Highest Aspirations

Welcome to Highest Aspirations, an education podcast focused on providing educators with inspiration and strategies to help multilingual learners achieve their highest aspirations. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Juana Bordas, author of The Power of Latino Leadership – Ahora! and Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age.

Dr. Bordas discusses the vital role family and cultural connections play in shaping leadership within the Latino community. We explore how preserving cultural identity can empower the next generation of leaders, and Dr. Bordas shares key insights on cultural pride, education, and intergenerational leadership.

As a pioneer in leadership development and a lifelong advocate for advancing the Latino community, Dr. Bordas offers inspiration and actionable strategies for building future leaders who are deeply connected to their heritage.

Welcome to Highest Aspirations, an education podcast focused on providing educators with inspiration and strategies to help multilingual learners achieve their highest aspirations. We have a very special guest with us today, the co-founder of CoolSpeak, Ernesto Mejia. Mejia is the proud son of Mexican immigrants, and a true example of the American dream. Diagnosed with the rare disease of Guillain-Barré (ghee-yan bar-ray) Syndrome at the age of 16 that left him temporarily paralyzed, he was not supposed to be a successful student, much less a College Dean of Students. But through his hardships, Mejia learned to never give up on life. He now speaks to students, parents and teachers about overcoming obstacles and never giving up on the American dream of education. 

In this episode, we cover the meaning and importance of youth empowerment, the work of his company CoolSpeak, and how we can align programs and speakers we bring into a district with the needs of the audience and goals of the school.

Welcome to Highest Aspirations, an education podcast focused on providing educators with inspiration and strategies to help multilingual learners achieve their highest aspirations. We have a very special guest with us today, Dr. Rebecca Palacios. This episode is dedicated to all of our educators who are in back-to-school mode and I could think of no one better to get us talking about parent engagement and early childhood education than Dr. Rebecca Palacios. 

Dr. Palacios is a National Board Certified Teacher, and leading expert in early childhood education. With over five decades of experience, she is a pioneer in the field of dual language learning and specializes in curriculum planning and instructional design.

In addition to being a founding director of The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and formerly serving as its vice-chairperson, she is also a co-founder of the Texas National Board Coalition for Teaching and serves as its Treasurer. And she also serves as a Curriculum Board Member for Age of Learning, the leading education technology company that created ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy.

For full episode resources and links, find the episode recap post on our podcast page.

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Welcome back to Season 13 of Highest Aspirations, an education podcast focused on providing educators with inspiration and strategies to help multilingual learners achieve their highest aspirations.

In this episode, Steve and Sandra will be sharing the mic as they talk about change, why it can be intimidating to some and motivating to others, and what’s next for both of us moving forward. They discuss what we can do to mitigate the emotions change can cause, how organizational culture impacts change management - or "change readiness", and how change can be used as a catalyst for personal and professional growth. 

Enjoy the episode and the chance to learn more about the new podcast host, Sandra Medrano-Arroyo! Thank you Steve for 12 amazing seasons as host.

Sandra is bilingual and bicultural, with over 25 years in education supporting ELs. Since joining Ellevation, she has created dual language content and professional learning modules. Now, as the National Director of Multilingual Learner Success, she advocates across the country. Sandra enjoys traveling, cooking, reading, gardening, and family time. Fun fact: She learned Italian cooking from a Sicilian Nonna and always secretly hoped to host her own cooking show!

We made it to the last episode of Season 12 - and I couldn’t be happier with our guest and the topics we covered. Dr. Sonia Soltero has been a contributor and collaborator in our community since the very beginning. She is currently working with Chicago Public Schools to help support newcomers, so we are excited to bring her on again to share the experience with others. We cover a lot of ground in our conversation, focusing on…

Dr. Soltero is Professor and Chair of the Department of Leadership, Language, and Curriculum, and former Director of the Bilingual-Bicultural Education Graduate Program at DePaul University in Chicago. Soltero has numerous publications on bilingual education, English Learners, and Latino Education having been involved with dual/bilingual education for more than thirty years as a dual language teacher, university professor, professional developer, and researcher. Soltero has an extensive background in design and implementation of dual language and bilingual programs and has worked with school districts as well as bilingual universities across the US.

Welcome back to Highest Aspirations, an education podcast focused on providing educators with inspiration and strategies to help multilingual learners achieve their highest aspirations. In this episode, our interview is conducted by Sandra Medrano-Arroya, Ellevation’s National Director of Multilingual Learner Success, who speaks with Sofía Núñez of Empower the Voice. They leverage their vast collective experience as multilingual learner professionals to provide valuable insights on: 

Sofía Núñez is an energetic, committed education leader, public speaker and consultant. She is the founder and CEO of Empower the Voice, a non-profit focusing on increasing opportunities for Hispanic students through empowering families to participate in leadership, language acquisition and the transition to college and career. With over 12 years of experience in education, Núñez served school districts in multiple capacities. Her passion to support and empower families is evident in the programs she has directed, including parent workshops, English as a Second Language classes for adults, citizenship preparation, GED (Education  & computer literacy programs for families, and the creation of parent advisory committees, amongst others. She believes in the power of building dual-capacity and provides professional development for teachers, helping them implement transformative family engagement practices.

Click here to download the full episode ⁠transcript⁠ and visit our ⁠EL Community page⁠ for more resources.

Welcome back to Highest Aspirations, an education podcast focused on providing educators with inspiration and strategies to help multilingual learners achieve their highest aspirations. In this episode, we zoom out some to talk about what happens after multilingual learners and other students from marginalized communities leave K-12 schools and what we can do to ensure they are equipped to rewatch their highest aspirations.

Our guest David Nungaray and I talk about…

For the full episode transcript, click here. For additional resources and to find information about the 2024 Ellevation Scholarship that is now open, visit our EL Community blog.

David Nungaray is the Bilingual Consulting Partner at TNTP. Currently, David oversees partnerships in Alaska, California, Nevada, and Texas. He also supports TNTP’s multilingual strategy across the country. David has led teams focused on partnering with districts through strategic planning, (bi)literacy visioning and implementation, dual language supports, stakeholder and family engagement, high-impact tutoring, learning acceleration, and state-wide high-quality instructional materials adoption. Prior to his time at TNTP, David served as the principal of one of the flagship dual language schools in San Antonio ISD. He first began his career as a dual language teacher and has led work in bilingual education for over a decade. As a son of immigrants, native Spanish speaker, and a first-generation college graduate, David is passionate about educational equity and to ensuring school systems best meet the needs of all learners. David is also an alum of Teach For America. He serves on multiple non-profit boards focused on education, and he holds his Masters in School Leadership from Trinity University, where he has served as an adjunct professor in multilingual education, school leadership, and special education. He also recently co-authored a chapter in "Breaking Down the Monolingual Wall" that speaks to essential shifts needed in leadership to support multilingual learners. 

In this week's episode, we're looking closely at teaching and learning academic language with our friends Diane Staehr Fenner and Sydney Snyder. We discuss the need to bring in sociocultural context and background knowledge that our students bring with them. We also get into how we can avoid taking a one-size-fits-all approach and personalize learning to accelerate learning. Of course, Diane and Sydney also share some simple and effective strategies from their book Unlocking Multilingual Learners' Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible and Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners: Tools for Equity. that you can use right away.

You can download the full episode transcript here, and visit our EL Community blog for additional free resources on EL education.

Diane Staehr Fenner, Ph.D., is the author of eight books on multilingual learner education, including the co-author of Unlocking Multilingual Learners' Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible and Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners: Tools for Equity (2nd ed.). She is a former ELD teacher and the founder and president of SupportEd, a woman-owned small business that provides professional development, technical assistance, and curriculum support to empower MLs and their educators. You can reach her at [email protected] or on social media at @DStaehrFenner.

Sydney Snyder, Ph.D., is the co-author of Unlocking Multilingual Learners' Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible and Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners: Tools for Equity. She is a Principal Associate at SupportEd. In this role, she provides professional development, coaching, and technical assistance to educators framed around advocacy and educational equity for multilingual learners and their families. You can connect with her at [email protected] or on X at @SydneySupportEd.

What are the primary challenges EL families are facing in their communities and how can programs like FLI address them? How did COVID and other recent challenges in the education world impact absenteeism for students, and how can those issues be repaired? How can we support parents and families to address trauma they have experienced in order to improve their relationships with and outcomes for their children? We discuss these family engagement focused topics and more on this episode of Highest Aspirations featuring Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch and the work her team does through her Family Leadership Institute (FLI).

Born and raised in a small, borderside barrio of Laredo, Texas, Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch conquered the challenges of poverty, discrimination and illiteracy. Raised without material wealth, Consuelo learned from her immigrant parents that their wealth was in culture, tradition, values, and faith. The values Consuelo learned as a child were reinforced throughout her career in the United States military. After graduating from Hardin Simmons University, Consuelo entered the U.S. Army as an officer and served for two decades. During that time, she broke barriers and set records when she became the highest-ranking Mexican-American woman in the Combat Support Field of the U.S. Army. When selected to assume a command post, Consuelo disrupted her advancement by deciding to retire. She chose instead to honor her mother’s dying wish – for her to return to her roots and become

a community leader. In 1996, Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch founded the human development company, Educational Achievement Services, Inc. (EAS, Inc.), to fulfill her mission of preparing tomorrow’s leaders through grassroots leadership development. Consuelo Kickbusch affirms that her greatest achievement stems from motherhood. She loves spending time with her husband, five daughters and six grandchildren.

On this episode of Highest Aspirations, we explore the importance of building personalized professional learning opportunities that provide educators with opportunities to continuously reflect on their work. Our guests Shélynn (Shey) Riel and Anna Ciriani-Dean provide simple frameworks within an experiential learning cycle designed to improve instruction and reframe negative self-criticism into more constructive, actionable feedback. 

Shey and Anna produce and host the Teacher The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast to create a reflective listening experience for teachers of the English language and to build a community of educators around the world who unite behind a shared fervor for teaching and learning.

Shélynn (Shey) Riel holds a Master of Education in TESOL and over fifteen years of experience in education. Alongside her work as co-host of The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast, Shey works with Bridge Education as the Expert Series Webinar Moderator, facilitating live monthly webinars that bring together ELT experts to share insights and perspectives on the latest industry trends. Shey has held positions of leadership in curriculum development and program administration at universities and non-profits in the U.S., served as a facilitator for various digital exchanges for global English teachers, and delivered professional development to teachers on the ground in Argentina and Bangladesh. She adopts a holistic approach to education, emphasizing balanced environments for learning and reflection. Beyond the podcast, Anna works as a Learning & Development Coordinator for English Language Programs, a program of the U.S. Department of State, where she develops orientations and professional development courses on specialized topics in English language teaching for participants in teaching exchange programs worldwide. She holds an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and has worked within the field of English language education, abroad and in the U.S., for over 12 years as a teacher, assessment specialist, curriculum designer, program manager, and instructional designer. Her goal as an educator is to empower learners by giving them agency in their learning process and providing them with the tools they need to excel in their academic, professional, and personal lives.

For episode resources and more, visit our EL Community blog. Download the full episode transcript here.