Ms. Alonzo, our head librarian, didn’t plan on going back to the place which had been important to her since childhood. While the library was a constant through high school and college, she pursued her passion in art, creating light-paintings called photograms and gaining her degree. At the school which she worked at teaching Art 1 and 2, Ms. Alonzo gravitated back to the common space of the library. It wasn’t until her mentor — Carmen Escamilla, the school’s head librarian — pointed out how much time she was spending there that she decided to shift to becoming a librarian. 

“[Carmen Escamilla] said to me one day, “You’re here all the time, have you ever considered becoming a librarian?” I knew that I was ready for a shift in my career. I loved my job as an art teacher, [it] was a fun place to fail forward. I feel like that desire to want to grow because I feel like all teachers are forever learners — we’re leaders too, but we love learning new things — and that’s how I ended up here: a love of learning. I have a love of computer science, and a lot of things actually, and so I’m able to go into those places, learn more, and work with kids who have this mutual interest with me. It’s really this wonderful thing.”

Even though the collaborative aspect and sharing of information through library services is only one of her many passions, Ms. Alonzo has been able to explore even more of her interests while supporting the many branches of teaching at Glenn. 

“I feel like I fell into the arts because I’m an introvert. [Still,] I would say the most attractive thing about this position is that you work with more people, so your impact is broad. [To find something that fits for you,] look deep within yourself, experiment, try different things, join different clubs. Even if you’re not sure, [or] you’re not sure if you’re any good at it, try it out, [and] fail forward while you can because time is of the essence. When you go to any kind of postsecondary school, that’s your time to explore and gain the knowledge and skills that you’re going to need for your career. It doesn’t mean that if you graduate with A, B, C  degree that that’s what you have to do for the rest of your life, but that’s a great time to explore your interests.”