Hello, and welcome to my ePortfolio! My name is Alicia Guadarrama. I am currently a senior at University of La Verne, majoring in Biology with a concentration in teaching.

As a teacher, I truly hope to be a positive influence for my students by motivating them and supporting them to achieve their education and career goals, particularly for minority and low income students who have fewer advantages or opportunities to succeed. It is my goal to structure my classes in a way that will allow students to become aware of their potential and to give them experience with hands-on science as well as engineering, technology, and mathematics, hopefully sparking some interest in pursuing these fields as they prepare to enter post-secondary education, especially if they had previously shown no particular motivation to pursue a higher education.

Currently, I work for Pomona Unified School District as a tutor at an elementary school site. This work experience has, by far, been one of the most rewarding and career choice affirming experiences I’ve had. For the last two years, I’ve tutored K-6th grades in English as a second language, language arts, science, and math. When a student realizes that they understand some concept that had been troubling them, or that they were able to learn something new, I can tell that they are a little bit more confident in themselves than before. It’s that moment of self-confidence that makes me happy to have been a part of that moment of confidence building. I hope to continue helping my students, current and future, to build the academic confidence they need that will get them to succeed in their pursuit of education.

My family has been very supportive of me during my undergraduate education. From flying me off to Connecticut when I thought I wanted to study forensic science, to flying me back when I realized I wanted to be a teacher, they have been behind me with every step I take. When I’m not at school, studying, or working, I’m spending time with the people who mean the world to me.