Let’s honor those who served

While it may be obvious that some teachers have served in the military – the ROTC teachers Lt. Col. Ed Bruce and SSgt. Janet Santa – there are others who are less obvious. Mr. Joey Sova, the school’s new Sports Medicine teacher, for instance, and Ms. Gwen Williams, a Functional Academics (FA) Para educator room C2.  And not all of the military representatives work in the classroom. Varsity Football Coach Brian Johnson served in the United States Army 25th Infantry Division from 1996 until 2000 as a 92 golf, or Food Specialist, at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.

One of the Armijo teachers with the most experience in the classroom and the military is Ms. Sylvia Herrera. She was in the Army from 1982-1999. Like many young people who join, she didn’t have a lot of money but she wanted to get out of her hometown and the military was an inexpensive way to do that.

One stereotype about the Military is that it’s a rough place for very tough people. Some movies make it seem like it’s even a little scary, but this was not Ms. Herrera’s experience. “I loved being in the army,” she said. She loved traveling and mentioned how much she loved going to Germany and traveling around Europe. She even went to Japan!

For Ms. Herrera, it wasn’t so bad being in the military. The first few months were boot camp and training, and that was tough, but the overall experience wasn’t bad.

When she was in the Army, she hadn’t planned on going into teaching, but as she continued her education she got influenced by her professors. While Armijo wasn’t the first school she taught at, she started teaching at Armijo because the first school was too far from her where she lived.