As the school year commences, the RHS language department receives another new edition, Jessica Rodriguez.

Rodriguez is a native Spanish speaker from Puerto Rico. Having been a teacher for about two years, mainly teaching high school, she is very excited to embark on her journey as a Robinson Knight. This year, she is teaching Spanish 1 and 3.

Before teaching Spanish at RHS, Rodriguez was a social worker for about 25 years.

“It was super emotionally draining but I still wanted to work with teens. I know there was a shortage of teachers and I actually used to teach, not in school but in church, so I decided to become a teacher,” Rodriguez said. “[I wanted] to be around teens in a different way and help them in a [more direct] way than I was doing as a social worker.”

Although she waited to pursue a teaching career, Rodriguez has always liked the thought of being a teacher; she kept teaching in her back-pocket for a while. Attending college in Puerto Rico, she studied Psychology and Biology, then later, upon moving to the United States, she studied Biology and Criminology at the University of South Florida.

“I was very interested in psychology, but it doesn’t pay very well, which is part of one of the reasons why I decided to become a social worker,” Rodriguez said.

Seeing as Spanish is her first language she thought it was only fitting for it to be the subject she teaches. That and the fact that she loves the complexity and rules of the language when it comes to accents, emphasis and grammar.

“I truly love grammar, so I did consider teaching English but I thought I would be better at Spanish. I appreciate all the attention to detail, like why this goes here, verbs and all of the rules. I just love the language,” Rodriguez said.

This year, she hopes to build a strong bond with each and everyone of her students. Although she has only been here for a short time Rodriguez is already leaving a good impression.

“I’ve only talked to her a few times and she seems very nice and genuine. I think she’s going to be a great teacher,” Samara Saenz (’23) says.

Rodriguez is very excited for her future at Robinson and hopes to help all her students become the best version of themselves that they can be.

“As a teacher, my goal is to reach every student. . . . I really want to reach those students that are not used to teachers believing in them and I want them to know that I believe in them,” Rodriguez said. “I know that not everyone has a good life, we can’t just assume that everyone knows what its like to be in a family, and I do know how it feels like to be a foster kid, not personally but that is the population that I used to work with, and I know the struggles that this age group goes though independently.”