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Jessica Valadez Fraire will soon graduate with an Elementary Education degree from the University of Colorado Boulder, but she didn’t set out to be an elementary teacher. 

Her early schooling experiences were “isolating and difficult” as a Brown, bilingual student growing up in largely white, affluent Boulder. 

Valadez Fraire’s life experiences were not reflected in her classrooms, and consequently, she didn’t value school. She was often in trouble, including a heart-stopping moment in fifth grade when a teacher threatened police involvement over a dispute with a classmate. The daughter of migrants, Valadez Fraire still requires deep breaths to talk through trauma from that experience and others. 

Finally feeling seen 

Those detrimental experiences began early and persisted until Valadez Fraire enrolled in a CU Boulder youth leadership program for Chicano/Latino high school students called Aquetza, where she finally felt seen as a scholar. 

“It was life-changing,” she said through tears. “It gave me a sense of purpose, because I received messaging that I was a valuable person who had things to contribute to this world. It really changed my perspective on what education could be.”

Aquetza ignited the fire she already had burning for social justice. Combined with family’s unconditional support, she enrolled CU Boulder’s Leadership and Community Engagement major.

As a first-year student, an assigned podcast episode about the absence and importance of culturally diverse curriculum for elementary students in particular hit her hard. She had not been interested in working with young children, but she cautiously and curiously changed her major to Elementary Education.

“I was like, ‘Dang, should I be a teacher?’ It was an epiphany for me,” she said. “I ended up loving (the Elementary Education major). It's the perfect path for me, because I think it's super important for students to have teachers who look like them, who speak their language, and who care about their development as people. That's how I see education — a tool for students to negotiate their world and create a better world.” 

Infusing culture into the classroom

Valadez Fraire brought that ethos to her student teaching in Denver this year, just as unprecedented numbers of newly arrived migrant students enrolled in her school and many schools nationwide, altering classroom demographics and needs. 

Since the start of 2023, an estimated 42,000 migrant have moved to Denver according the to the city, leading some school leaders, legislators and the media to label the influx of newcomers as a “crisis.” But Valadez Fraire sees it as a beautiful opportunity.

“As a teacher, it's been difficult to plan and meet the needs for all of my students, because a lot of my students are coming to school with trauma and difficult circumstances in their lives,” she said. 

“But it's also been very beautiful to bring in culturally sustaining approaches, allowing them to have more agency, and seeing them empowered in the classroom.”

Valadez Fraire infused her students’ culture and background into her STEM lessons. A recent astronomy lesson included the ancient wisdom that South American cultures have long carried about the solar system and earth sciences. 

“There’s not really talk about other cultures and their knowledge in science, or it is seen as a humanities lesson,” she said. “Integrating that into science is important because students can see themselves as scientists and mathematicians. I noticed they were more engaged because the lesson had something to do with their identities. It was cool.”

Graduation is only the beginning

For her culturally and linguistically sustaining teaching practices and critical contributions to the education learning community, Valadez Fraire has been selected by faculty as the Outstanding Graduate for the Elementary Education Program. She’ll accompany the interim education dean at the CU Boulder commencement ceremony to help confer the education degrees in front of the packed crowd at Folsom Stadium. The “outstanding graduate” distinction is an honor, and it brings complex reflections.

“Sometimes I have difficulty with stuff like this,” she said. “It's like we're being showcased to the university like ‘these are outstanding grads,’ and my experience is not very reflective of what students of color go through at CU Boulder. 

“I have difficulty with these distinctions,” she said. “It feels like I am being showcased as an outstanding grad while this experience is not reflective of what students of color go through at CU Boulder.”

“For me, it just means that there's more work to be done.”

Throughout her time at CU Boulder, she leaned on School of Education faculty mentors, like Vanessa Santiago Schwarz and Jamy Stillman, and her friends from programs like UMAS y MECHA, who now feel like family. They helped provide spaces to be vulnerable and share experiences as a student of color at a predominantly white institution as she prepares to enter the largely white teaching profession.

Valadez Fraire is committed to “the work” ahead. She is now a co-director for Aquetza, and she has a fifth-grade teaching position lined up in Denver come fall. The same grade level that shook her as a young person is now a beautiful opportunity to create the kind of classroom that her students deserve.

As graduation nears, Valadez Fraire feels ready to teach and grateful for her supportive community.

“As a first-generation student, graduation means everything to me and my family,” she said, tears welling up. “I'm grateful for all the sacrifices that my ancestors, my parents, and everyone in my family have made to be able to get me here. I haven't done this alone. I've done this with my whole community but especially my family. I am very grateful for all of them.”