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Hi! My name is Cindy Salinas. I'm an educational studies major with a concentration in TESOL. I'm Peruvian and I speak Spanish. This picture was taken as I was about to leave for the Karol G concert at Gillette Stadium!

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Growing up, I didn't really care for my ethnic background. Now that I am older, I am so proud to be Peruvian. I grew up in Saugus and at the time, it was a predominantly white town. I was 1 out of 5 Hispanic students in my grade and I was extremely embarrassed at first. I used to hide things about my culture including the food and language. I would hate speaking Spanish in front of my white friends and I would never eat my lunch that I brought from home. I think that's why I am so proud to be Peruvian now, because I was embarrassed of my ethnicity growing up.

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This picture was taken at my sister's wedding! My parents moved here from Peru in the early 90s. They actually knew each other in Peru, but didn't officially date until they reunited in the United States. My sister and I were born here, but we always spoke Spanish at home. Now, my sister and I speak only English to each other, but Spanish to our parents. We've had a lot of hardships as a family struggling financially, family members who betrayed us or turned their backs on us. It's always been us four who remained strong and supported one another.

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This is my dog, Archie! Archie is a Blue Heeler and he is 3 years old. I grew up with dogs my whole life, but I've never had one to call my own. Or bonded enough with a dog. Archie changed that for me and he really is my best friend.

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I recently went to NYC with my boyfriend. It brought back all of my childhood memories because my family and I used to go to NYC often. It was really the only place we could vacation together due to my father's immigration status. (also I'm terrified of heights)

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I worked as an instructional paraprofessional for two school years. I absolutely loved my job. I went into the job, not really knowing how I would provide support in the classroom. I'm so glad I did it. Growing up, I never had any extra support because I was usually the quiet one and teachers assumed that I was fine. I would fall behind on classwork/homework and sometimes I just needed someone to repeat the directions. Working as a paraprofessional made me realize almost every student could use the extra support and there's nothing wrong with that! I provided support to some students who weren't on IEPs, whether it was academic or social/emotional support.

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When you can't find the word in a language so you fill it in with another language.

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My home language is Spanish. My parents only speak Spanish and growing up, my siblings and I were encouraged to speak English to one another. I lived in East Boston until I was 8 and I would speak more Spanish than English because all of my friends spoke Spanish. When I moved to Saugus, I only spoke English. I'm fluent in both languages now, but I find myself forgetting some of my Spanish vocabulary because I don't speak it as much as English. When I speak to my sister or cousins, we speak Spanglish. We say some words in English and some in Spanish because sometimes we just forget one word and replace it with the same word, but in a different language.

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My experience as a paraprofessional solidified the fact that I want to be an ELL/ML teacher. When I worked as a paraprofessional, I spoke more Spanish to the students than English. A lot of the kids were ELLs and they needed support in the classroom. I would substitute for the ML teacher and it honestly hit home working there. All my life, I've been surrounded by different languages and long time ELLs.