open to other experiences and perspectives to best serve my students’ needs. Can you share an anecdote or personal experience from your classroom or school? One of the most beautiful experiences I’ve had is watching our Pre-K students walking out throughout the school with the graduating class of seniors. As a school, we’ll pause our lessons to step out into the hall and cheer on our seniors and our littlest ones as they’re led throughout the school by our mighty mascot the Phoenix. We celebrate the seniors’ long and hard-fought achievements as they prepare to lead the world and inspire the next generation. In these moments there is no better representation of humanity at its finest, in hope for the future.
Teach for America (TFA) is the national nonprofit organization committed to the idea that one day, all children will attain an excellent education. To this end, the organization partners with communities to inspire the next generation of leaders to address unequal educational opportunities that fall along the lines of race and class. They begin this lifelong work with an initial two-year commitment to teach in some of the nation’s most underserved schools.
Here in the Rio Grande Valley, 61 corps members work in seven districts across the region.
