August 2023 • Issue 70 • California Association for Bilingual Education | |
What's new in Sacramento that impacts education? Find out here... | |
CABE Legislative Advocate Report
by Jennifer Baker
- CABE/Californians Together 2023 Co-Sponsored Legislation
- CABE-Supported Legislation
- Economic Outlook
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DL and ELD Teachers! Join us starting in September... | |
Deadline for magazine ads is September 7th... | |
Fresh off the press from CABE, MCAP, and SDSU!—University Seal of Biliteracy and Cultural Competence Handbook... | |
Meet Marissa Lazo-Necco... | |
Marissa Lazo-Necco was born in San Miguel, El Salvador, where she lived with her parents and her older brother and sister. They moved to live on the coast in Santa Tecla when she was eight years old. Their family was close-knit and deeply involved in Church, with faith as the pillar of their home. When she was eleven, their town came under direct attack for a week during the war. She remembers the electricity going out frequently and her family gathering around candles during the night to sing trios y rancheras. Marissa and her brother immigrated with political asylum to the US to live with their aunt in Covina. Her parents and sister were unable to join them until a year later.
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| | Her brother attended high school, and Marissa went to middle school alone as a seventh grader. She remembers, "As the only English learner in a school with no EL program, I was placed in regular classes taught in English. It was confusing, overwhelming, and frightening as I didn't understand the language or the culture. I prayed every day to feel safe. I was a diligent student and good at memorizing, so I spent my school hours coloring, doing math calculations (but not word problems), and memorizing spelling and vocabulary words, even though I had no idea what they meant or how to use them in speaking or reading. The teachers had no idea what to do with me or how to help." Today, she understands that she was a child of trauma, coming from war, staying with an aunt she loved but barely knew, and longing to be with the rest of her family. She remembers feeling afraid every day for her family back in El Salvador. When her parents and sister finally arrived, the family moved into her aunt's garage for a year. Marissa remembers this as the best year ever—she was finally reunited with her family and felt safe again!
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| | The high school had an EL program, and in ninth grade, she was placed in an ESL class with 20 other kids, many of whom spoke Spanish, too. She later quit ESL class so that she could play basketball and join the choir. Her English teacher/basketball coach encouraged her to take her honors English class, but her counselor denied her request, saying that she was destined to work in a minimum-wage job and didn't need advanced courses. Her parents, an accountant, and a teacher, highly valued education and encouraged her to ask again. This time her best friend went with her to advocate, insisting, "Her Dad wants her to go to college, and she needs this class!" The counselor relented, and this planted in Marissa the idea that college was an option for her and something she wanted to pursue. However, when she later asked her father if she could apply to college like her friend was doing, she learned that her US residency papers had still not come through and, therefore, she was not eligible for financial aid.
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By this time, her family had moved to Victorville, where they bought their first home. During college, she worked full-time as a waitress, had to pay out-of-state tuition while waiting for her residency, and could only afford to take one course at a time. She realized that her "street" English was very limited, regretted her decision in high school to quit ESL, and enrolled in ESL classes in college. She enjoyed working in the community and majored in Psychology, but as soon she started her first child development course, she fell in love with working with kids and changed her major to education with plans to become a preschool teacher. Her professor was the director of a preschool and invited her to work there during the summer as part of an ROP program. Marissa frequently thought about her best friend's advice, "No matter how hard it gets, you have to stay in college!" She was determined to get a college education, and though it was a tremendous struggle at times, she never gave up.
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| | When her parents became ill, they didn't have health insurance and were contemplating returning to El Salvador. To help her family, Marissa quit school and her job to take a higher-paying position as a front desk clerk for compensatory education in the Victor Valley Union High School District, where she assisted the assessment director with the CAHSEE exam and other testing programs and supported the EL director with CELDT testing. The district had very low parent attendance at the DELAC meetings, and Marissa was asked to call parents to personally invite them to the next meeting. She recalls, "My mom and I called every EL parent—all 80 of them! I spent 20-30 minutes with each parent on the phone, and my mom spoke with the families she called for a least an hour each. Many parents mentioned that it was the first time someone from the district had called them in their native language and answered their questions. I remembered how my parents impacted my education by always being there for me and being present at school. I think this is when I first realized the importance and impact of family engagement in schools." Sixty families showed up in a room with the capacity for ten people, and they had to move this "largest parent meeting ever" to the board room. Surprised with the positive turnout, her boss asked why so many people had come this time, she answered, "because they finally had someone they could talk to and felt welcome."
Afterward, Marissa was asked to lead family engagement in the district, and later, when a new position as an office assistant in charge of family engagement was created, she officially got the job. While leading this work in the district, Marissa became familiar with CABE's parent leadership programs and collaborated with a woman leader from the county office who was supporting the district. When she retired, Marissa interviewed for her job, becoming a Family and Community Engagement specialist at the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (SBCSS). When she learned that she would be working with CABE's Project 2Inspire grant, she couldn't believe her luck. "I was thrilled at the idea of working with CABE, an organization I had respected and admired for years—it was like a dream come true!"
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Meanwhile, Marissa continued to take college courses when she could. "It was a huge ongoing challenge to pursue my degree while trying to balance life, school, work, and, of course, by now, I had a family. My daughter Eliana was born, and four years later, my son Noah. I was now going to school as a working adult, but not giving up on my dream. Now I'm planning to begin a master’s program within the next year."
Marissa was inspired by a CABE leader to run for the board and has since completed six board member terms as the Director of Parent Relations, Director of Paraeducator Affairs, and now as the Director of Community Affairs. She continues serving CABE because "it is my calling to serve. I am honored to serve my family, my church, and our students and their families." Most recently, Marissa has supported schools and districts across the state with family and community engagement through her work with SBCSS and CABE, two of the four lead agencies of the Community Engagement Initiative.
In her free time, Marissa enjoys spending time with her husband, Aldo, who is the Coordinator of Production for Esports Engine, her daughter Eliana (14), who is starting high school, and her son Noah (10), who is starting 5th grade. They love going to the park for picnics, keeping singing as a family tradition, and playing with their two dogs, Chewy, a Shi-Chon, and Tux, a French Bulldog. Marissa says, "My journey has not been easy, but I love it! I love my accent because it reminds me of who I am, where I come from, and why I serve the community I serve. I have never regretted pausing my education to support my family. I told my daughter that I would do it all over again—for the love of family."
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Mark your calendar to join us in Anaheim... | |
Other items of interest to the CABE Community... | | | | |