Meet Our Mid-Valley: Juanita Estrada, helps Salem kids receive a bilingual education
This is part of a series introducing Statesman Journal readers to individuals who are passionate about our Mid-Valley community.
Juanita Behar Estrada lives a life of passion and dedication to education.
Estrada is the executive director of Family Advocacy and Community Education Services of America or FACES of America, a Salem nonprofit preschool and kindergarten that teaches in Spanish and English.
The principal of FACES, Carmen Cantor, said she has never met anyone like Estrada before.
“She works really hard without receiving anything,” said Cantor. “She has a huge heart.”
Last year, Estrada learned FACES would have to close if they did not find a new lower-cost building to rent. Within a two-week span, she and her team had managed to fully renovate and move into a new location in time for the beginning of the school year.
FACES is now halfway through its ninth year of providing bilingual education to Salem preschoolers and kindergarteners.
But Estrada has a much longer history with education. The 69-year-old lifelong educator is celebrating her 46th year in education and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
“When you put your heart into it, it works,” said Estrada.
She believes dual language immersion from a young age helps students develop strong reading, writing and speaking skills. Her goal is to help young kids become confident students, build strong family relationships and give families educational opportunities they might not have accessed otherwise.
Grant funding helps all 36 of the current FACES students afford tuition.
A lifelong dedication to education
Estrada comes from a migrant family that immigrated from Israel to Mexico before she was born. She grew up in Mexicali, along the California-Mexico border.
Estrada has loved school for as long as she can remember, and said her kindergarten teacher inspired her to become an educator.
“One day she took us out. It was early in the morning, and she was reading a story outside in the garden when the sun was shining and everything,” said Estrada. “And I remember that I looked at her when she was telling us the story. For some reason, I said, ‘when I grow up, I’m going to be like Maestra Lupita’.”
After graduating from high school, Estrada continued her education in Mexico and began her teaching career there.
In 1993, she and her husband moved to McMinnville. Much of her college-level work from Mexico was not accepted so she went to Chemeketa Community College and finished at Western Oregon University with a teaching degree.
She went on to obtain a triple master’s degree in education, ethnic studies and Latin American literature. Her most recent accomplishment was obtaining her administrative degree, which she completed in 2006.
Estrada started teaching in elementary school in the Salem-Keizer School District. And in 2007, she began working toward opening FACES which began two years later, helping adults obtain primary and secondary education.
Estrada said she helped teach many immigrant adults how to read, write and speak English. She helped others pass their U.S. citizenship tests, GED tests or get into college.
Eventually FACES evolved and the preschool and kindergarten opened.
Estrada has been at the center of it all.
A 'magic method' of learning
FACES preschool and kindergarten has a long waiting list, Estrada said, and she hopes to expand within the year to accommodate more students.
The hallways are filled with work showcasing students’ writing, and some already are writing sentences, Estrada pointed out. The voices of 3- and 4-year-old children reading books can be heard.
Language immersion at early age produces advanced and confident students, Estrada said. “It’s a magic method,” she said.
The students study reading, writing, math and science and learn about different cultures, music and dances. They perform in four music festivals a year, singing, dancing and playing instruments. The concert repertoire is in both Spanish and English.
“That's what we're here for, to give our students the tools to be successful,” Estrada said.
The students all know Estrada and her husband, Jose Ponce Estrada, but to them, they are known as abuelo and abuela.
Estrada’s husband of 50 years she is an exceptional woman who carries the name of FACES and her community.
“She is a very special person,” he said.
Sydney Wyatt covers healthcare inequities in the Mid-Willamette Valley for the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions, and tips to her at SWyatt@gannett.com, (503) 399-6613, or on Twitter @sydney_elise44
The Statesman Journal’s coverage of healthcare inequities is funded in part by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, which seeks to strengthen the cultural, social, educational, and spiritual base of the Pacific Northwest through capacity-building investments in the nonprofit sector.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Juanita Estrada, director of Salem nonprofit preschool, kindergarten
