Cultural Educator of the Year
Rubia Castro - Ga. Outstanding Cultural Educator
“Teaching abroad has been such an awesome experience. I have been able to not only teach but also learn from my pupils, colleagues, and friends. Being an international teacher from Colombia has been an incredible opportunity to share knowledge, culture, and more. It will be a pleasure to share this experience with my students, colleagues and family once I return home.”

Rubia Castro Diaz • Colombia Colombia
Georgia Oustanding Cultural Educator

ESOL teacher
Louise Radloff Middle ▪ Gwinnett County Public Schools, Georgia

As an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) language arts teacher at Louise Radloff Middle School, Rubia Castro uses every opportunity to share her Colombian culture as part of her day-to-day teaching.

To help her students improve their writing skills while sharing their cultural knowledge, Castro created a Cultural Voyager Book. The book goes to a different student’s home each evening, so every student and his or her family can read about experiences of the other families and add their own in words and pictures. At the start of each class, the student who had the book the night before reads their entry aloud for the class.

Castro has helped foster greater cultural awareness and appreciation throughout the school community. She co-organized a school-wide Hispanic Heritage Month celebration, helping her ESOL students make presentations about their native countries and cultures during morning announcements. Castro and another VIF teacher created an vibrant display at the school’s entrance. Through the activities that she helped plan, the entire school learned that although Hispanic countries may, at first glance, appear to be the same, each has its own culture, lifestyle, traditions and celebrations.

Castro’s cultural curriculum helps her students increase their vocabulary and excites them to learn English, while at the same time, preserving pride in their own cultures and languages.

Principal Patty Heitmuller, Louse Radloff Middle School (VIF 2007 Georgia School of the Year):

“Rubia Castro is a leader among her colleagues. She is a strong advocate for all of the students at Radloff Middle School, regardless of their heritage. She will do whatever it takes for students and fellow teachers to be successful.”