A Calling to Help

By Angelique Reyes

Karina Coloma is an English Essentials teacher who has been teaching here at Yerba Buena High School for 6 years.

Mrs. Coloma had first started as a high school counselor before she had realized she wanted to help out students who had an IEP that were struggling with graduating.

Coloma: “I saw this huge gap with graduation rates.”

She had also realized that a family member of hers that has autism wasn’t receiving the proper support he needed.

Coloma: “ I have a cousin who has special needs and I realize that he is not getting the proper support that he needs”.

This made her want to help students more and give them the right support that would help them in the future. At first, she did not want to become a teacher because she had seen what her brother went through as a teacher. Even then, she was still determined to help out students who were struggling.

In the process of getting her master's degree, she was working as a substitute teacher in general education. She had always thought she would never be able to become a teacher because she thought she would never get along with the students since there were so many. Despite having differences, she was really thinking about how she wanted to help these students succeed.

Although she had the credentials to teach math, science, and history, she was most passionate about art and chose to stay in the world of special education as an English teacher.

As Mrs. Coloma says, “I really wanted to make a change in the world of special education”.