DALLAS — Not long ago, at Kahn Elementary in Dallas, principal Monica Marquez took time to reflect on her career. After 27 years of dedicated service, she wondered, "Was it worth it?"
“Everything I did and I put my heart into I always wondered, ‘Did I really make a difference in that child’s life?'” Marquez asked.
She got her answer from one former student she taught nearly 30 years ago.
Selene Ramos was in Marquez’s third grade class, long before Marquez became principal. Ramos says she loved school but loved her teacher even more.
“She’s a role model,” Ramos said. “She’s always been a role model. I always saw her and said, ‘I want to be like her.’”
“I knew she was going to do something great, but I didn’t know what at the time,” Marquez said.
Marquez always believed Ramos would go far, but never could’ve imagined she’d go just 10 feet away from her.
Her former student is her new assistant principal. Their offices are side by side.
“Wow,” Marquez said. “The little girl I knew in third grade and here she is helping me run the school.”
Ramos says as long as she can remember, she wanted to be a teacher, and she was before becoming assistant principal, in large part because she had a good example.
“She’s still motivating me, she’s still believing in me, she’s still pouring her heart into me and she’s still teaching me every day,” Ramos said.
Marquez says she learned something too.
“This experience has really helped me to see that yes, yes I did. I did make that impact on this one child’s life,” said Marquez.
One child and maybe, thousands to come.
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