Name: Marie-Anne Barrón Puertas

Hometown: Katy, TX

Program: MAT - English Cohort
 

What drew you to the MAT Program at Brown?

I was really excited about Brown’s focus on teaching for equity and social justice. I believe that classrooms and education are spaces for us to empower students from a young age to be critical thinkers and great communicators, and all of our courses are structured around creating equitable classrooms that promote student autonomy and independence, which is very important to me.
 

What has been your favorite MAT class and why?

My favorite MAT class is probably Learning Theory and Special Populations, taught this year by Professor Diane Silva Pimentel. In this class, we learned a lot about our responsibilities as educators and explored Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, like differentiation. I believe every student deserves access to a strong curriculum and this class taught me a lot about creating various entry points so all students would be able to participate in the classroom.

Where are you student-teaching? What do you like about it?

I’m currently student teaching at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island! It’s about twenty minutes from Brown and such a tight-knit community. It’s so diverse and there’s a large Hispanic population, so I feel right at home. In our square-mile city, CFHS serves over 2,600 students and I’m so grateful to have been placed here!

What is your favorite part about living in Providence and being at Brown?

I’m a fifth-year student at Brown because I started my MAT concurrently with my Bachelor’s. I love Brown because of its collaborative environment and the way that it promotes being the architect of your own education and finding your own path, with lots of help along the way. The friends and mentors I have met here are definitely a highlight of this campus to me. 

In the past few years, I feel that I have truly built a community in Providence, like a home away from home. It’s an artsy city and they value sleep (many establishments close by 9 pm) and there are so many places to go and discover. Rhode Island is also smaller than my home county, so it’s fun to drive and explore all the little towns in our state.

What are your future goals as an educator?

My goals are to continue supporting my communities and creating opportunities for empowerment and learning so that we can all grow and dream bigger dreams.