ALIDA PASTORIZA MALDONADO / FACULTY PROFESSOR, DENTAL HYGIENE
We lived in Hell’s Kitchen, where our heat came from a kerosene stove stored inside a closet. When the building was condemned, my father refused the offer to move into public housing. They stayed, living as roomers, and my sis and I were sent to P.R. with my abuela. And those five years initiated and shaped my academic trajectory. I was only in school in Puerto Rico from third to seventh grade, and there was where I was told, and I believed, that I was college material. I don’t remember my cousins or friends believing otherwise. Finally, the family was reunited in an apartment over a church in Chelsea. Academically, I always needed to play “catch up.” In 1971, after completing the B.S. degree, the professor at Hunter College who challenged me continuously nominated me to teach at the brand-new college called Hostos. My students also play catch up, but often without the structures that had been in place for me. I refuse to see my students as a cog in someone’s wheel, but...
I SEE TREMENDOUS POTENTIAL VALUE IN WHAT STUDENTS CAN GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY. HELPING THEM BECOME SELFDIRECTED LEARNERS ADVANCES THAT DELIBERATE AGENDA.
ALIDA PASTORIZA MALDONADO