From sophomore to senior year of college, San Dimas High School’s own Ms. Perez was a rock climbing instructor at the University of Riverside. Her love for rock climbing expresses who she is as a person.
Prior to this job, she had no experience and no clue what she wanted to do. The interview process At UCR consists of being interviewed for multiple jobs, such as a ref or a personal trainer, and at the time, Perez was looking for a job and the rock climbing position ended up being open.
Working as a rock-climbing instructor was a great job because it was local and you didn’t need prior experience. Perez recounts the dangers of the hobby by saying ” It’s kind of scary because people’s lives are in your hands on a rope.”
Ms. Perez’s whole school experience was an 11 out of 10. She loved being at UCR and loved everyone there. She felt as if she fit in and was a part of everything. Working at UCR made it easier for her to meet new people on campus and get out of her comfort zone. Rock climbing was one of many memorable moments at UCR for Ms. Perez.
Becoming a math teacher was very out of the blue for Perez because all she thought about was rock climbing. ” I wasn’t always the smartest natural person in the room but I was always going to tutoring , and always going to office hours and then I would end up getting better grades than other people so people started asking me to tutor them and they just told me I was a good tutor so I think it was a mixture of me liking people and being good at math.”
She started at a middle school and did not like it at all but then someone didn’t let her quit. Her adviser told her to do this job as a backup, so she did. It took Perez 3 whole years to finally enjoy the job. “It went against my personality. At first I was too nice, now I just have to be a jerk with telling people what to do and to put their phones away and do their work.” She has now been teaching for 9 years and absolutely loves it. Yes, she loved being an instructor, but teaching has more responsibility.
Perez is now one of the best math teachers at San Dimas High School. She loves being a Saint. The drive she has to help kids is huge as she has her door open before school, during 5th, lunch, and afterschool for kids that were just like her growing up. She got help and tutoring every day and as she became a teacher, she gave back the same thing she got. Perez inspires kids to be great no matter what through math and life. Math is her happiness, and it can be for some kids too.
