Academics

Educator Profiles

View All

Stephanie Garcia

Student Living Administrative Asst.
HS Student Living
Montebello, CA

I attended East Los Angeles Community College and then traveled since my husband was in the Coast Guard, so we lived everywhere—Miami, North Carolina, Detroit, but my favorite was at the Redondo Beach station in LA. In that time, throughout my travels, I went to Miami Dade Community College where I studied Early Childhood Education. Prior to coming to SFIS, I worked with the Department of the Interior Sherman Indian High School in Riverside, California. I held a number of positions, including being an intertribal council sponsor, which led me to attend conferences for leadership. We represented 72 tribes and were able to visit with those tribes to promote intertribal information at our school. As my husband is from Nambe Pueblo, we decided to move back to New Mexico, and enrolled our daughter at SFIS.
I am the Secretary for Student Living Programs, and also oversee attendance for residential life. When parents come in and they are not sure where their children are situated, I’m the first person they see. I try to be positive for them and for all who come in to the dorms since I am the first point of contact, and am also able to track students down. I’m the go-to person for everything from students who are locked out of their rooms, when nurses need assistance with students, to the Christmas coordinator to the Rail Runner coordinator—to make sure the students take off safely and arrive safely. I also tutor with the 21st Century Program. I get to meet the new 7th and 8th graders and they aren’t afraid when they come up to the High School because they know there is a friendly face here. I stay after hours to help them run errands—they’re great to be around.
I think early on I always wanted to work with students, and when I started working with older students, I realized the amount of nurturing they needed, especially being far away from home. I play the role of helping them in every capacity—being in a parent role for them, encouraging them, just as I would my own children, to choose the right things to do and to be respectful in their home, which is the school home—which is a beautiful place. My own parents inspired me, my father has his doctorate in education and it has always been instilled in me to go down this path.
I think the SFIS values of caring and respect, for young adults and elders that come in, are so important. No matter who walks through that door, we treat them with the utmost respect and are courteous to them. The friendlier I am, it is returned. I never try to come with a bad day—I’m here every day, and every day is a good day to be here with the students and staff. I just love coming to work everyday.
Helping is my passion. Being available, and being a friend to all. And I like a positive work environment. We have enough negativity in the world, so it’s nice to be here and not have all that. For SFIS students, I hope that they are able to leave with a sense that they are always welcome to come back and that they are able to pursue the short and long-term goals that they set for themselves. Whether they are college-bound or trade- bound, to follow the passion that they have that will keep them happy in life. Students say, “I don’t want to go to college, is that dumb of me?” and I tell them it’s not dumb of them—“It’s okay to be an individual.” For the staff, I tell them, “Pat yourselves on the back because you don’t realize what you do.” We went on a road trip to visit other Bureau-operated schools—we called ourselves The Magnificent 8. We saw things we would like to bring back, but there were a lot of things that made us realize we need to take pride in what we do, what we accomplish with our students. We made presentations to our own staff, and we have visitors that want to come and see our school. And for the school to encourage and to give us that opportunity to go is great.