Danya Villanueva Portfolio Homepage
Student Biography & Information
Educational Background
I attended a high school in an urban, predominantly working class community in San Diego. Of the approximately 500 incoming freshman in my class, less than half graduated. My graduation day was the first time that I became shockingly aware of the Chicana/o Pipeline. You do not always notice the “push out” phenomenon happening when you are on the AP track, like I was, but sitting in the audience at graduation, it was strikingly clear that there were a lot of people missing, too many.
From high school I pursued my B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in History and Chicana/o Studies. It was at UCLA, in my first year that I discovered my passion for teaching and social change. Early in my first quarter I was close to leaving UCLA because of the culture shock and home sickness that I was experiencing, but luckily I ran into an organization called the Community Programs Office (CPO). The director at the time, Tim Neubeni, helped center me, guide me, and encouraged me to realize, again, my passion for social justice, and made a place for me at UCLA. I worked for the CPO, a retention program and outreach program for 4 years. That place became my life and fueled my drive for finishing school. If I wasn’t working on a paper for class I was organizing Raza Day, tutoring high school students, or counseling undergraduate Chicanas/os. Fighting the marginalization of youth in high school and undergraduate students at UCLA became my priority. Chicana/o Studies and the culturally relevant pedagogy I learned combined with the love I learned at the CPO put me on a trajectory to becoming a teacher. I furthered pursued my higher education at UCLA in the Teacher Education Program (TEP) where I received a Master’s in Education, a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential with a BLCAD (Bilingual Crosscultural, Language , and Academic Development) emphasis.
Professional Experience
During my time as an educator I have served in many different capacities and in various leadership roles. I was a guiding teacher for student teachers, a member of the school site council, middle school lead teacher, union representative, yearbook advisor, Students Run Los Angeles team leader and the Restorative Justice Coordinator. I have also planned and led professional developments in the areas of differentiation, literacy, and restorative justice practices.
My vision is to create equitable and culturally relevant schools for students so that they can experience transformational schooling that will empower them to fulfill their goals. My hope is that through education, students will engage critically with their surroundings and become academically and socially empowered to challenge systems of oppression. “Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” – Paolo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed in a student-led course at UCLA as an undergraduate student, reframed the student, teacher and social relationship as one that should be used to co-create knowledge and understanding whereas traditional pedagogy follows the "banking model," where students are seen as empty vessels to be filled.
Personal Experiences
I grew up in a household where a typical dinner conversation revolved around issues of equity and social justice, but there were two events that contextualized these conversations. One was attending Cesar Chavez’s funeral in Delano, California in 1993. I was only 10 years old but I remember being overwhelmed with sadness at seeing my Mom so devastated. Cesar Chavez was a labor leader and civil rights activist but for my Mom, he represented her life’s passion, life choices and commitment to education and social justice. I realized then that my parent’s life choices as educators and their social activism were intrinsically connected and inseparable. Around this same age, I recall a trip with my parent’s to Mexico that also helped shape my views on social justice and equality. Since both of my parents are educators our summers were spent with my Dad’s side of the family in a rural part of central Mexico. One summer, on our way back to California, we drove through a small town in Texas and stopped to eat lunch. I walked in with my family: My Mom, who is a fair-skinned, blue-eyed woman of Russian Jewish decent, my father, a dark complected Mexican, my sister and I. We sat ourselves at a table and almost immediately, I noticed that all of the customers and employees were staring at us. They never attended us. We walked out, hungry and drove to the next big city to find a place to eat. I knew what we had just experienced was unjust and I knew my feelings of anger were real. It was then that I began to think critically about issues of equity and social justice on a larger scale.
School Context
Camino Charter Academy
Sandra Cisneros Campus
1018 Mohawk Street.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
http://cisneros.caminonuevo.org/
Mission
“The mission of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy is to educate students in a college preparatory program to be literate, critical thinkers, and independent problem solvers who are agents of social justice with sensitivity toward the world around them.”[1]
Vision
"The underlying philosophy of CNCA is that when underserved students are provided equal access to rigorous, research-based educational programs in which families are an integral component, children gain the tools to achieve academic success as early as kindergarten." [2]
History
Camino Nuevo Charter Academy has a history rooted in grassroots community organizing. “Camino Nuevo Charter Academy was founded in August 2000 by Pueblo Nuevo Development, a nonprofit community development corporation in the MacArthur Park neighborhood west of downtown Los Angeles. The MacArthur Park neighborhood is one of the most under-resourced and densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Most of the residents are immigrants from Mexico and Central America. In 1992, Philip Lance began working with residents of the community to find ways to address the severe economic and social needs in the area. Over the past 10 years, several organizations and businesses grew out of this effort, including a thrift store, a worker-owned janitorial company, a non-profit community development corporation, free clinic and Camino Nuevo Charter Academy. Together, these organizations are providing children with outstanding and enriched educational opportunities as well as revitalizing this urban neighborhood and making it a safe and healthy place to live.” (www.caminonuevo.org)
Community and School Demographics
Sandra Cisneros Learning Academy is nestled in the heart of Echo Park. The school opened in the fall of 2011, serving a little over 590 students grades K-7, now, 3 years later the school has 650 students, grades K-8. Echo Park is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, with a rich history of diverse populations and historic landmarks. During the middle of the 19th century, Echo Park was know as Red Hill, for the large population of communists, socialists and other progressives. It has also been a gateway to many immigrant populations such as Chinese, Italians, French and Latinas/os. Latinas/os still remain the majority, but from 2000 to 2010 the white population grew from 13% to 23%. And the gentrification that this neighborhood is experiencing contributes to the attrition that we experience at our school site.
PLI Fieldwork Cohort 14
Site Supervisor: Shannon Leonard, Principal
Field Work Supervisor: Dr. Nancy Parachini
Contact Information: Danya Villanueva, danya.villanueva@gmail.com
Project 1: Restorative Justice in a K-8 School
Project 2: PLC Lead Teacher/ Common Core PDs
Project 3: Camino Nuevo Teacher's Association (CNTA) Site Representative
Project 4: Middle School Co-Lead Teacher
Compliance Documents
[1] Camino Nuevo website, http://www.caminonuevo.org/About/CaminoNuevo/tabid/8134/Default.aspx
[2] http://harvard.caminonuevo.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=FRkuT_D0Vmc%3D&tabid=19765
