Growing up, Sevilla Steel (12) spent more hours in classrooms than anywhere else. From accompanying her mom to meetings in the teachers’ lounge to visiting her dad’s high school classroom, Steel—being the daughter of two teachers—was constantly at school. Naturally, over the years, teaching became Steel’s dream career, prompting her to apply to be a high school aide for Sundance Elementary School’s Educational Support System (ESS) program.
As one of four high school aides, Steel arrives at the Sundance campus every weekday afternoon by 2:30 and sheds her identity as a student to transition into her role as “Miss Sevilla.” As “Miss Sevilla,” Steel leads arts and crafts for TK and Kindergarten students and supervises students on the playground, a role that she said keeps her on her feet.
“Whenever I go to work, I’m no longer just a high-school student, because I have more of a responsibility,” Steel said. “I’m responsible for the safety of the kids, and I make sure they’re taken care of. Going to work makes me feel like something bigger than myself.”
Steel chose to work with TK and Kindergarten students specifically, as she hopes to specialize in elementary education in the future.
“I like working with younger students a lot, because even though it feels like I’m the one teaching them things most of the time, they sometimes give me [a] new perspective on things as well,” Steel said. “They speak to each other with a lot of empathy and kindness, and they’re really good at encouraging each other, which is inspiring to be around every day.”
Steel is able to be on Sundance’s campus to prepare students’ daily crafts before the Westview school day is over thanks to the two off-rolls she has on her schedule this term.
While this came at the sacrifice of dropping classes she’d been waiting years to take, Steel said it was more important to her to have hands-on experience in her potential career path.
“AP Lit was just one of those classes I was sure I’d take because I’d done all honors English classes in the past three years, and I figured this would be my fourth, but when it came time to pick between ESS and English, I realized how much I cared about teaching,” Steel said. “I knew [teaching at ESS] would be one of those things that would tell me if I was ready to go down this career path, and after being around the students, I know I’ve made the right choice.”
Steel’s next steps towards becoming a teacher include pursuing a major in Liberal Studies and a teaching credential thereafter.
Additionally, given her own experience in a bilingual elementary school, Steel said she hopes to be a bilingual teacher by minoring in Spanish so she can teach a English-Spanish class.
“Being half-Mexican and a part of a bilingual program in elementary school gave me a way to celebrate and connect with my culture,” Steel said. “It made me more in touch with my culture because even though my family didn’t celebrate Dia de los Muertos with all the traditional elements, like going to visit graves and creating altars, I still got to learn about it in the classroom. Through a bilingual program, I would want to pass down that same experience I had for other students.”
