TCNJ

20 The College of New Jersey Magazine KASSANDRA SÁNCHEZ '20 Stony Brook Elementary School, Pennington Third graders at Stony Brook Elementary know that Miss Sánchez hates roller coasters and loves summer, that her favorite movie is Matilda, and that she plans a big party in the city next door. That party — Trenton's Puerto Rican Day Festival — and Sánchez's proud role in it have helped shape the classroom that surrounds them, from the cozy reading corner brimming with books that spotlight cultures from around the world to the lessons threaded throughout their days, including a recent Diwali celebration. "I show them how I celebrate my culture, and I also celebrate their culture with them," she says. "Hopefully, it's building that sense of identity, teaching them to love who they are." Sánchez talks about her family and the local history of Trenton's Puerto Rican community, which she documented for a research project while at TCNJ, so students can feel free to share their own stories. And they do, describing traditions behind their names, the foods they eat, and the special outfits they wear on holidays. Her determination to help them discover who they are stems from her own certainty about who she is: a proud Puerto Rican woman and, especially, a teacher. It was a career choice that had its skeptics. As valedictorian of her high school graduating class, Sánchez was constantly asked one question: Will you study medicine or law? When her answer, "I'm going to be a teacher," shocked everyone, she briefly hedged her bets and enrolled in TCNJ as a chemistry major. The experiment lasted for half a semester. Sánchez switched to elementary education and never looked back. "Right away, it was like being home," she says. Kassandra Sánchez at the Roberto Clemente mural in Trenton, New Jersey

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