SHE WAS A HIGH achiever with top grades and a college scholarship. Then one day, Alejandra Lopez found herself with memory loss. She had debilitating migraines and could no longer read or count.
A traumatic brain injury disrupted her life’s path but also led her to a new calling: helping every student succeed in the classroom.
“To think that I am somehow making an impact is a gift,” Lopez said. “If I can use my struggle to help in any way, that’s amazing.”
ALEJANDRA LOPEZ, A RESOURCE INSTRUCTOR AT ST. BARBARA CATHOLIC SCHOOL IN SANTA ANA, IS PICTURED WITH SOME OF HER STUDENTS. PHOTO BY BRITNEY ZINT/DIOCESE OF ORANGE
The Garden Grove resident is a resource instructor at St. Barbara Catholic School in Santa Ana, part of Pax Christi Academies. She spends her days in and out of classrooms helping address learning gaps and advocating for equity and inclusion. Lopez, 37, is a firm believer that every student can learn and grow — if they get what they need to succeed. She is expected to graduate this fall with her general education and special education teaching credential.
“Alejandra is dedicated to the students she supports and cares for them wholeheartedly,” St. Barbara’s principal Claudia Danzer said.
Lopez was only a semester shy from graduating college when, as a passenger, she was in a car accident. Headaches came first. But she chalked them up to stress. Then she hit her head from a fall. She was in pain but thought it was “just a little scrape,” Lopez recalled.
It was anything but.
“That changed the whole trajectory of what I thought my life would be like,” she said.
It was then that she saw a doctor. The debilitating migraines didn’t stop. She developed a stutter. No one knew why. Lopez had to stop driving, quit school and stay home. She didn’t know what her life was going to look like anymore, but her mother, Carol Lopez, was also by her side. Lopez and her family stayed positive through it all, trusting in God’s plan. Lopez asked God why He had done this to her. She prayed for a sign — and He showed it to her again, and again.
“For I know well the plans I have in mind for you — oracle of the LORD — plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
The verse kept showing up when Lopez was feeling most lost: on the Internet, in a classroom or on a sign at a local craft store.
“I just thought, ‘OK, You have a plan for me,’” she said. “You know what You are doing. And I really do believe that without the struggle, I wouldn’t be the teacher that I am today, because I really had so many good advocates for me along the way. That’s really what I try to be for the kids.”
One of those advocates was Cal State Fullerton’s Speech and Hearing Clinic, where Lopez went twice weekly for two years to relearn her lost skills and find accommodations to help her be successful. The other was her alma mater: St. Barbara.
Although Lopez went on to Mater Dei and then college, she never fully left her old school. When she needed service hours, she volunteered there. She worked part-time in the front office. But she struggled to do her job and quit. But St. Barbara principal Judith Bloom, who also oversaw the school during Lopez’s years there as a student, stepped in. Bloom told Lopez to keep coming in every day and heal, Lopez recalled.
Bloom’s simple demand transformed something that felt scary into “just a really safe place again,” Lopez said. “That really stayed with me: how you have someone that believes in you so much even when you are doubting yourself.”
Advocates like Bloom, her mother and the students who worked in the Speech and Hearing clinic gave Lopez the idea that she too could advocate for others in need.
“It put a little spark in her brain,” Carol Lopez said. “Maybe this is what I’m called for, and maybe that’s what it was all about: all the suffering. It was like a journey to get where she was going to be.”
Lopez now loves her job and being part of the Pax Christi Academies system that ensures all students get what they need to find success. Lopez works with the homeroom teachers to support students in English language arts and math. She doesn’t just work with students who are struggling and she doesn’t pull anyone out of the classroom. Lopez meets every student where they are and motivates, and assists, them in finding success.
“Not everybody needs the same thing and that’s what makes us beautiful,” Lopez said. “Everyone gets what they need, so it’s not an embarrassing thing. It’s just a part of our daily structure.”
Fourth-grader Grace Bui, 9, is one of the many students Lopez works with in a small group. Bui, who is new to the school, said she instantly thought Lopez was kind and appreciated her support.
“It makes my heart warm, because someone is here to help me,” Bui said. “I want to say to Ms. Lopez that she is awesome and one of the best teachers ever.”