This May, Erica Campos walked across the stage to receive her bachelor’s in interdisciplinary studies. This August, she walked into Oak Crest Elementary to begin her new life as a teacher. For Campos, who has lived in San Antonio her whole life, the new job is the realization of a childhood dream.
“Ever since I was little, I really liked the idea of becoming a teacher,” she said.
Inspired by her middle school band director, Campos realized she wanted to make a difference in other people’s lives. In high school, she worked as a kindergarten teacher’s aide, where she loved connecting and developing relationships with the students. After high school she attended Palo Alto College; from there her passion led her to UTSA.
“I chose UTSA because I heard it was a really great school for teaching,” she explained.
This advice was echoed by her professors and classmates at Palo Alto, as well as an aunt who is a principal with Harlandale ISD and a UTSA graduate.
Campos received her associate degree from Palo Alto in 2019 and transferred to UTSA the following year. She says she loved attending classes at the downtown campus, where she enjoyed the small, close-knit community. But shortly after she enrolled at UTSA, classes transitioned to virtual formats with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Going to virtual was a little bit challenging for everybody,” Campos said, “but I just worked hard, did my best, and persevered and got through it.”
While Campos missed the in-person community she’d become a part of, she recognizes that the virtual learning had some benefits as well. By attending classes in person before transitioning to online, she was able to experience a little of the best of both worlds.
“So, it was a really good experience being both in-person and online. I love this program. It helped me a lot and I feel very prepared for the classroom.”
“I got to learn a lot about different technology and how to incorporate that into my classroom,” she said. “So, it was a really good experience being both in-person and online. I love this program. It helped me a lot and I feel very prepared for the classroom.”
Some of these preparations included preclinical teaching over Zoom, an introduction to hybrid classrooms, and a year of clinical teaching, which Campos says really helps student teachers see the growth that happens in the classroom. So far, her favorite thing about teaching is the relationships she’s built with students.
“You get really close with them and you get to know them and it’s just a great feeling to know that you’ve made a difference in their lives,” she said.
As the beginning of the school year draws near, Campos has been gathering classroom supplies, and started thinking about how she wants to incorporate what she’s learned at UTSA into how she runs her classroom. She says she’s especially excited to start this next chapter in her life.
“I‘m looking forward to getting to know my students, my first class, their families, the community,” she said. “I’m a little nervous because it’s all new to me, but I’m more excited than nervous to start out on my own.”
- Christopher Reichert