For first-year teacher Jesica Ambriz-Arteaga, it didn’t take long to realize she had found a place where she belongs.
“I feel like I’m finally somewhere where I’m meant to be,” she said. “I’m doing what I love.”
After starting her career in marketing, Ambriz-Arteaga found her way into education through a paraprofessional role, first in a therapeutic day school, then at Carl Sandburg Middle School. That experience ultimately led her back to school to earn her master’s degree in special education and step into her own classroom this year.
Now, working with second-grade students in a specialized classroom setting at Washington Early Learning Center, she’s seeing the impact of that journey every day. In Ambriz’s classroom, progress is often measured in small but meaningful steps.
“I had a student who can now walk to the bathroom independently,” Ambriz said. “To others, that might seem small, but for us, that’s huge.”
She’s seen similar growth across her classroom, from students learning to regulate emotions to others gaining confidence in communication and academics. Like the student who started using full sentences at home after mostly using just a few words before. Those moments, she says, are what make the work so rewarding.
“You see it happening every day, and it’s such an amazing feeling to know they’re learning and growing.”
At the heart of Ambriz’s classroom is connection. Inside the classroom, that connection helps foster something just as important: community.
That sense of trust extends beyond the classroom to families as well, with parents sharing updates about how their children are applying what they’ve learned at home.
“It’s really special to hear that what we’re doing here is carrying over into their everyday lives,” she said.
For Ambriz, the goal goes beyond academics.
“If they can take one thing from my class, it’s to be kind,” she said. “The world is already hard enough; just being kind to one another can make such a difference.”
It’s a lesson she hopes will stay with her students long after they leave her classroom.