As a sophomore at Villanova University, Jessica Sardina enrolled in an ESL class with an attached service component. It was through this class that Jessica was introduced to the CCATE community through weekly visits to the organization in Norristown. Before her weekly service with CCATE, Jessica had little teaching experience and only knew a little bit of Spanish. Through her work with the community, she was able to expand her teaching skills and learn more of the language from many community members. During her time volunteering, Jessica enjoyed helping CCATE to improve the literacy of community members in both English and Spanish by creating various writing activities for the community to learn from. After her sophomore service class, Jessica decided to continue working with CCATE and was asked to lead a summer session class and serve as an intern. Jessica continued to mentor and work with the high school group along with the college preparation class over the summer and was able to teach a class called “Art as Activism” with another CCATE teacher.
A recent graduate, Jessica is busy preparing for life after Villanova. She plans on visiting Mexico and serving as a volunteer in education. After a year of service abroad, she then hopes to return to the states to become a teacher. Jessica hopes to obtain her Master’s degree, specifically at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where she would like to participate in the PLACE program. This program stands for Partners in Los Angeles Catholic Education and works with urban communities focusing on Catholic education and placing student teachers into urban schools. Her ultimate goal is to work with the border community as a biology teacher in Southern California.
Over the years, Jessica has enjoyed working with the CCATE community. She says that it is an extremely powerful and empowering community where members are invested in the education of one another. All of the leaders in the CCATE community also emphasize the importance of questioning knowledge and challenging societal ideals, which is helping the younger generation discover their voices and contribute to justice where it is currently absent. Jessica also notes that CCATE is special because it is so deeply rooted into the entire community, which includes entire families instead of scattered individuals. She is proud that she has been able to call herself a member of this loving, educational, and influential community. In the future, she hopes to see the disconnect that has been created by virtual programming restored within the community and to see a wider outreach to other Latinx communities outside of Norristown.