How One Staff Member Keeps Going Above and Beyond to Serve Her Community

Ms. Dilworth is making a difference at De Diego Community Academy. Fun fact: She’s a De Diego alumna! In addition to supporting students as a special education classroom assistant, her principal has been amazed by her leadership and positive spirit. This energy led to her coordinating a fabulous back-to-school event that was a huge success! On top of that, she is also behind her school’s social media accounts, which document the joy of learning and working at De Diego. 

She is also now working toward becoming a teacher! We interviewed her to hear more about all of her hard work and dedication to the De Diego community. Check out more below! 

How would you describe your school to someone who is unfamiliar with it? 

This school does a great job of celebrating diversity. Of course, there is a strong Puerto Rican culture in our neighborhood, but it is so much more than that here. It was an amazing school for me growing up. I still see some of the teachers here that I had as a student! You’re definitely going to grow in this building, and the staff is going to push you to be something great! 

What encouraged you to take on these extra responsibilities? 

We didn’t have a social media account, and I knew that we needed one for parent engagement. The first event I actually did for the school was an Autism Awareness event, and it was beautiful. For my next event, I wanted even more community involvement. I feel like I did an amazing job with the back-to-school event, and I worked on it starting on the last day of school all the way through the summer! 

I got so many emails because the students loved it! We had so many resources there. The students were amazed by everything we had there. We even went through all 240 of our hot dogs! 

What is your top goal for the school year? 

Since I’m still pretty young, I feel like I know what the students like, so I’m trying to be more engaged with them, but in an educational way. I feel like school should be fun. That’s how you improve attendance! I also want to keep creating these great events that involve the community. 

What is your message to your students so that they can be successful? 

Always work hard! Keep sharing your ideas because you never know what will happen. And if you keep being yourself in a positive way, just watch what that will do for you!