In the fall of 2001, I began my career teaching ninth and 10th grade English in Roma, Texas, a small, rural town nestled right on the border of Mexico. I arrived in the Rio Grande Valley through the Teach For America program, which addresses educational inequity by placing recent college graduates in low-income communities to teach for two years. I had just graduated from James Madison University and spent six weeks in an intense summer training institute. I immersed myself in my school, my community, and my job. As an English teacher at Roma High School, I experienced the achievement gap firsthand. An overwhelming majority of my students read far below grade level, and I was faced with the daunting task of bringing them up to par. We read and wrote constantly — my students befriended Chinua Achebe, Gary Soto, John Steinbeck, Sandra Cisneros, William Shakespeare, Ayn Rand, and Kamala Markandaya, to name a few. We worked hard and made incredible strides.

After teaching for two years, I left to pursue a master's degree in language and literacy from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. Because of my experience in Roma, I focused my studies on teaching literacy, with a specific focus on language acquisition and teaching English language learners. I had the privilege of learning from the best in the field. My professors and fellow classmates at Harvard shared their collective experiences with me and I developed a newfound desire to work with beginning teachers. I wanted to better prepare them for the challenges I had experienced in my first year as a teacher.

After graduating from Harvard, I returned to Texas and began my new job as a program director with Teach For America. I was responsible for developing and implementing a professional development support structure for first- and second-year teachers across 15 schools in three districts. I spent my time observing teachers, engaging in post-observation reflective conversations, delivering English- and literacy-based workshops, and planning conferences for teachers. Even though I donned a suit every day in the South Texas heat, I loved my job. The shared passion among my colleagues propelled me to support them as best I could, and their students deserved the best possible teachers we could provide.

Observing students and teachers made me miss teaching kids. In the spring of 2006, my wife and I moved to Fairfax County, Va., where we both teach in the Fairfax County Public Schools. I currently teach freshmen English and run the Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) program at Fairfax High School. Due to my experience with Teach For America, my ongoing professional goal is to close the achievement gap that exists within public schools. The AVID program is a perfect fit; our students are typically low-income or first-generation college bound, and we prepare them for college by encouraging them to take rigorous honors and Advanced Placement courses and providing them with academic support along the way. My place is in the classroom, and I can't imagine doing anything else.

When I'm not teaching, I love spending time with my wife, working on our new home in Annandale, Va., playing tennis, cooking, reading, and rooting for the Boston Red Sox.