Past: 

I was born and raised in the San Luis Valley; this is where I now feel the most at home. My father came from a very impoverished, southern background. He was a high-school drop-out who earned his GED in the Army. My mom was raised on a local farm in an upper-middle-class family and had obtained her Elementary Education degree before marrying my dad.

 

When I was born, my family was in situational poverty. My mom had decided to stay home to care for my older brother and me while my dad worked long hours at local lumber yards making minimum wage. At the age of 5, my dad had had enough of working so hard and barely getting by. So he took his knowledge of construction along with his employee discount on building materials. We started buying abandoned houses in Alamosa, remodeling them, and renting them to other low-income families. He still worked his minimum wage job during the day, but often we worked remodeling a house until late into the night. It took a few years, but this business slowly brought my family into a middle-class lifestyle out of poverty. By the time I graduated high school, my parents owned ten rental houses, and we finally had a comfortable living to show for all of our hard work.  

 

When I graduated from Sangre de Cristo High School in Mosca, this valley was the last place I wanted to be. So I pursued my dream of living in San Diego, and to appease my mom, I attended a Christian college there. However, once I got there, I realized just how expensive it was to attend private, out-of-state school and how little I knew about what I wanted to do with my life. So, after completing my first year, I quit school but stayed in San Diego and took a full-time job as a receptionist. I worked there for about a year. During that time, I realized that I would likely end up stuck in similar dead-end jobs without an education. Further, I learned that I didn't love the city as much as I had once thought. 

 

Humbly, I came back to Adams State and completed a bachelor's degree in Business with an emphasis in Small Business Management and minors in Marketing and Management. I chose this degree because I had started managing my family's rental houses and had become a partner in the furniture and appliance store my parents had recently bought. Shortly after graduating with my degree, I met and married my amazing husband, who owns a farm with his parents; he struggles with dyslexia but is the smartest person I have ever met. I quickly learned how stressful managing employees could be, especially young adults who were not taught work ethic. It was also stressful running businesses with family. In response, I resigned from the family business and took a bookkeeper position at a local bank. In this new position, I quickly recognized that not only had many young people had also not been much about handling money.

 

It was then that I began to appreciate how much my dad had taught me about hard work and sacrifice and how much my mom taught me about handling money wisely. As I reflected, I realized that just knowing how to work hard to make money and knowing how to manage it is foundational to a successful life! These two factors are how my family had risen out of poverty. Regardless of one's level of education, anyone can prosper with just these two knowledge bases. Further, it saddened me to see so many young people unknowingly make choices that were drastically hurting themselves with consequences that sometimes would last a lifetime. So, I decided to be part of the solution and become a business teacher. 

​

To accomplish my new goal, I returned to Adams State and obtained a Master's in Secondary Education with an emphasis on Business Education. I was lucky to receive a full-ride scholarship for this degree as I was still paying for my undergraduate degree. After graduating, I went to work at a local school district with a high poverty rate. At first, this job was challenging as I thoroughly enjoyed helping underserved students. However, their poverty was not like the one I had experienced. After some investigation, I learned that their form of poverty was largely generational. To better equip myself to help my students, I began to research the causes of poverty and how best to help people escape its torturous grip. I learned that much of generational poverty is rooted in poor education. I could empathize with this, having walked beside my husband in his experiences with dyslexia. I applied all I learned to help my students with their unique challenges in hopes that my efforts would help them achieve great success. For many, it did make a difference. 

 

In this, I had found my true passion in life: helping others achieve success! However, teaching is a very demanding job, and after seven years, I found that I was becoming burned out and missing key moments in our young sons' lives. Every year the students seemed a little more behind academically, and every year I felt I had to work even harder to gain their buy-in; increasingly, I was finding that many simply did not want out of poverty. Many parents did not think education was valuable, so their students didn't either. Even worse, I found that the new administration I was teaching under preferred to offer the students excuses and shortcuts and increasingly did not appreciate my teaching business skills: they were against capitalism. 

 

So, I started my doctorate in Organizational Leadership and Development as a way of keeping myself learning and growing. This led to the opportunity for me to teach here at Adams State. At first, I was reluctant and nervous about teaching again, but I soon found that I loved working with the students. Most of them appreciated the work that I put into the classes even more; I am surrounded by people who also have a passion for student success. 

​

Present: 

I have taught at Adams State since the Fall of 2016. I  have learned so much during this time, mostly from my students. My favorite part of living in San Diego was the diversity surrounding me. While there, I established friendships with people from every continent of the world and many areas of the United States. By connecting with these friends, I found they gave me a deeper perspective on life; their unique stories supported, challenged, and inspired me. I have found that same experience at Adams State; it offers me everything I love. I get to live near my family, work with a diverse population, and help others achieve success! 

​

In 2021, I began serving as the university's High-Impact Practices (HIPs) Coordinator. However, I still choose to teach at least one class because I love connecting with the students. I also love my new role as HIPs Coordinator because I get to you my expertise in organizational leadership and development to help all of our students achieve greater levels of success, not just the ones in my classes. Additionally, this role also allows me to give back to ASU and meet an even greater number of amazing people. 

​

Future:

In the next three to five years, I want to continue in my current capacity in administration here at Adams State. I  am learning a lot about collaboration and leadership in this role, and I love being able to help students on a larger scale. During this time, my husband and I will finish raising our two boys (our youngest will graduate from high school in 2030.) We hope that, by then, our oldest will be ready to come back and help manage our farm. 

 

After that, I would like to pursue a career in politics. I am passionate for America to truly becomes united in a way that it has never been united before. I don't know what level of office I will pursue first: county, state, or federal. Ultimately I would like to represent Colorado in Washington DC and help lead this nation into a reality where all persons, regardless of background, race, or creed, can be equitably respected and represented in our country. I know we can do better, and I feel the time is coming to pursue this possibility.  

​

Pictures of my life:

Below are pictures of things that make me happy. The first is of my family and me on our farm a few years back; to the right is of our dog, Domino, who loves to see and be a part of what is happening on the farm; next is one of my sons and I riding our horses at the Sand Dunes; following is of my husband and I when we were both firefighters, burning an abandoned house in our county; the next is a rock stack that we found at the beach in San Diego; after that is a picture of our two sons at Toon Town in Disney Land; the following pictures is of my husband and I getting on a ride at Legoland.