With tattoos inspired by album covers and coming from Rio Grande Valley: our new AP English literature teacher Ms. Camarena has joined KAC this second school semester!
February, 2023
By Nelly Mercado, News & Commentary Editor
New AP Literature teacher Elizabeth Camarena says that she identifies with many here at school, being a Latina and having parents from Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Camarena was born in the Rio Grande Valley, in a small town called Progresso, which is only two miles from the U.S. – Mexico border. She is the oldest of three siblings: her brother is twenty-one, and her sister is fifteen. Camarena says her most accomplished achievement is graduating with three degrees from the University of Texas.
Family and friends would describe her as hardworking and unwilling to take no for an answer. “I think I’m someone who always wants to do better,” says Camarena. And when asked about how she was in high school, she says: “Through high school, I was the person who was always skipping. It helped and it didn’t help. Because I was getting in trouble, but it gave teachers an outlet to say: Hey, you’re really smart, you shouldn’t be making these kinds of decisions that will affect you in the future! My performance and behavior were very different because I [also] graduated fourth in my class.”
Camarena worked as a substitute teacher here at KIPP in 2019. When asked why she came back, Camarena responded: “I really liked the kids that I had. I worked specifically with the 11th- and 12th-graders when I was a substitute here. And at this grade specifically, you get a lot of ambition, and you’re starting to pinpoint what it is that you wanna do. The mentoring aspect of being a teacher … was something that I’m interested in. As an older sibling, I also help my brother and my sister in figuring out who they are.”
Ms. Camarena chose to teach English literature because she loves to read and has had many great English teachers that inspired her to do more in her education. She has found that what she is currently teaching her class can be used in the real world: to tell the world what exactly is so special about you and present evidence to back it up.
Throughout the interview, I identified a great deal with her and concluded that she would be a great teacher to receive advice from. Camarena’s sense of herself as an older sister is something she carries with her in her teaching. As Camarena says, “Especially when I see people now, I’m like: I remember being that way!”
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