Ashley Santizo

Name: Ashley Santizo
Graduation Term: Summer 2020
Major: Biology: Ecology and Environmental Studies
CSI3 Undergraduate Program: MSTI and Noyce
Hobbies: Cooking, yoga, exercising, dancing

What is your current status?
I’m currently a 9th grade biology teacher at Animo Compton Charter High school and I also teach one 8th grade class.

What do you enjoy the most about your current status?
What I enjoy the most being a biology teacher is learning about my students and helping them discover career paths in STEM. I also enjoy sharing my life stories with them and letting them know that they are the future and anything they set their mind to, they can achieve it.

If you could give your junior/senior year self any words of advice, what would you say?
If I could give my junior year self any word of advice would be to network more. I would tell myself this because in the future I would like to invite guests to my classroom to talk about their careers in STEM and unfortunately, I did not network enough.

What has been one of the biggest lessons you have learned upon graduating?
The biggest lesson I have learned upon graduation would be to live one day at a time. After graduating I immediately started my graduate and credential program. This program was accelerated meaning I was a full-time student and a student teacher. The workload was heavy and sometimes I would try to complete all my tasks in one day, but it was impossible. This was affecting my sleeping schedule and I would just feel tired every single day. So I stopped trying to complete everything in one day and just took it one day at a time.

What keeps you motivated and positive throughout life’s hardships?
What kept me motivated and positive throughout life’s hardships would be myself and my family. I want to do better in life, so I keep pushing myself to excel on every single little thing that I set my mind to. My family is also another motivation because they have been there for me since day one and making sure I don’t give up on my goals.

Is there anyone from the CSI3 program you would like to thank or give a shout-out to?
Being part of the CSI3 program for 4 years as an undergraduate was one of the best decisions I made in college. During finals, the whole staff were life savers for providing snacks, scantrons, blue books and coffee. The whole CSI3 staff also always welcomed you to their office with a smile and just overall a positive vibe. But I especially want to give a shout out to Noemi because she constantly checked up on me to make sure I was passing my major classes and pushed me to go to the office and tutoring hours. I honestly wouldn’t have graduated as a biology major without her. Thank you so much NOEMI!!!!!

Updated on 11/17/21