Alejandrina Lorenzano has been a teacher at Dos Pueblos High School for five years. She teaches a range of different classes and grade levels.
One such class has her 12th grade Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) students.
“My second year of teaching, I was approached about becoming an AVID teacher,” Lorenzano said. “I was so excited because I was like, … ‘When I become a teacher … I want to be an AVID teacher.’”
When she was a student at San Marcos High School, Lorenzano was part of the AVID program. She said her old AVID teacher was one of the people that inspired her to become a teacher.
From her “love of AVID,” Lorenzano grew an interest in the Program for Effective Access to College. She was site coordinator for the PEAC’s tutoring center at Santa Barbara High School. Through the PEAC, Lorenzano received her graduate school fellowship and her master’s in Education to become a teacher at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
From her prior experience as an AVID student, Lorenzano said she has an understanding of the challenges and opportunities AVID students are presented with.
“I’ve grown with [the students],” Lorenzano said. “They’ve been with me for all four years. We’re really bonded; they’re like my family. They make me mad and they make me happy … and now that they’re graduating, it’s really emotional to kind of see them off.”
Reflecting on the way her AVID teacher at SMHS inspired her in the past, Lorenzano said she hopes to make that kind of impact on her own students as well.
“I want to do what my AVID teacher did for me and support students who maybe don’t see themselves going to school,” Lorenzano said. “Because when you’re so young, sometimes you … need someone to tell you how valuable you are.”
Aside from AVID, Lorenzano also teaches English 9 Ethnic Studies, which was introduced the same year she started teaching at DPHS.
“There’s so much that’s been put into [that curriculum],” Lorenzano said. “Each year, we’re taking feedback, editing it, and making it better. So I love the English 9 Ethnic Studies [class].”
Inside and outside of school, Lorenzano’s personal philosophy is to “try to control” what one can, and “leave” what is out of control. Lorenzano said whenever she finds herself overwhelmed, she makes a list of mental, physical, or any other stressors in her life to categorize them into whether or not she can control them.
“Teaching can be overwhelming … when you’re taking care of others, you forget to take care of yourself,” Lorenzano said. “So I try to remind myself, control what I can, and remember to take care of myself.”
Lorenzano’s advice for students is to not be afraid to “act a fool” because she believes that students should always remember to enjoy themselves in high school. She encourages students to find their community and connect with teachers.
“High school is supposed to be a fun experience,” Lorenzano said. “And, sometimes, people forget to breathe and realize there’s more to life than what’s happening here in the high school space.”
Lorenzano said her favorite part about teaching is interacting with the DPHS community. She said she wants students to know that if they need someone at school to talk to, she always has her classroom open during lunches and is available to chat.
