contents - Gallatin School of Individualized Study - New York ...

ana rios Finding Encouragement96work to benefit the community.During the four years that I worked there, the people were very grateful,and the community grew. During the school season people came from other townsto register at our school. I started with 19 students and four years later ended withmore than 80 students.As you can imagine, I faced different challenges. For example, somepowerful guys wanted to date me, but I refused because I didn’t want to be a badexample. Unfortunately, their reactions weren’t always nice. Once, at a party,a man asked me out. When I said no because I was a teacher, he became furious,took out his gun, put it to my head and said, “You have to say yes.” My answer wasno. I told him to kill me if he wanted to, that I wasn’t afraid, but he would makemy family cry. Luckily, he just shot into the air. I was able to overcome challengesbecause the mothers of the students took care of me and supported me like I wastheir daughter.I learned a lot in my first job. One of the most important lessons was if wedo something with love, it is not only personally satisfying, it is also an examplefor others and motivates them to grow, too. Years later, I still think of how I mightreturn to Rosario del Tapado and El Triunfo and work there once again.Born in La Paz, Bolivia, Ana Rios has lived in New York for 20 years. She studiesat La Guardia Community College’s Adult Learning Center, where her teacheris Ellen Quish. “I’m always doing something for the people around me,” AnaRios writes. “I put them first, and if I have a little time once in a while, I read andpractice English. Little by little my life is improving.”