As of March 1st, Hoover welcomes the new vice principal, Mrs. Erica Barceló Carrillo. After seventeen years of experience: as a teacher, a math coach, a social worker, dean of students and administrative intern, she is now something she never imagined she would become. Ever since she was a little girl she knew teaching was never in her plans. In fact, it was the last thing she would consider as a career. As she grew older, education became very important to her. She thanks to her parents for who she is now what she is, a hard worker or “Barceló,” which is what her father would call his children.

“One thing that I’ve learned as a human in this planet is that I don’t make a lot of plans. The only thing I said I would never do became my one true love, education. I fought it for so long, terca pues, that I’ll never be a teacher and here I am, I am still a teacher,” explained Mrs. Carrillo. “I am a teacher in a different way. I found my home. I feel like I’m home. You guys are incredible. The staff is so warm and welcoming, it feels like I’ve been here forever, it’s home! As of today, I’ll never say never because the world has a very funny way of laughing at what you. I never thought I would be here, a vice principal at Hoover High School, and yet here I am and I can’t imagine anywhere else I would rather be. I don’t make a lot of plans; I just keep working hard, looking forward, trying to be a better person and then wherever this crazy life takes me. I want to grow roots here.”

The diversity at Hoover is the reason she knew she belonged here. All the different backgrounds and cultures caught her attention. Her main goal is to demonstrate how this school is not what others consider it to be. On the contrary, it is a school full of opportunities and she wants the data to reflect the magnificent things happening here at Hoover. She needs Hoover students to continue to grow, to become that school where people want to be at. It’s only going to happen if we, the ones that are already here, start to take ownership because this is our school. We need to take pride, responsibility and take ownership to fight for what we believe in. We have to decide who we are and what we want to be and it has to mean something in your soul. To Mrs. Barcelo the Hoover community is like a tapestry, where we are responsible for each other, every name is a part of it, either we blemish together or we don’t. We need to find pride in our community, to feel proud to be part of it.

Here is a message to all the cardinals from Mrs. Barceló Carrillo:

“School and education are the ticket to the world, you can pick and literally go anywhere in the world and now in the universe. You can go anywhere with education. You can study abroad, you can travel the galaxy. There’s nowhere you can’t go with education. Seniors, you are going to learn if you are reflective, if you’re open, if you’re a hard thinker. You’re going to learn just as much from the hard times as your learn from the good times and your personal growth. I’ve probably learned how to be a better person, how to be a stronger person, how to persevere more through the hardest times of my life. The world is ugly and the world is tough. If you’re smart enough, you’ll learn from that. You’re going to have good times in life, so enjoy it. If I could just give you a message, take responsibility. Instead of blaming grow from it. Take note so that you don’t repeat the same mistakes again. Struggle is not a bad word. In fact, struggle helps us grow. Life is sometimes going to be hard but be smart enough to learn from it, reflect what your role was and then change it if you don’t like it.
Every single year in high school is important, every year. Senior year is where you’re kind of not wrapping it up because you’re not done. Senioritis is real, keep your eye on the ball. Your junior year is the year when you’re applying to colleges. They are looking at your grades, extracurricular activities, they are looking at all of it. Your sophomore year, well you’re not the baby anymore. It seems so far away, it’s not, it really is right around the corner. It’s going to come so fast so just do what you need to do, handle your business.”

“To my freshmen, if you have to fix some stuff, you’re not babies anymore; it’s like you’re too big to be treated like a baby but too little to be treated like an adult. You’re in that limbo weird phase. Start off right and do it right now because high school is not a joke anymore. You’re not going to pass just because you show up. I’m not saying it determines what happens to the rest of your life but it definitely is the foundation. Either you’re going to leave high school ready to jump to your next challenge, whether it’s your career or college or you’re going to be spending some of those years after high school fixing the mistakes you made in high school. If nothing else, you can’t say nobody told you because Carrillo just told you. This is your home, I’m invited into your home, you tell me what you want to change, you tell me what you want to be better and then you tell me what you need that can make that happen but this is your home, I’m invited.”