On February 24th, 2019, Mr. Starace and his wife welcomed their baby boy, Roen. For the remainder of the semester, Starace will be on paternity leave to care for the newborn, leaving his freshman and sophomore classes to Ms. Garzona.
Ms. Garzona grew up in the Bay Area and came to Sacramento State for undergraduate education. After graduating, she began her teacher training at Rosemont High School.
Starace asked a former colleague, Mr. Predko, for recommendations of teachers to take over for him as a long term substitute. Ms. Garzona was his Predko’s first recommendation. “[Mr. Starace and I] met up and decided I would be a good fit!”
Having begun to teach at C.K.M. on February 18th, Garzona has begun to acclimate to the C.K.M. campus and her classes. “I am used to Rosemont, so it’s a little different here, but it’s been going really well.” She states that Starace’s help and assistance has made her feel as if she is “not going into it alone.”
“I feel like I have a really big role to fill. But, I feel prepared. He is really helping me with things.”
She will be teaching two sophomore HISP World Cultures classes and a freshman geography class. Starace gave her lesson plans and advice for his sophomore HISP classes, but she has designed her freshman geography course on her own. “I taught [geography] last semester at Rosemont, so I have some experience with it already that it’s not too difficult.”
Garzona is confident and optimistic about the semester ahead and feels well-supported by Starace and her colleagues in the social science department.