Gloria Ramos

 

Gloria Ramos was elected to the Board in November 2007.

 

She has lived and worked in Hawthorne and Lawndale her entire life.  Gloria graduated from Hawthorne High School in 1990 and immediately began working at Leuzinger High School as a cafeteria worker.  She went on to Hawthorne High School where she became an instructional aide in the clothing design and construction class.  She attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM).  It was her love of the classroom and students that led her to a nine year “career” as an instructional aide in the Math, English, Special Education, ESL, and Science departments.  Her movement to the different classrooms resulted from all the requests teachers made for her to be in their classroom.

 

Gloria also worked in the attendance office at Hawthorne High School and her interest in computers was what got her promoted to a computer lab technician position.  She spent 5 summers working in the business office at the district and found her true love of business.  Since this was a 9-month position she spent her summers rounding out her interests and experience.  She worked in hospitality, sales, construction, and even cleaned houses.  

 

Gloria Ramos attended El Camino College and earned her AA in English in 1997.  She went on to California State University, Northridge and graduated in 2006 with a BA in Business Administration.  She was the first in her family to earn a college degree.  She says her father was an immigrant from Mexico and never had the opportunity to go to school; he taught himself to read and write in English and Spanish.  Gloria says she is probably more proud of his accomplishments than her own.

 

Gloria is also a proud mother and hopes that her example will nourish her son and daughter to become active in the community as well.  Gloria loves to garden and problem solve.  She says that working on finding a solution to a problem is more important than the problem itself.

 

Her family has a long history with Lawndale.  Her great-grandfather was a Centinela Valley School board member for almost 29 years.  He passed away in 1963 while still in office.  Her grandmother, mother, and uncle all graduated from Leuzinger High School and all of her siblings attended Lawndale and Hawthorne High School.  Her brother coached for 4 years at Hawthorne High after his graduation in 1980.

 

Gloria spent seven years as Librarian at Lawndale High School and is now a teacher of English and ESL at Los Angeles Unified School District.  She was part of the 3,000 teachers laid off and hopes that she will be able to return to her passion—teaching.

 

Her enthusiasm and commitment for the community is what motivated her to run for the school board of Centinela Valley Union High School District.  In her 18 years of experience, in and outside the classroom, she has always pushed for better conditions and instruction for the students of her community.