DALLAS — A Dallas ISD elementary school teacher started “College Fridays” in her classroom. She and her sixth-grade students check out a different university through virtual tours and presentations. But the road to the second-year teacher’s Dallas career was difficult. Twenty years ago, she did not even speak English and she was kidnapped by the Mexican cartel.
Jośe “Joe” May Elementary School is a bilingual school in Dallas ISD operating in both Spanish and English. One teacher is from Mexico and had a really tough life, but she still made it. Now, she is helping her students be successful in college too.
Every day that Martha Mouret-Sanders pulls up to the school, she is grateful for her teaching job and proud of how she got there.
“I was kidnapped at 20 years old. My parents were asked for money,” she said. “They got me safe and they never said how much they paid for me. The only important thing was I was alive.”
Two decades ago, she left everything behind to come to the United States.
“I had to move to Lubbock, Texas, where it was very hard at the beginning because I didn’t know the language, I didn’t know the culture and mainly I didn’t have my family,” Mouret-Sanders said.
She had to be on her own learning English and the culture in the states.
“After one year, I was able to graduate from college with three majors and a master’s degree,” she said. “I was a founder of one of the student organizations at Texas Tech that promotes the Spanish language. I was also able to create a scholarship fund for students who speak Spanish.”
She got hired in DISD and is now encouraging her bilingual students to embrace their stories, backgrounds and language.
“It’s important for me to help Hispanic and minority students to go to college. Because sometimes they don’t have the information and the tools to get there,” she explained.
She works with students like Vanessa Argueta, a sixth-grader whose family is from Guatemala. Argueta will be the first person in her family to go to college, same as many of her classmates.
“My mom and my dad both only went up to sixth grade, so they’re really passionate about me getting a good education,” Argueta said. “They don’t speak English. They speak a little bit, they don’t speak a lot. I’m the only one that can speak English.”
Argueta wants to be a doctor. Her classmates Keyla Ortega and Genesis Espinoza both want to be teachers. Mouret-Sanders wants the kids to know at an early age that college is possible. She helps her students and their parents find resources for college and career readiness.
“She’s met with my mom, helped her figure out options for me to get to college and helped her translate,” said Argueta.
“I want to set up these kids and get them on a level playing field. So I started College Fridays in my class, where we talk about different opportunities for college and give them the language to be successful.”
She introduces them to role models who have graduated, shows potential career paths and gives inspiration to stay in school.
“If I did it, not from this country, not speaking the language, and I have been able to get three degrees and my master's, and am now a teacher… these kids can do it too,” Mouret-Sanders said.
The World Cultures and Reading teacher wants her students to know that college is possible for them, just like it was for her. She also hopes they come out of her mentorship bilingual, bicultural and able to manage both cultures along with college applications.