Interviews Archives - Page 8 of 11 - Buffalo Latíno Village

AN INTERVIEW WITH AN EDUCATOR: SAMANTHA DIDRICHSEN

Buffalo Latino Village / October 13, 2021

AN INTERVIEW WITH AN EDUCATOR: SAMANTHA DIDRICHSEN I had the privilege of meeting a former teacher/educator from the Bronx, NY, who is now living in Buffalo. I don’t know how we started talking about Education but she opened up and talked to me about the way politicians and government give very little or no priority to Education; you can see it in the way they treat teachers, educators, and the teacher shortage nationwide, and the on-going need for qualified teachers in troubled areas. With all these concerns, you would think teachers would be welcomed with open arms, but that is not the case. After talking to her for a while, I took interest in her story and asked her if it was ok for me to publish her story by asking her questions regarding her experience. Here it goes: Latino Village: Can you begin by telling us a little about your background and your educational preparation for becoming a teacher? Samantha Didrichsen: Most of my career, thus far, has been in the realm of early childhood education, which in New York, ranges from birth to second grade. I hold two education degrees: a Bachelor of Science (Early Childhood Education), with a concentration in Biology from SUNY Fredonia in 2015; and a Master of Science in Education (Special Education & Early Childhood Intervention), graduating from Hofstra University in 2017. With the two degrees, plus my exams are taken, I am certified to teach both general and special education students within the early childhood population. I also specialize in ABA (applied behavior analysis) from my Hofstra program, which uses the science of behavior analysis to change social behaviors. Many times, this is associated with the treatment and education of those with autism, but this can be used for anyone. The techniques that I use in my carbeer for all my students comes from ABA. I’ve held several different types of positions since my Fredonia graduation. I’ve been a toddler teacher, a behavior technician, an elementary school special education teacher, a preschool special education teacher, and an early intervention teacher, and some I’ve held at the same time! Latino Village: What made you decide to go into teaching? Samantha Didrichsen: When asked this question, people tend to have some sort of dramatic story to tell about how a teacher affected them and made them decide to become teachers. This is not my story. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure what to do with my life for a very long time. As a child, I had this dream of being a published writer, mostly inspired by J.K Rowling. I was an avid reader (I’m jealous of past me). I would write so many different stories of my original characters or fan fiction from different anime series. One time I wrote an original story that went beyond two-hundred pages! I did it all for fun. I was pushed to go to college. My father had gone to college, and my mother tried, but it wasn’t for her. They wanted their children to do better than them, and I can understand that. When I was a junior at Massapequa Senior High School back on Long Island, I spoke with my A.P English Composition teacher, Mr. Merges, about my idea of getting a degree in Creative Writing. He told me to think about that—maybe consider English education instead. We went back and forth slightly about this. I feel that he understood my love of writing but maybe wanted some job security for this poor young woman who had some serious self-esteem issues. There was a point where he told me, “You know you’ll have to get a master’s, right?” and I said, “That’s okay.” He shrugged and said, “Alright then!” After looking more into it, I felt that English education wasn’t for me. However, I found something else that I might like, which was early childhood education. It struck a chord with me. The high school had a relationship with Junior Achievement to do volunteer work in elementary school classrooms in the district, and so I signed up and did that. I also earned high school credit to help me graduate on time (I had moved into the district and was short a credit) by completing a summer internship called Summer STARS, where you volunteer as an assistant at the summer school. I enjoyed working with the preschool students the most, so that sold it for me. Latino Village: If you don’t mind me asking, how much did your education cost? Samantha Didrichsen: In total, my entire education, grants, and scholarships put into it cost me a little less than $100,000 in student loan debt. If I could estimate my cost per degree, I believe that my time at Fredonia cost me somewhere between $25-28,000. From there, however, is where I had to take the big pill for my state-mandated master’s degree. Hofstra was extremely expensive. Getting into a SUNY or a CUNY for your graduate degree is an accomplishment, as they are exceptionally selective because of the limited seats and lower cost in tuition and fees. At that time, I required housing if I were to continue my education in New York, and I didn’t want to teach full-time and get a degree at the same time. While I loved Western New York, Buffalo State was the only one that had the early childhood special education graduate degree that I wanted, but they didn’t offer graduate housing. So, I was forced to look back in the New York City and Long Island areas at their private institutions, as the CUNYs also didn’t offer houses. Hofstra did, and the graduate program that I graduated from with them was also affiliated with a big federal grant to boost the amount of early childhood special education teachers in the field. Since I needed housing, Hofstra easily put another $80-90,000 into my debt within two years. Latino Village: I rememberr that you had taught in the Bronx, in a

Interviews, People

INTERVIEW # 11: FEATURING LIZZY RIVERA

Buffalo Latino Village / October 6, 2021

INTERVIEW # 11: FEATURING LIZZY RIVERA I don’t like the world of disability. No one asked but still. I am a person with different abilities and as a child they were undiagnosed. That fact affected my learning journey immensely. Some of my siblings have different abilities (the term I prefer) and face varying health challenges, mine being the absolute least. My family is a family of overcomers, but my learning journey was not an easy one. As a child I struggled to learn on paper, I could hear anything you said, but if you gave it to me on paper, you lost me. I remember feeling bright, but not being able to transfer that intelligence to paper. I will never forget what it feels like to sit in a class of your peers and be nervous to be called on. It’s terrifying, and I lived that terror every day in elementary school. It gives you shivers all the way to your boots. And lately being a kid is hard enough. Some Adults like Lizzy Rivera get it. Lizzy is an advocate for families whose members have different abilities, the human embodiment of compassion. She is existing in a state of empathy and her journey and path reflect an infinite determination to succeed. When I met her, I felt so relieved, so grateful that she had chosen to fight for children in our community. She leads a path she walked, being a mother, whose children were educated in public schools. Born in Puerto Rico and educated across oceans, her sense of feminism is rooted in her mother’s lessons. She committed to helping improve systems and lifelong learning (always a sign of intelligence in my opinion). She’s currently enrolled in a School Psychology program to obtain initial certification, after graduating Summa Cum Laude from SUNY Empire State College with a B.A. in Psychology – as a full-time mom. As a people, Latinos are resilient and self-reliant. Sometimes those resiliencies lead us to overlook the times we need help or be hesitant to ask for it. Lizzy’s quote: “A person also needs intrinsic or extrinsic motivation to work towards those goals. This is where the community comes into play to remove systematic barriers of ableism, sexism, colorism, and xenophobia that discourage individuals from creating goals and prevents them from seeing themselves in positions that they can achieve to reach their full potential.” Lizzy Rivera is an advocate fighting ableism and if you read her interview, you will learn how and why. Ableism is defined as discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. According to the Dept of Education In 2018, 32% of the children diagnosed with a disability in New York State identified as Hispanic and or Latino. THE INTERVIEW: Where were you raised, and what were the values taught in your home? My story started in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, with family roots from Barranquitas, PR. Where were you raised, and what were the values taught in your home? My story started in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, with family roots from Barranquitas, PR. Since my family was from el campo, we had strong family ties and conservative values. My mother, Neida Fonseca, raised me to be independent, resilient, and accept change as it comes. Education was important, and she had high expectations of my brother and sister to graduate college, something she always dreamed of doing. What was your experience as a student? The journey from Puerto Rico to Buffalo happened right before my Quinceanera. My brother was sent the previous year to stay with my aunt Gladys Santiago to see if he liked the school system, and since he had a good experience, we came to Buffalo. I was not in full agreement with the move since this was before the time of cell phones. I knew I would lose the connection with friends, novios (lol), and most importantly, my extended family. My family was afraid of “las nuevas juntillas” (negative peer influence) and thought it would be best to advocate for high school placement in a monolingual school with ENL support (Bennett High). It was unheard, to take ENL services outside a Bilingual school. Grover Cleveland High was the only option if you needed support in English for your classes. R&B, Reggae, and HipHop became my teachers of acculturation into the new environment. I also had a best friend named Fatima from Mali that served as a guide. She had gone through the same experience years earlier when she arrived in Buffalo. I had amazing teachers and others like the English teacher that told me, “Don’t take the Regents, you will not pass.” Well, don’t tell a Latina she can’t do something; she may just prove you wrong! I was in the top 20 of my graduating class with a Regents diploma of almost 300 students at the time attending Bennett High. At the time, Bennett High offered an International Program that was progressive, offering multiple languages like Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, and Chinese. The Latinx population was very small, and to make our little Borinquen, we created a Multicultural Club that highlighted the school’s cultural diversity. During one of the multicultural assemblies, our group danced to “el baile de perrito” that none of us ever forgot. Also, I would sneak go after school to Grover to meet my cousin and dance for their salsa band. These experiences served as a basis for my passion for working with people from multicultural and linguistic backgrounds. When did you start working and what was your first or favorite job? I started working in Buffalo as a cashier on the old Tops on Niagara Street. Many around my age group have fond memories of this supermarket as it was the unofficial hangout for many in the Westside of Buffalo. I currently work for the Buffalo Public Schools in the Special Education Department as a Spanish-speaking Community Education Leader and for the Parent Network of WNY as a family support specialist for parents that have

Interviews

INTERVIEW # 10: FEATURING MIGDALIA VIAS

Buffalo Latino Village / September 6, 2021

My roots are from the Lower East Side. The Lower East Side of Manhattan always existed in my mind as a mythical place I belonged to. When I think of who I would have been if we stayed in Manhattan, I think of Titi Migdalia Vias. She is Manhattan, well postured, poised, educated, and sleek. She gives the right type of love that helps you find your gifts and break generational curses. Appropriate, beautifully dressed, and present – fully always watching —- Pendente – watching because we are from the Lower East Side. And we are not going out like that. We are from the projects– Papi is proud of that. Titi is too, the childhood love of my uncle, My Titi is the lower east side embodied in a cardigan and a murk. She’s a fighter. Period. Migdalia Vias fought for every opportunity she ever had. Coming out swinging – slight, and quiet but a champion. Her weapon of choice? Hard work. There are 174,000 units of public housing presently in NYC. Each one of them is occupied by families whose aspirations, like Migdalia’s, are born at such a steep economic disadvantage (in relationship to the capitalistic incline), it is almost impossible to scale. But she did. Though born in poverty, Migdalia’s early life was marked by the love of her seven brothers and sisters. As a child, she worked at a grocery store, during school and after. She got herself a job in third grade, enough said. Quadruple shifts that about sums it up. She worked singles, doubles, triples, teaching, mothering, cleaning, cooking, scrubbing, reading, and learning. First, taking care of the home and her motherly responsibilities, then in the world of “work”, and then usually in the evening another job, at night – she worked on her own aspirations. Earning a 4.0, (perfection), was her goal in her master’s program. She signed herself up for opportunity with the risk that she would fail, but with the faith that she would not. She is a gifted and blessed woman – full of the spirit of our Lord and the determination that comes with loving Christ in a world of sin. Her favorite quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Greatest is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it but sail we must and not drift nor lie at anchor.” Harvard’s Center for the Developing Child states children can build a “biological resistance to adversity.” Faith, love, culture, desire, resilience — all these things formed the child that got herself a job and was collecting a paycheck long before they even figured she could. The Lower East Side raised my titi Migdalia Vias, and she was raised right… THE INTERVIEW: What values were taught in your home? My family taught us to always show respect. My mother was born in Albonito, Puerto Rico, where she was taught how important respect was. She always taught us to respect others, and more than anything, to respect ourselves. She taught us to never disrespect our values and our elders. It was always important to my mother that our last name will stand for people who respected and honored their human values. What motivated you to become an educator? In part, it was my background that motivated me. My parents got divorced when I was 5 and then things were different for all of us. Seeing my family and community struggle with poverty, I knew there had to be something more, more than the projects and poverty. As a young female, there wasn’t anybody who talked to us about attending the correct schools (junior high school and high school). I didn’t even know that college existed. I learned that my way out of the life that I had was through education. I had several teachers, specifically in 8th and 9th grade who impacted me. The most impactful was a Mexican female instructor who came from a very poor family. I’ll never forget when she told me I could be anything I wanted to be; I was shocked to hear that because no one ever told me that. This teacher, she really taught me things that I was never exposed to, like going to better schools than the ones I was in, which were tough schools. She also taught me not to be afraid of other people with money, or because I was from the projects. She taught me I could do just as much or more. For example, when I went to register for school, I was already married and had children as well; I had the responsibilities of a household and a mother, and I had two jobs. I worked during the day teaching and then at night I taught parents how to communicate with teenagers. Sometimes, I wouldn’t get home until 9:30 pm at night, to start with homework and household responsibilities. I remember, just to register, I went three times and left. Three times I was so embarrassed that I went, and I didn’t ask for papers or anything to do with registration. I then thought “If I don’t do this now, I won’t do it at all.” I finally showed up again, and all I said was, “I want to go to this College.” I remember there were so many papers to fill out, and I didn’t know what to do. I took the papers to a friend, and she helped me fill them out. Another person I remember who motivated said, “You are going to make it, you are going to be a success story of the Lower East Side.” I took the papers back and I had to meet with one of the advisors. She asked me what classes did I want to take, but because I didn’t know, she decided for me. They were horrible but I passed! After that, I knew that I was going to do it –