Aspiring special education teacher keeps dream alive thanks to scholarship

For Alma Ramirez, it’s not a surprise that her daughter, Gabriella, is pursuing a career as a special education teacher. With a brother on the autism spectrum, Gabriella developed a passion for nur­turing and caring for others at an early age.

“My brother and I grew up together and are really close,” said Gabriella. “So I kind of just got used to teachers asking for my help, and I always wanted to be the person that would help.”

According to Alma, Gabriella has always been a great student: organized and committed.

“Her assignments are too organized,” Alma said with a laugh.

In recent years, Alma has had the opportunity to observe and relate to her daughter in a new way: as a fellow student. With Gabriella pursuing an education degree at Arizona State Uni­versity, Alma worked toward and achieved a social work degree on the same campus.

Following Alma’s graduation in 2023, she resigned from her job at the Uni­versity of Arizona to accept a position with Valleywise Health. Although a positive career move, Alma’s resigna­tion from the university had an unin­tended consequence.

“An unfortunate example of poor timing, my departure from the univer­sity in August 2023 occurred a couple days too early, meaning Gabriella was no longer eligible to receive the tuition reduction normally offered to immediate family of university employees,” said Alma.

Upon discovering that she’d need to find another way to pay her college tuition, Gabriella began to explore potential scholarship opportunities.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what am I going to do?’ I found out about some teacher scholarships that existed, but they had stipulations requiring recipi­ents to teach at Title I schools following graduation,” said Gabriella.

“I didn’t want her to do that,” explained Alma. “I knew that experience would be a difficult road and would break her heart.”

Fortunately, that’s when serendipity stepped in. As part of her new job at Valleywise Health, Alma attended com­munity events, staffing a Valleywise Health booth to engage members of the community. While attending one of these events, Alma stumbled upon an Arizona PBS booth and Senior Regional Education Coordinator Gordon Brown.

“Gordon started telling me about the early childhood educator scholarship program, and I thought, ‘That’s exactly what my daughter needs!'”

Gordon encouraged Alma to have her daughter reach out to him for information about the scholarship program, which the station administers with support from First Things First, Arizo­na’s early childhood agency.

After talking with Gordon, it wasn’t long before Gabriella applied for and was eventually awarded a scholarship.

“When she got it, she called me up, and we were both crying,” said Alma. “I can’t express our gratitude enough! What would we have done without this schol­arship program?”

Alma is one of more than 6,000 pro­spective educators who have been con­nected with a scholarship since the program was launched in fall 2015.

“Since she was young, I’ve often felt that Gabriella is destined to do some­thing impactful with her life, and it’s not just because she’s my child; I have other children,” said Alma. “It’s her kindness and her heart. And now, with the help of this scholarship, I know the positive impact that she’s going to have on every child in her classroom.”

With an internship in the Tempe School District in a Special Ed classroom this fall, it’s a safe bet that Gabriella is already making a difference in the lives of her young students.

Read other scholar success stories, and please share the transformative power of educational opportunities like the Early Childhood Educator Scholarship Program with aspiring educators in our community.