Orozco Community Academy Principal's Dual Role: Educator and Energizer

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Coralia Barraza, principal at Orozco Community Academy in Pilsen and one of the New Communities Program's 2009 "community heroes," has a picture in her office of a tiny house in Guatemala, nearly a shack. It’s where Barraza and her seven brothers and sisters were raised. After high school and college in Guatemala, Barraza came to the U.S. illegally and started a classic American immigrant’s tale of hard work.

“I spent my first years working in factories, sending money to my family in Guatemala, and helping my parents finance my siblings’ education,” she says. After becoming a legal immigrant in 1978, she enrolled in Truman College to learn English. She transferred to the National College of Education, where she earned her teaching degree. She earned a master’s degree from DePaul while teaching in CPS schools, and a master’s in School Administration from Northeastern University in 1994; that same year, she became the assistant principal at Orozco. She’s been principal at the school since 2002.

Read a full profile of Barraza in Catalyst Chicago.