Alumni – Page 18 – Institute for Recruitment of Teachers

The Importance of Self-Care

Jennifer López, IRT ’10, ’20

Teaching during the pandemic has not been an easy feat. With more demands than ever, educators have had to face challenges like never before.

As I write this article, I cannot help but think about all the planning, grading, calls, make-up work, data analysis, meetings, etc. I need to prepare for the upcoming week. The immense expectations placed on teachers has left many, including myself, overwhelmed and disillusioned. However, my students deserve the absolute best, and so I show up every day and give it my 110%. As I reflect on how I am surviving this school year, I am reminded about the importance of making sure I am filling my cup in some way every day. While I understand the structural educational inequities that currently exist need to be transformed in order to ensure teacher sustainability long-term, finding ways on a day to day basis to help me stay afloat are just as critical.

Alumni Accolades, January 2022

TERESA IRENE GONZALES, IRT ’06

University of Massachusetts Sociology Assistant Professor Teresa Gonzales has won Ford Foundation support for her “Joyful Cities” research in Lawrence, MA. Learn more about Gonzales’ professional experience and education.

Alumni Advisors Contribute to 2021 Cohort Success

by Brittany Zorn, IRT ’13, Arts and Sciences Specialist, IRT

One of IRT’s greatest assets is by far our expansive network of alumni. Since joining the IRT team in 2016, I have had the pleasure of meeting, celebrating, and working alongside so many incredible scholars, educators, leaders, and artists through the IRT alumni family. Engaging with alumni on social media, alumni who serve as Summer Faculty for our Summer Workshop, alumni who sit on the Advisory Board, and alumni who reach back out to the program for one reason or another has always been an enriching part of my experience as a staff-member-who-is-also-an-alum. In 2021, I had the opportunity to work with our alumni in a new way, through the External SOP Advisor role. We sent out an invitation to serve as an SOP Advisor in our blog, on the IRT Alumni Network, and on social media (FB, IG), and I was heartened to say we received responses from more than two dozen alumni with an interest in the role!

Monica Muñoz Martinez, IRT ’05 named MacArthur Fellow

Monica was named a 2021 MacArthur Fellow. The MacArthur Fellowship is unrestricted and unofficially known as the “Genius Grant.” The MacArthur Foundation considers that the fellowship “is not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential.” Congratulations, Monica, on this prestigious award.

Monica Muñoz Martinez, IRT ’05
_{Photo credit: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation}

Reflecting on the Past and Our Collective Strength & Influence as IRT Alumni

Mayra Canizales Cruz, IRT ’07

It may be hard to believe that in just 3 months we will welcome 2022. For many educators, 2020 was the year that flipped our lives upside down and forced us to (re)discover elements of ourselves as people, family members, teachers, and leaders. We tended to others before tending to ourselves and had little to no opportunity to stop and reflect about all that we had learned and unlearned in the months of a global health pandemic and the racial justice movement of our lifetime.

A year ago, I was a 7-year veteran principal in the nation’s capital and was launching the first-ever virtual school year. It was both exciting and unnerving and I struggled to find my new leadership voice in a virtual setting. My superpower was leading with love, justice, and vulnerability- everything else felt like a test or like I was functioning off gut instinct. Throughout the months, we heard scholars, organic intellectuals, elders, parents, and students alike say the same thing, “We can’t go back to what was normal. Normal wasn’t working for our Black and Brown children.” Families were officially seen and acknowledged as co-educators and the school and family partnerships were stronger than ever. We finally saw a light that felt bright enough to follow, one that would lead us to deconstruct, reimagine and rebuild a new (a better) educational system for our children. This was the chance and for a large part, it was not taken.