Bianca Teniente wants to become a teacher — and not just an ordinary teacher. The Brookhaven College student is working on an educational résumé that includes working with children with language and learning challenges, as well as racking up experience in student leadership to be more effective in the classroom and beyond.
Choosing Brookhaven College was a fairly easy choice for Bianca — and education is all in the family.
“Brookhaven is close to my home, and the campus is very welcoming,” she says. “I see people that I know, and the size of the campus makes it feel like a little school. The faculty really connect with you.”
It was while she was still in high school at W.T. White that she realized she wanted to become a teacher. “My junior year in high school, I needed to do some volunteer hours for the National Honor Society,” she says.
“I volunteered at my church as an assistant Sunday school teacher for second-graders. I was working with two little girls who were struggling with their work, and after I’d tutored them, one of them said, ‘Thank you so much for helping me — nobody’s really helped me like that before.’ That felt so good that I knew I wanted to do more working with children.”
Though she was in choir and musical theater in high school, it was at Brookhaven that Bianca really overcame a shyness that’s hard to believe she ever had — by throwing herself wholeheartedly into student government. During her first year of community college, she served as public relations officer for the Brookhaven Student Government Association; she is a six-star member of the college’s Student Leadership Institute and serves as vice president of membership for the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega.
“My experience at Brookhaven has been wonderful,” she says. “The tuition is affordable and the campus and classrooms are not too big, so it’s not overwhelming. I have a lot of teachers who are mentors and who provide a lot of support to me since they know what I’m trying to accomplish. My advisors are really good, too — they’ve helped me to get scholarships and other opportunities.”
“Being in student government and leadership has been a great experience and has opened up all sorts of opportunities for me,” she says. “I ran for Student Council vice president that first year — then thought, what was I thinking? I was really shy and intimidated by some of the students who seemed to have so much experience. But once I started working with people I didn’t know and solving all kinds of different problems with them, I realized what good experience it was for practically everything — life in general. I have a much better understanding of working with all kinds of people from my experience in student leadership.”
She’s also found a tremendous source of encouragement: her instructors. “The best thing about Brookhaven has been the teachers,” she says. “I was afraid that they wouldn’t know me personally or that I’d just be a number, but here, if the teachers see you struggling, they want to help you. My professors always ask how I’m doing and coming along with my goals — it feels good to know I have professors who care.”
At Callier, Bianca works full time in summer months and part time during the school year helping children ages two to five who are hearing-impaired and who have various communication disabilities. “After seeing my dad, who’s a deaf education teacher here, work with kids, I knew that’s what I wanted to do to,” she says.
With plans to finish her associate degree in May 2011, Bianca has already established a timeline for her continued educational and career goals. She’d like to earn a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from the University of Texas, with a minor in music or performing arts. She’d like to keep full-tilt at her studies through master’s and doctoral degrees in education. Then one day maybe start a children’s theater.
“DCCCD has a wide variety of programs to prepare you for the world,” she says. “Just take a chance — you never know what you’ll find that you’ll be interested in and that will give you an opportunity you never imagined.”
For Bianca Teniente, it all began here.