1) Why did you choose CASA as a place to mentor for FRC?

I was hired in June 1994 to work at Casa de la Esperanza as the Program Coordinator for our Youth Program. Though I was hired for just the summer, they asked me to continue working with the Casa community. Our program evolved out of not much at all but with great community support and vital collaborations, we have prospered. We will celebrate 16 years of academic support, recreational activities and incredible enrichment opportunities such as our robotics programming.

2) Did you have somebody in your educational world that helped you decide your career?

I was a peer tutor since about 7^th or 8^th grade and so I always enjoyed helping others do better with math and science. My high school counselor believed in me and encouraged me to assist with school activity which foster my leadership skills. She nominated me for a scholarship which paid all my expenses my freshman year at Adams State College. Again, she believed in me and if it was not for her guidance and encouragement, I do not think I would have ever accomplished what I have and I don’t know where I’d be.

3) What motivates you as an individual to come and mentor future engineers while working full time?

I teach and also run the after school program. It is both professionally, personally and immensely satisfying to foster students’ innate desire to learn. Our children are the future leaders and so we must impress on them how highly talented and valuable they are; how they will determine the fate of our world; how they too must nurture the future generations.

4) Tell us about yourself. Title of your job, location and how long, hobbies and etc.

Carlota Loya Hernández, the program coordinator, is a native of México and has worked in this community for over fifteen years, since the program’s inception. The coordinator is bilingual and bicultural and also worked as a seasonal farm worker for eight years of her youth growing up in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. She is currently also a math teacher with the Boulder Valley School District and holds a Masters degree in Education with a specialization in Instruction, Curriculum, Content and Assessment from the University of Colorado in Boulder. Additionally, she completed coursework for certifications in Linguistically & Culturally Diverse Education and Gifted & Talented Specialist. She has over twenty years experience working with immigrant populations and in the education of English Language Learners.

contact:  cloya@bouldercounty.org