Building bridges:
Springfield NEA member Ali Traub
receives National Human and Civil Rights Award

Springfield NEA’s Ali Traub paves road of opportunity for Central High Schools Hispanic students.

Alicia Traub began her teaching career as a Spanish teacher. She thought she would get her feet wet in her first teaching job and eventually find a job as an elementary school teacher. Then she met Sandra.

Sandra arrived in Springfield six years ago from El Salvador. First, her father came to the United States. Then he sent for her mother. And finally it was Sandra’s turn once the family could afford the $3,000 to bring their daughter to the United States. Sandra was 13 and was content living with her grandmother in El Salvador. She didn’t want to leave the only life she had ever known. The “underground” journey by train, bus, truck beds and night-time travel by foot lasted three months. Sandra survived on tuna, crackers and water. She traveled with a group of men who beat her and raped her regularly on the three-month trip to what her parents saw as “the land of opportunity.” She arrived in that land, Springfield, MO, an angry teenager, challenged by a language and a culture she did not understand.

Then Sandra met Ali Traub.

“They put her in my Spanish class for me to mentor her because they didn’t know where else to put her,” Traub says. “She was very angry and very rebellious. I just kept on being nice to her, smiling and encouraging her, bringing her little treats. Finally, she stayed after school and cried for several hours before she could even speak. That was when she told me her story. She thought her parents would send her back to her grandmother if she misbehaved in school. And she did her best to achieve that.”

Traub met with Sandra and her parents and was able to help them sort through a number of troubling issues. Eventually, Sandra became an outstanding student and a confidant to many other students who came into the school from backgrounds similar to hers. She began referring them to Traub. That was the beginning of a new life for Sandra and a new commitment for Traub.

The NEA Human and Civil Rights Award
That commitment and passion for her mission has never faded and has earned 32-year-old Ali Traub national recognition as the recipient of the esteemed NEA George I. Sanchez Memorial Award. Sanchez is considered the father of the movement for quality education for Mexican-Americans.

Not willing to accept the growing Hispanic dropout rate at Springfield’s Central High School, Traub, a daughter of American missionaries, is a steamroller paving roads of opportunity for Hispanic “at-risk” students.

Sandra’s referrals reflected a clear need for an organized support group for Hispanic students. Thus, the Latino Bulldog Club was born. The group offers support for Hispanic students considered academically “at risk.”

“It’s terrible that they come here trying to pursue the American way and then something happens to cause them to lose all that they have,” Traub says. “The worst part is what happens to the kids. They might come here when they are eight years old, go into the public schools, lose much of their heritage and language skills, and then at age 16 or 17, they’re deported to a country where they cannot speak or write the language and where they no longer feel they belong.”

Something in common
Traub, who grew up in Argentina, identifies with the displaced students she teaches and counsels. She, too, felt that bitterness when her parents sent her to the United States to attend college.

“I was very angry about it,” she says. “I had a hard time learning how to spell in English and adapting to the culture. I felt I was an Argentine, and I didn’t want to be labeled an American.”

During the Falklands War in the early 1980s, Traub was a victim of the Argentine hatred toward Americans, although she did not see herself as an American at the time. She says she eventually outgrew her bitterness and is now proud to be an American. The cultural transition, however, took time.

Answering a calling
Traub teaches high-level Spanish in Central High School’s International Baccalaureate program, but she insists on teaching the “regular” students as well.

“I always wanted to reach out to troubled, inner city kids because of my life as a missionary kid. That is where my heart is,” says Traub, who began her own missionary work at age 12 in Argentina, where she and her friends would dress as clowns and perform at orphanages. She also collected food and clothes for the orphans and helped translate for the doctors from the United States.

Home visits
“Every teacher has a philosophy in teaching,” Traub says. “Mine is relationships.”

Each week Traub visits two or three Hispanic families who have asked for her assistance. Due to the language and cultural barriers, Hispanic parents are not likely to visit the school to get answers about their children’s education. So Traub goes to them. The relationships she establishes with her students extend to their families, and she is able to help them make the transition to American culture.

In addition to her teaching load at Central High School, Traub provides an after-school tutoring program for Hispanic students, sponsors a student trip abroad with a sister city in Mexico, works as a translator in the business community and teaches evening classes at Missouri State University-Springfield.

The bilingual edge
One accomplishment of which Traub is especially proud is the Spanish-heritage class. Just as sour lemons make sweet lemonade, students who at first feel isolated by their unfamiliarity with the English language can gain a bilingual edge by growing their Spanish skills and knowledge as they learn English.

“I am encouraging Hispanic students to speak English, but I know they speak Spanish at home,” she explains. “Then they think they’re bilingual, but they’re not because they cannot read or write in Spanish. They need to be proficient in both languages if they want to be bilingual and use that skill.”

With financial support from MSU, which Traub solicited, she was able to develop a course in which Hispanic students learn Spanish vocabulary, spelling, grammar, advanced literature, government and culture. One of Traub’s former students teaches the class.

This educational opportunity helps Hispanic students to develop language skills that will make them more competitive in the job market. In addition, the class has helped boost grade-point averages as well as self-esteem for participating students.

Legislative advocacy
Traub’s compassion and empathy for the Hispanic community in her school has led her to legislative advocacy. As an advocate of Hispanic students, she has testified twice in state legislative hearings and met with legislators on issues important to the livelihood of displaced Hispanic families.

“I had this image of myself not having any talents because I could not play the piano or sing or draw,” she says. “When I started teaching, I realized that helping kids with their problems is my talent.”

Traub’s gift for connecting with students and commitment to them does not go unrecognized. Those students who have the opportunity to learn from her are her biggest fans.

“She is a great teacher who really knows how to get students involved in Spanish culture,” says Christina Fox, a junior at Central High School. “Anyone who knows her is aware of how much she loves her job. Her love for it is what makes her such a great teacher and person to have in the community of Central and Springfield.”

Traub will be one of the honorees at the NEA Human and Civil Rights Awards ceremony, held this year in Los Angeles during the Association’s annual meeting in July. The ceremony provides national recognition to local heroes and is expected to attract 2,500 educators and invited guests. The awards are named after human and civil rights pioneers and commemorates NEA’s 1966 merger with the predominately black organization, The American Teachers Association.

Story and photos
by Debra Angstead
MNEA communications director