Mentor Interview

Elena Luna

The school’s pillar teaches, helps students and continues working on her ultimate life dream.

 

A dim light shines behind Elena Luna, illuminating her right side, making her black hair glow in the darkness. She slouches forward resting her chin on her knuckles. Eyes tired but focused, reflecting the crowded computer screen. She works on a small round desk, papers scattered around and a stack of 5th grade reading books piled together. Her pencil holder carries erase board markers, and a stapler that reads “Ms. Luna”

It's no surprise she works in an almost pitch-black room; the few days I worked in her office I felt it was easier to concentrate with almost no light. Her laptop illuminates her smile, as I walk in.

Ms. Luna, my former English teacher and current Principal of KIPP Adelante, has gone far by working hard and being prepared. She says she has never wasted time and grabs opportunities as they come.

Ms. Luna started working at a paid job at the age of eleven. She has continued to balance school and work ever since. When she worked with her mom, cleaning professors’ houses, she loved cleaning an Archaeology professor's desk. It carried a variety of pictures from all the places he had traveled. There, her love for adventure and learning started.

Looking around her office, I see thank you notes from students, teachers and parents. A brown Adelante award is pinned nicely against a wall behind her. An Adelante award is given weekly to any student that has shown Teamwork, Responsibility, Achievement, and Kindness. To the side of this award, I spot her San Diego State University bachelor's degree and further up the Leland Stanford Junior University master's degree.

She walks around the school and enters a classroom to support a new member to the Adelante family, a 7th grade science teacher. When she walks she sets a strong step, her keys jingle, hanging from a Stanford key chain strapped around her neck. The jingling keys provoke a sharp sound of anxiety, letting everyone know someone important has stepped in the room. She teaches classes when needed and is always entering a classroom to make sure her students are learning. When she teaches a class, she paces around, observing students’ work over their shoulders. She jokes with the students creating a friendship.

 Ms. Luna teaches writing skills and paragraph structure to a 7th  grade class.

After a school meeting, she sits at her desk glancing at her computer screen once again. I step in to say good-bye, but she cuts my words by saying “What a day, huh?”

Without a notion we start a friendly yet respectful conversation. I pull out my recorder, trying my hardest to never leave her eyes. “I’m sure you saw the change in this class, you don’t see the person there anymore” she says pointing with her head towards an adjacent classroom. There had been a drastic change to the staff, during my stay. “These are the tough decisions I have to make because it is all about you, the students, and what is best for you as students. Even though it’s hard, I have to make the best decision for the students.”

I always carried a huge respect for her; she became the only teacher I could connect with. We have similar backgrounds and on our short daily conversations I found more things in common. Even though I have known her for years, I haven't forgotten that she is my authority and I should never disrespect her. So I stand in front of her desk, leaning into a chair trying to seem relax.

  

 “How often do you see me here, in the office, as opposed to in the classroom?

“I try not to be in the office too much because it takes away from my real job.”

 

Ms. Luna asked me if I ever wanted to teach, I realized I couldn’t answer her question and I tried to come up with an answer as I went along. “Well I want to explore different careers, so I might teach for a few years,” I said and she quickly responded, “Then you are really going to like it and never leave.” We both laughed, “Is that what happened with you,” I asked her so intrigued by her comment. “No, what I wanted to do its get to the top of the education system, where people make the big decisions that affect the whole nation, and I felt like I couldn’t be there unless I experience every step of the education system.” I nodded for a while, soaking up everything and analyzing her near future or perhaps her next step. “My goal would be to work for Washington D.C. And all the decisions they make that affect us, now I can be there and say, look this is not the right thing to do because I know first hand what that will do to students.”

For a moment I was silence, I was overwhelm by all her goals. I have always wanted to change the world, like most teenagers, but I never realized that grown-ups could also have such goals. I’ve seen people blinded by money and fame that forget they once wanted to make the world a better place. “I always have wanted to be that voice, up there at the highest level that really knows the communities, that knows the kids, that knows the teachers that these decisions will have an impact on,” she continued. At that moment I realized I was standing in front of the person who will change the education system, the person who will think of Latinos, African-Americans and immigrants when they make a decision on education. I showed my appreciation with a silent nod.

Ms. Luna, at her young age, has been a middle school principal for three years. “You are moving at a fast rate,” I mumbled.  We laughed again, she glanced at her computer and with a smile said, “You always have to be prepare, you can have luck or you can have opportunities open for you, but if you are not ready to take them, they are pointless.” Every word she said, every sentence made so much sense, I was intrigued and fascinated. I flashed back to 8^th grade, when I applied to boarding schools. I remember how excited I was to leave San Diego and start a new life, all by myself. I remembered reading my acceptance letter; the scholarship and saying “No, I don’t want to go anymore.” It was a silly decision, an opportunity I had and didn’t take advantage of, an opportunity that became pointless.

I regret this decision on some occasions, but I never regret staying here. My life and education could have been better, but when you love doing something, in my case, learning, anything is possible.

Ms. Luna is a great example of dreams that are possible. She grew up in a poor neighborhood with public schools that never cared if Latinos went to college. Yet she is a worker, a person who never gives up, even when society ignores her. She was the first of five siblings to attend a four-year university; she worked two jobs while studying to pay her way through. Right after graduating she started working and soon after she entered the Leland Stanford Junior University to receive her master’s degree. She hasn’t stopped working and she doesn’t plan to. “That’s how you move, that’s how you move fast, when you use every single bit of your time to prepare yourself.”