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Welcome to Cultural Connections Lab. I'm your host Dr. Kelly Forbes. We are here to talk with educational professionals around the world to impact and influence the education system as we focus on cultural connections and the education of multilingual, diverse students.

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We're excited to have you join us today. We sincerely hope that you enjoy the show.

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Welcome to another podcast episode of Cultural Connections Lab with myself, your host, Dr. Kelly Forbes. I am excited to introduce to you all a very special guest that we have here today, Monserat Garibay.

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Monserat Garibay is the Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director of the Office of English Language Acquisition at the U.S. Department of Education. More recently, she was the Senior Advisor for Labor Relations at the Office of the Secretary.

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She was the Secretary-Treasurer of the Texas AFL-CIO. Previously, she served as Vice President for Certified Employees with Education Austin, a merged union local with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, and the American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial Organizations.

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An activist on education and immigration issues, Garibay came to the U.S. from Mexico as an undocumented immigrant and became a citizen 20 years later. She has been instrumental in promoting opportunities for all students, including those from immigrant families.

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She promoted passage of the Texas version of the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform. A bilingual pre-kindergarten teacher for eight years and national board certified teacher, she is a graduate of the National Labor Leadership Initiative with the Work Institute at Cornell University.

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Garibay is a University of Texas Austin graduate with a master's degree in education. And without further ado, I present to you all, Ms. Monserat Garibay. Thank you so much for being here today.

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No, my pleasure. Buenos dias. Muchas gracias.

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Buenos dias. Yeah, buenos dias. Aqui estamos en esta mañana. Gran mañana. It's a great, great morning. And I truly am so humbled to get to be in your presence and to have this time with you. So thank you for sharing you, your passion, your knowledge with all of our listeners out there.

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Is there anything else that you would like to share that I wasn't mentioning in your in your bio perhaps or anything?

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No, no, no. It's just a long bio. No, nothing.

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There's been longer ones though. I've seen longer ones. Yes. No, but um, but truly I'm just I'm very thankful to have you here. It's a very humbling experience. Sinceramente muchas gracias por todo.

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But I wanted to ask you, you know, just about your life and your own experiences. How has your personal journey shaped your own perspective on the importance of culture and diversity in education?

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Well, first and foremost, coming to the US, not speaking a word of English, being undocumented. And, you know, I remember my first day of school with my stomach full of butterflies, not knowing what was going to happen and seeing someone that looked like me, welcomed me to the school was essential.

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And talk about culture and diversity. When someone comes to a place and they see someone that looks like them, you just automatically feel like, okay, things are going to be okay. And that's exactly my that was my experience from day one in Austin, Texas at Marks and Middle School where I started there in school.

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And my journey as an undocumented student was very similar to the journey that many of our students go through and their families. My mother in my backpack, we always had a plan, plan A, B and C.

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And one of the things that my mother was always very honest was on our immigration status that we, you know, maybe that she was not going to be picking us up from school and that, you know, in case she wasn't there, there was a reason, right? She probably would be being picked up by immigration or that we needed to have a plan.

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So one of the things that my mother would do, she would put in a little piece of paper in my backpack, our friend's address and telephone. So we, you know, we would have someone to go to.

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And that is the experience that many of the students in our schools go through. And having someone that spoke Spanish and explained to my mother what was the process to registering to school, what classes I needed to take was essential because she did it in Spanish and she did it in a way that my mother understood.

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But most importantly, that I felt safe and that my mother felt safe. So when it comes to culture and diversity, having people that speak the language of the students in the schools is essential. Having a parent specialist is essential.

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Having that cultural awareness that different communities feel welcome in different ways. So throughout my whole educational journey, I've always seen people that look like me in the classrooms, whether it was a custodian, whether it was a cafeteria worker, whether it was a counselor, a principal.

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And to me that was important because I often share this that being a 12 year old and not speaking a language, you often feel powerless and invisible.

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And actually that was something that my mother would tell me. You need to be invisible, right? Don't bring trouble. We are here to learn the language and to have a better life, but always be invisible.

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So having people that look like you and that acknowledge you is very, very important.

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No, it's because it's so, no, what you're saying is so, I mean, I think this is really important.

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I thank you so much for your vulnerability and talking about this because it's so important for I think other people to hear these stories, to have the exposure to it because there are people like me that did not grow up with that experience.

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But I was fortunate to be able to be a newcomer teacher and there were seven countries and eight languages represented in that classroom.

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And so being bilingual in English and Spanish, I could help with at least the students be able to hear Spanish in that part.

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But then it makes me want to learn, you know, be a polyglot, learn many other languages as well. But your experience, though, is just it's so true.

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And this is what I really want listeners to hear, too. Like these are the stories of our students that are in your classroom right now.

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And I am through similar stories like this. I now am a very proud godfather of two, a sister of one of my students that I had as a newcomer student who are also from Mexico City.

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And so, but anyhow, these stories are very real.

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And it's just really important to hear them and to have empathy and to be able to try to really understand because we don't want our students to be invisible or to feel that way.

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And also to take into consideration their family.

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Definitely.

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Can you share some specific cultural experiences from your own background that have influenced your approach to promoting multicultural education and supporting students from diverse background?

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Yes. So, you know, that experience when I was in middle school that really shaped the my journey because I wanted to be just like Mrs. Hernandez, my ESL teacher.

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And that I remember within that year, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher and that I wanted to be just like her.

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So she was definitely my my inspiration to becoming a teacher.

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And very gladly, years later, I became a bilingual teacher and I kind of follow what she would do.

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And of course, then I went to UT and I graduated and got my my undergrad in bilingual education.

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And I learned that all those strategies that she was doing in the classroom were the strategies that really helped me become proficient in English.

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And that really helped me. So when I became a teacher, I did the same thing.

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I had an open door policy. I invited parents into the classroom and I taught bilingual pre-k.

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So it's literally it was literally the first time four year olds were in a classroom in a public school.

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So making the parents feel welcome was essential to me.

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So I did a lot of home visits just to establish a good relationship with the parents.

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And I would love doing it would take forever because I had to do like 20 plus home visits at the beginning of the year.

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But the parents were so welcoming and I really got to know them and I really got to build a good relationship with them.

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And especially with the dads, because in the area where I taught there, a lot of the fathers there are obviously immigrants and first generation.

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But they're immigrants and they work in landscaping in Austin.

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So they work in nurseries or, you know, they they clean the yards.

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And I remember doing a questionnaire for the parents during the home visits and I would ask them like, what are some of the things that you like to do?

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What what do you do at work? Things like that. Just so I would get more understanding of the kids background.

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And I remember in this particular year, there were quite a few parents who work in the same nursery.

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And I asked them, you know, I would love for you all to come. And I remember many of the parents saying, well, Maestra, I don't know English.

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Like, there's no I don't even know how to write and read in Spanish.

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So some of them didn't read or write in Spanish. And I would ask them, well, but you know about gardens and their lights would light up.

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And yes, we do. You know, we work. You know, I work at the nursery and we got all these plants and this and that.

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So I invited them into our school because we had a big yard, a garden and we started a garden.

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I started a project based project based learning where we were integrating science and reading into our curriculum.

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And that was that was the thing. Like the parents would come every Friday and they would help us build our garden.

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So we would literally have the parents, the dads, like five dads that would come that would help us do the garden.

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They would answer questions to the kids and the kids would be so proud.

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They were like, they are like teachers. Yeah.

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And I was like, yes, yes, yes, they are teachers.

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And I really build a very close relationship with them because they were like, yes, this is what we do.

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And they felt very proud. And seeing the kids looking at their parents, it was really it was really special

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because you would have these, you know, these big guys, these big parents with their with their hands, with their boots, bringing flowers or bringing different vegetables and explaining to the kids what what that meant.

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And I felt like that was really important. And then, you know, as as the year would progress into the spring, we would have all these vegetables and we would have radishes and carrots and lettuce.

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And then we would have like the celebration where we would cut and clean the vegetables and make salads and make guacamole.

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And the moms, it would just become like this big fiesta. Right.

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Because the moms knew that I wanted them to be in the classroom.

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So for the moms, they would come every Friday. We would have lunch together and they would read the stories to the kids.

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But most importantly, they would share like los cuentos tradicionales and things like that.

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And the kids love that they they really wanted their parents to be there.

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And they I would tell the parents oftentimes like your child is only going to be with me for a year.

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With you, they're going to be for the rest of your life. So you really need to learn what are my expectations, but also know that I want the best for them.

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And a lot of the moms would say, you're very strict, Ms. Garibay.

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And I would say, yes, I am very strict because I have very high hopes for your kids. And oftentimes in a pre-k class, the kids would not obviously come not reading or writing,

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but they would leave my classroom starting to read DRA level one or two and they would start writing.

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And that to me was like this is the power of education. And they would have a really good experience. And to me, that was really important.

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Wow. I am I have to make them just such a big fan of yours.

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But I was doing some research and reading and I had read I think it was an FAQ or oh, what was it called?

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Anyhow, it was an article where they were asking you questions and I had read about you really empowering the parents to come in because they they are the first teachers of the students.

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But I you know, like but one thing that I just really love about it and this is what I try to talk about with so many other people is just that that level of cultural proficiency and that understanding

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and really bringing in the parents in such a way because again, they are the first teacher.

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But through that, recognizing those funds of knowledge, all of the things that the students and the families bring.

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And that is like the rich tapestry of what you can do in education whenever you bring all that into the mix.

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So and I also would go to the students home and get to talk with them.

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And it was in play basketball outside with them. Yeah.

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Even had students from Guatemala that would call me like, hey, Senator Kelly, it's all been a class.

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And I was like, what can I tell you on the way?

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Like, why are you asking if we have class or not? They go with what I do.

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It's raining. And so but then it was just learning more about like from where they came and like whenever it would rain really hard, there'd be mudslides and they couldn't come.

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And so anyhow, but then learning that they knew about that, allowing them to come in and just share all the information and that wealth of knowledge that the students bring and their families, too.

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So, I mean, continuing on, I have another question about like in your role as a pre-K teacher and currently as the assistant deputy secretary and director for the Office of English Language Acquisition,

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how do you believe cultural awareness and proficiency can enhance the educational experiences or academic outcomes for all students, but particularly those from immigrant or migrant families?

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It is essential to have cultural awareness and sensitivity because that really, again, allows the students to bring who they are into our schools and also for us to see what they bring to our schools as assets.

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Yes, they might not know English. That's OK. But they bring their culture, their language, their experiences, their parents and their families' experiences and building onto that so they can learn English is essential and it's doable.

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I think that that's one of the things that I really as a pre-K teacher, I love that.

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I love doing that, that early learning component and parent engagement for me was essential because that really helped me build relationships with the parents,

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but also empower the parents to know that they were able to ask questions about the education of their students.

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I was able to explain to them why learning their native language was so important because, you know,

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and then becoming bilingual and multicultural and biliterate was so important, but that was a very, I was very focused on making sure that I had that conversation with them

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because I knew that as they would go to elementary, middle school and high school, they needed to know that there were programs in the district that would allow them to become bilingual and bicultural and biliterate.

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And to me that was essential. So I did a lot of sharing that information with them.

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But then also, I think in terms of the cultural awareness, having a parent support specialist that spoke Spanish that explained to the parents different processes that would teach them

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even ways to how to read, how to ask questions to the kids when they were at home, the fact that if they were going to the store, that they needed to look at the environmental writing

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and that the kids would start recognizing letters and going, you know, buying oranges or buying aguacates or whatever, that the kids had a place on that

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and that every opportunity is a learning opportunity, especially when it comes from parents and really integrating their cultural identity is important

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because then it becomes something that they are who they are and integrating that into education is essential.

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My dissertation research was about cultural proficiency and the role that it plays in success for all students.

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And so everything that you're saying is just so true and so accurate and really just a message for leaders as well as to allow that space to happen.

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Because there are, and this is not everywhere, but oftentimes you might have a monolingual, kind of monocultural, monolithic administration building

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that is serving students that may not be monolingual, monolithic or monocultural.

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So really making ourselves, push ourselves and to think outside of the box and to be creative and how do we involve and not just involve,

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but really engage all of our families and all of our students and celebrate all their backgrounds.

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Yeah, and thinking about like, what are those barriers? What are those guiding principles?

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And how do we really get to a place where we can institutionalize that cultural knowledge?

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But having those bilingual, multilingual leaders, teachers, support staff that understand it, I just think, you know, I agree it's just totally essential.

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And you know, one of the things that I also had, a lot of the kids that were in my classroom were from other places from Latin America.

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So I had kids from Peru, had kids from Honduras, Guatemala.

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And as an adult, I always led by example. So when we would have a lesson, I would say, well, in Spanish, you know, we were studying about the three little pigs.

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You know, I would say, se le dice cochinito. Oh, how do you say it in Honduras? How do you say cochinito in Guatemala?

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And I myself learned that there are other ways that animals are called in different countries, right?

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So integrating that and just the face on my students' faces when I would recognize, oh, chanchito.

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And they would be like, si, si, asi se dice en Guatemala. Oh, asi se dicen Honduras.

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I think really being able to recognize that to me was important because I wanted my students to feel welcome and that their own culture and heritage matter.

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Because, yes, I was very bold about saying, yes, I'm Mexican and, you know, from Mexico City, I'm bringing my own culture into my classroom.

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But to me, it was important that I would also recognize that there were other students who were from other countries.

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And I would make sure, okay, en Cuba, como se dice esto? And, you know, and the parents really appreciated that as well.

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You know, whenever I was the principal of an elementary school, it was a bilingual school, there were 13 different Spanish-speaking countries represented among the staff.

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And the question came up of should we have a standardized Spanish or do we include all?

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And so I kind of took a step back and I asked them, what do you all think? And I was like, I have my opinion.

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And anyhow, they were like, no, I think we need to include all of it. And I was like, oh, I think I have it.

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Because, yes, like, definitely. And so it was the same for me because I'm just, you know, this guy from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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It was a teacher that changed my life, Senora Atkins, 15 years old as a freshman in high school, who got me so engaged in the Spanish language.

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And now all the way to having God Daughters from Mexico City, it's allowed me to travel.

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And I have one of my best friends, Marit, who's my salsa partner from Colombia, we are from Zacalebia.

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But yeah, but learning all the different ways to say, like, even straw, you know, popote, bombilla, like, yeah.

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And so, but all that is like, that's the enriching part. And that's where you start making all these different cultural connections because language and culture, you know,

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obviously, they go together. Yeah, you can't separate them.

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And we will be right back.

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And now back to the show.

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So, you know, speaking about culture and the elements of culture,

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what cultural elements or practices have you found to be particularly effective in helping immigrant students feel welcomed and supported in U.S. schools?

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I know that we've discussed having representation in the language and things of that nature, but is there anything outside of that?

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I would think one of the things that I really liked about my district where I thought was that they would hire paraprofessionals that spoke the language in Spanish.

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So whenever we had meetings or cafecito con la directora, we didn't not necessarily have translators.

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We had people that actually spoke in Spanish and that had that conversation because I think that that's really important.

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It's like a ladder, right? You want to make sure that yes, that you're welcoming and some schools have translators, which is great.

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Right. But if you really want authentic engagement, then you need to have someone that speaks their language,

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engaging them so they can feel part of the community.

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You'll get a very different response from someone that is translating versus a meeting where they are speaking the language and they can get they get to share their hopes and dreams or their concerns.

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So I think that that's one of the things that I feel was the district where I work was very effective in making sure that the information was in English and Spanish in other languages.

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But then also how we work with different organizations throughout the community in sharing different, you know,

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whether it was the Mexican consulate or whether it was safe place or like the different organizations that would provide the resources and the services that the students needed in their home language so they could, you know, be able to go to school and get the services that they needed.

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One time I hosted a meeting and provided interpreters for the English speaking parents, you know, to try to flip the script for a minute to, you know, kind of like walk in their shoes type of thing.

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But it is so true. And so, you know, for all of our listeners out there, I encourage you to continue to be allies and advocates and to intentionally seek out leaders, teachers, administrators,

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paraprofessionals, anyone that's going to be working in your in your school district or your whatever local education agency.

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But be intentional about finding representation because it matters and it matters so much.

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You know, you were saying earlier whenever you had Mr. Hernandez, right?

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And so it's a different experience. But I remember the first time that I had a gay teacher also in just that feeling of, you know, obviously different scenarios.

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But the feeling of being of belonging or being like, it's OK, you know, I don't know.

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It was just there's not really where it's for. Yeah, yeah, it definitely does.

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So in your opinion, what are the most exciting opportunities for promoting multicultural and multilingual education and cultural diversity in general in schools today?

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The most exciting opportunities that that we have.

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And I know that your office also provides many opportunities.

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Yes, you know, well, one of the one of the exciting opportunities of working at the Office of English Language Acquisition here at the Department of Education is the.

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All the different resources that we have, we have these beautiful infographic, the benefits of multilingualism and how multilingualism, all the benefits of multilingualism.

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But now we have that infographic in five different languages, right? Because one of the raised the bar, the world initiative is something that Secretary Cardona started last year in January.

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And it has three different focus areas. But the area that we're focusing on specifically is pathways, global pathways for students and multilingualism for all.

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So we're really focusing on that area and we're really promoting and amplifying the importance of multilingualism as part of the Office of English Language Acquisition.

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Our four priorities to make that multilingualism available for all have to do with parent engagement, early learning, dual language and CILSA bi-literacy, which is the work that I do every single day that our team does every single day.

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So we have different. We have our English learner family toolkit. We have our newcomer toolkit.

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We have all these infographics and fact sheets that we get to share with the nation.

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You know, I was just in Colorado yesterday and I attended a graduation, a CILSA bi-literacy graduation.

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And there were over 300 people attending, 200 students receiving the CILSA bi-literacy. And the whole ceremony event was in English and Spanish.

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And listening to the kids recite poems and sing songs about their in their native language and how being bilingual is a superpower was just obviously something that warms my heart.

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But it just talks about the importance of having a wonderful U.S. Secretary of Education, Dr. Cardona, the fact that he's bilingual.

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The fact that he's bilingual, that he was an English learner himself.

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The fact that he's able to co-switch between speaking to a teacher, to a custodian, to a parent, to the president, to a senator about multilingualism and the benefits of how being multilingual can open a world of opportunities for anybody and everybody.

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You just don't have to be a heritage speaker of another language. It can be for all our children in the United States.

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They can be multilingual. They can learn one or two or three or four languages.

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And I think that's the beauty and that's exciting work that I get to do here at the Department of Education.

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And we definitely thank you so much for that. My background was going to be I was going to be a dancing bilingual veterinarian.

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I never had any intention of getting into education. And so I was working on a cruise ship as a singer and a dancer and I just kind of fell into education by accident.

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And so anyhow, but having my amazing teacher in high school helping me and encouraging me to wanting to learn more Spanish and become, you know, multicultural myself and learning about other cultures.

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But then with my students and it's just it's there's never I've never heard so much of the conversation happening like it is.

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And I'm so passionate about it. And I just appreciate how you all are as well.

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And so all the resources that are truly exciting and we will have we will have links to these to the website for the resources listeners, just so you know.

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But it really is exciting to to get to celebrate that. But I think, again, it shows that representation matters.

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And I'm just so thankful for both of you for being loud and proud and sharing that because then I get to share that with people that I know as well.

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And so and if any of you did not go to Nabe and you did not hear me in his speech, I mean, I was everyone standing up.

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It was amazing. So, yes, all of this is truly, truly, truly exciting.

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And then is there any other personal story or experience that really exemplifies the impact of cultural sensitivity and inclusion on a student's educational journey?

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And that might be something that happened with you personally or another student that you know.

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But was there just any experience that really exemplifies that impact of cultural sensitivity?

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Yeah, you know, every year I go back to Austin and I go to the graduations of my former pre-K student.

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And last year I attended five five graduations and two of them received the seal of my literacy.

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And just speaking to them, seeing them in their graduation, being able to speak in English and Spanish.

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And I asked the parents, how do you feel that your you know that your daughter received the seal of my literacy?

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She was just so proud. She was like, it was great. It's great.

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Like she can she reads, speaks and talks in English and Spanish.

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And she shared with me when she went in Austin, they had they do a project base to get their seal of my literacy.

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They have to do a project in Spanish.

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And the mom was sharing with me that Angela did her project about her mother and how her mother was her inspiration to learn English and Spanish.

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And that she was the translator of her mom for many years and that she really wanted to make sure that she spoke both well so she could help her mom and her dad even more.

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And she also mentioned how her mom and dad save money to have her quinceanera.

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And that she was able to see her grandparents coming to her quinceanera and that she was able to actually speak to her grandparents in Spanish.

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And that, you know, knowing that language and being able to, you know, have a conversation with her grandmother was so important.

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And that being bilingual was something that she really appreciated.

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So that that was my first class that graduated with the seal of my literacy.

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So it was very special last year because I was like, yes, this is what I'm working on. This is what we're highlighting.

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This is why we're so excited that now all 50 states have the seal of my literacy.

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And it's something that, you know, it just brings a lot of joy to to the work that I do.

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But it also I think working here at the department and being so far away from home from Texas, I have the pictures of my students from my classes that that I that I taught.

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And I bring them I always bring them to whatever job I have.

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And I have them right above my desk because they are the reminder of they're my reason why every single student, every single parent, their stories are the reason why I'm here today serving at the Department of Education,

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because I know the potential that every student has.

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And when we see our students as assets, they can be they can become whatever they want.

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So to me, that's a reminder of why I'm here.

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But also the possibility that we have of making every student welcome, but make every student multilingual at the same time.

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I mean, our students are just like the best professors for us also, you know, and a lot of students have to they might have to spend a lot of money.

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To be able to have like an hour and hour and an hour students here, though, they they're just so blessed to be able to have that, you know.

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And so the more that we just embrace that and get excited about it, I mean, because being bilingual or multilingual is one of the best and biggest things that's changed my entire life

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and has really allowed me to just to seek to understand and to be able to listen in different ways.

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But I mean, I'm telling you, like in your right and like here are the pictures, I'm seeing them right now.

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And it's so amazing that you have them there.

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But it's the same, you know, same for me and probably for many of us educators out there that they're the reason why we get up every single morning and just to encourage and celebrate and just to love them so much.

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And to recognize all their assets.

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Yeah, it's really big.

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I mean, I often also joke as like if we're training outside, we just say we're going to put on a raincoat. But in Spanish, you might say, I better me able to.

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Like you are walking around with your advanced placement word of impermeable.

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And we just say raincoat. So like that Spanish is elevating us and other languages elevate what we do.

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And I just can't I can't say enough.

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Go learn languages, people. Go have some fun. It'll be fantastic.

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Anyhow, and as we're about to wrap up here, for any of the listeners who are just truly so passionate about promoting cultural proficiency and supporting students from diverse cultural backgrounds and based on the stories that we've been having right now, how can they receive information from OELA and how can they follow you perhaps?

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Yes, well, we're in every social media.

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All of them and I share them too. So you can find me.

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We are in Twitter, in Twitter, in Facebook, LinkedIn, and we have also our Insela newsletter that comes out every month.

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And you can visit us at www.insela.ncela.ed.gov.

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We also have a Facebook page for the Department of Education in Spanish, where people can actually get our information in Spanish and they can learn what we're doing.

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Another thing that I'm really, really proud is that we have started having some of our webinars in Spanish because, you know, the secretary obviously supports multilingualism and he really wants for us to lead by example.

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And leading by example means that as a Department of Education, we also need to have these webinars and information in English, Spanish, and many other languages.

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So one of the things that we did last year, we had a webinar in Spanish about Elevar las Expectativas, about Raise the Bar in Spanish.

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We are having, we have an upcoming webinar in Spanish about our family toolkit, which we're very excited.

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It is available in an app and it's available in four different languages, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, and English.

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And these are resources that, as I look, when I was here 30 years ago, I wish, you know, we would have had those resources because things would have been so much easier.

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Our English language family toolkit has six chapters and it tells you how to welcome your students to our public schools.

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What are the resources that they need to know in terms of what are some, what do they need to know about extracurricular activities?

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What do they need to know about reading the report card? What do they need to know about summer learning?

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All of these things are available in six chapters in different languages for parents ready to go.

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But furthermore, we also, this family toolkit is also for educators and it's also for everyone that is in the schools because they need to know what they need,

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what they need to do to make sure that our students and our families are welcome into our schools.

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And again, like if 30 years ago we would have had something like that, it would have been so much helpful because I still remember some of the students that were in my ESL class

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that came from different countries that didn't have someone that looked like them or that spoke their language.

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They didn't graduate from college, from the high school. They didn't graduate from high school.

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They drop out. And I feel like if someone, if they would have had the experience that I had of having a teacher that spoke Spanish and to have the information in Spanish

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made a big difference for me and I'm sure it would have made that difference for them if they would have felt welcome.

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So I think that that's why this family toolkit and working in OELA now, it's just like a hundred and fifty, a hundred and sixty degrees of, yeah, a hundred and sixty degrees

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that I've never thought that I would be in the Department of Education working.

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And just reminds me about the responsibility that we have to make sure that our students receive the education that they need in the way that they need it.

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Exactly. And if you have not downloaded the app, anyone, do so. I have. And the family toolkit, definitely the twenty twenty three version.

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It's brand new. It's been June twenty twenty three. I think it came out. Yes. And I share that with everyone as well.

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So if you're listening and you have not looked that up, look it up. It will it will definitely help support you in in many, many ways.

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Is there anything else as we close that you haven't been able to share that you would like to share as we wrap up?

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Yes, I would love to share that last year in December, one of my former pre-K students who graduated from high school is now a teacher, a bilingual teacher in Austin, Texas.

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And now I really get to see kind of like a mini grow your own right of my former students who are becoming teachers and who are actually graduating with their degrees.

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It's something that it's very special, but it's also something that that we need to kind of as educators step back and really think of how we're transforming the lives of our students

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and also how our students are transforming our own lives through their experiences and what they bring to the table.

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And, you know, at the end of the day, we are educating the future of our country because they are the ones that are going to be leading our our our schools, leading our country, our government.

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And I think it's really important that we invest in them and that we raise the bar for them for multilingualism.

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Well, I encourage all of the listeners. We will have the links for all of this in the description of the podcast. Sign up for the webinars.

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I am that I am that person. I sign up for all of them all the time.

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But you do gain a wealth of knowledge and information.

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But as we close, I just want to say thank you, teachers.

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Thank you to all the educators, all the leaders out there that are just really out there to do the very best that they can for service for our students.

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Servant leadership means means so much to me.

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But on a personal note, I just want to say thank you.

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Thank you for your inspiration and thank you for being someone that I know that you don't necessarily know me.

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We've seen each other at conferences and there are many other people that know you and you don't you don't know them.

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But you are an inspiration to so many people.

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And so on behalf of myself and many others that I'm sure would like to thank you personally.

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And I'm so humbled to be here in this space to have the opportunity to say thank you for everything you do.

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And we're here supporting you in anything that you need.

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So thank you so much.

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And with that, I just want to say a special thank you to our sponsor, Edgeskills, for sponsoring and promoting this this amazing podcast of Cultural Connections Lab.

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Thank you to our producer, Mike Overholt.

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He does all the hard work and we do appreciate you.

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And most specifically, thank you to you, Ms. Monserrat Garibay and to all of our listeners out there.

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We wish you the best and hope that you have a fantastic day.

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Adios.

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Gracias.

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Thank you for joining us today.

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Don't forget to like, follow and subscribe.

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Adios.

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Thank you.