DEBORAH MARTINEZ

Deborah Martinez is currently a senior at UTSA in the bilingual education field. She has an Associate degree in the Arts of Teaching from San Antonio College (SAC). Graduating from UTSA is something she looks forward to since she will be a first generation in her family. Both of her parents have only received their high school diploma and her siblings are attending college as well. She was born in Monterrey however she was raised in Texas since she migrated at the age of 4. The education that she received during her elementary school years allowed Deborah to learn English quickly. However, Deborah lacked knowledge in certain content areas due to the language- barriers that existed between the two languages. Having unpleasant experiences of failure at such a young age impacted her learning experiences in negative ways. Nonetheless, she is aware of the potential that bilingual students possess and she believes in success. Although she is finishing her senior year as an undergraduate student, she knows that she will like to continue learning about the benefits of bringing symbolic multicultural literature into classrooms in order to create a sense of belonging and inclusion for students who to this day are being labeled as a minority.       

Research:

Since I grew up as a bilingual student I have decided that the main  reason why I chose this career is due to the fact that I can relate with students who speak a different language other than English. I also decided to enter this field because I am a product of a bilingual elementary school and a firm believer that we must expand these programs in order to better suit each and every one of our students through the introduction of symbolic multicultural literature.