This column first appeared in CityView magazine’s “Back to School” August 2026 edition.
August always arrives speaking its own language. It carries the scent of brand-new notebooks, freshly sharpened pencils, neatly prepared backpacks, and the mix of excitement and butterflies that comes with the beginning of every school year. It is the season when hallways fill once again with laughter, questions, discoveries, and quiet emotions that rarely make their way into a lesson plan.
For many children, returning to school means the beginning of a new year of learning and friendship. For many parents, it is another opportunity to watch their children grow, trusting the educators who will guide, inspire, and help them reach their fullest potential.
This month, we celebrate two extraordinary educators whose journeys began in different corners of Latin America but whose commitment to children found a shared home in our community.
Laura Cruz and Mercedes Rodríguez Saa understand both the tremendous responsibility and the incredible privilege of helping shape the next generation.
Cruz, originally from Colombia, teaches some of the youngest students at St. Pauls Elementary School. Beyond her work in the classroom, she has become a true cultural ambassador, helping children develop curiosity, respect, and appreciation for cultures beyond their own.
“Every child walks into the classroom with a different story,” Cruz said. “When they learn to listen to and value someone else’s story, they are doing much more than learning about another culture, they are learning how to become better human beings. My greatest hope is that they grow up knowing that our differences do not divide us; they enrich us.”
Her words reflect something our world needs now more than ever.
Today’s children will grow into communities, universities, and workplaces that are increasingly diverse. Learning to appreciate different languages, traditions, and perspectives is no longer simply an educational goal, it is an essential life skill.
When children learn to honor their own roots while respecting the roots of others, they begin to understand that diversity is not something to fear but something to celebrate. Differences become bridges instead of barriers.
True education begins long before academic achievement. It begins when a child feels safe. Real learning happens when a child feels safe enough to make mistakes, confident enough to speak up, and proud enough to carry their story, their language, and their identity into the classroom, knowing they all belong there.
“If a child doesn’t feel safe, they cannot learn. Before we teach any subject, we have to help them feel seen, respected, and valued,” Cruz said.
For many families in our community, the beginning of the school year also comes with uncertainty. Financial pressures, immigration journeys, life transitions, and everyday worries often travel quietly alongside parents and children.
Children notice far more than we sometimes realize. They feel the stress. They see the concern. They carry emotions they often do not yet know how to express.
That is why classrooms can become something extraordinary. They can become places of stability. Places where children feel they belong. Safe spaces where they are reminded that they are capable, valuable, and worthy of being heard.
Rodríguez Saa, originally from Argentina, teaches third grade at Montclair Elementary School. She walks alongside her students during one of the most important stages of their development, a time when confidence begins to grow, and children start discovering not only how to learn, but also who they are becoming.
As an immigrant herself, she deeply understands the importance of feeling welcomed and connected within a community. That understanding is reflected every day in her classroom.
“The most inspiring part of my work is watching a child begin to believe in themselves,” Rodríguez Saa said. “They may not remember every lesson we teach, but they will always remember how someone made them feel. If we can help them feel valued, heard, and capable, we’ve planted something that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.”
Her words remind us that education is about far more than preparing children to pass exams.
It is about preparing them for life.
It is about cultivating confidence, curiosity, resilience, and hope.
Because teaching is much more than delivering information. It is about building trust, one day at a time. It is about helping every child discover their potential. It is about opening windows where the world too often seems determined to build walls.
As this new school year begins, we recognize educators like Cruz and Rodríguez Saa, who understand that teaching is one of the most powerful ways to build community.
At a time when so many things seem to divide us, they remind us that the future is still built the same way it has always been built: one child at a time, one relationship at a time, one act of kindness at a time.
Because a classroom can be so much more than a place where academic subjects are taught, it can become the first place where a child truly feels they belong—where they feel seen, accepted, and valued for who they are. And very often, that is where the future of an entire community begins.
Oye, Como va? It is growing in classrooms where dreams, curiosity, and hope still have room to flourish. It comes alive every time a child finds a hand willing to guide them, a smile that says, “I see you,” and a heart that believes in them, even before they are able to believe in themselves. Because, in the end, education has never been only about teaching knowledge.
It is about planting confidence, awakening possibility, and reminding our children that they are capable of building a future far greater than they can imagine today. And perhaps it is in that simple act of believing in a child that the greatest change of all truly begins.
