Academics

Educator Profiles

View All

Joe Sandoval

Student Living Advisor
HS Student Living
San Felipe Pueblo

Prior to arriving to SFIS, I worked for the Pueblo of San Felipe as a Youth Counselor. I came to SFIS in 1988 and have been here since. I am a Student Living Advisor (SLA), and this school year, I will be working with 7th graders. We follow these groups until they promote. The SLAs are involved with not just Student Living, but also Academics. We check on student grades and also assist with referring students to Case Managers for counseling if needed. We also to establish sign-in sheets and provide forms to students for them to sign in when they complete their academic days. We do this to keep track of our students, so if a student is going to the Evening Activities Center (EAC) or athletics or a meeting, and a parent calls, we know when the student signed out and where they are. This is important, especially in case of emergency. In the evenings, we also monitor study halls for students. At curfew, at 8:30pm, whatever information that we need to provide to our students, we do at meetings with our case loads. At the beginning of the school year, we also create expectations with students—for everything from keeping rooms clean to academics. It’s our responsibility to teach students how to be on their own.
When I first came to SFIS, I knew that this kind of work was what I liked, this is who I am and where I belong. I can’t choose just one memory, but what I think makes this place special is our students and the staff—who are all from different communities. Even though we have our differences, a majority of us here are Native, and we have the knowledge to assist us if there is anything to come between us—we have that knowledge of how to work things out. There’s no one perfect out there—we all have problems. But we are still able to work through them.
I just love being with kids, being around kids. This will be the 5th year that I am not working for my tribe, but prior to that, for five consecutive years, I consistently tried to do work focused on our Native children. Even during the summers when I am off, I am still working with kids in my community. For SFIS students, I hope that when they leave school that they still have this sense of respect for themselves and for others. I hope that they have gained knowledge for how to do well on their own based on the life skills we have taught them. I tell the students that they are bright, they are smart. I expect that when they graduate they go to college, and that one of these days I will count on them to teach me something that I have not learned. That they will pay me back in that way.