Mrs. Espinosa is a chemistry teacher here at Segerstrom. She’s a kind, funny, and all-around amazing person who cares a lot about her students. She has been teaching for 14 years and is married with two kids of her own. Espinosa is also an avid cook and loves to make anything and everything. In the future, she hopes to learn how to make croissants as well as other types of cuisine.

Mrs. Espinosa’s favorite part of teaching is forming relationships and bonding with her students. “I love how [we] get along… I have fun with the kids; I like to relate to them and I love that I can help them learn something that I know is really tough in life. I try to keep my teaching style fun and relatable to [them], so I feel like that’s what I bring to my classes. I hope that they can use it in the future and they don’t forget it,” she adds.

As a teacher who cares about her students being engaged in class, Mrs. Espinosa likes to incorporate ideas that can make chemistry more understandable.“I like to bring things that kids can actually relate to and remember to use for future classes like physics and AP Chem. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but… hopefully, they’ll remember a little bit of what I taught them.”

Espinosa shares that originally, she had plans to pursue a career in the medical field. Ultimately, she decided to take a different path.

“I wanted to be an OBGYN, so I went to a bunch of conferences at UCI. [But] I saw that a lot of the doctors that were speaking didn’t seem like they were happy,” Espinosa continues. “When I was taking courses in my college classes I loved chemistry and my teachers were awesome. I remember not liking them in high school… I just thought ‘Man, if I can do that for high school students and give back to what I was missing out on, that’d be great.’”

“She’s really fun, bubbly, and always happy. I rarely see her sad or upset or anything and she’s full of energy, somebody who’s really excited about being here,” says Mr. Vu, another chemistry teacher and a close friend of Mrs. Espinosa. “We discuss things with each other. She’s really easy to work with, easy to talk to, and on the same page [as me].”

Although he was still new himself at the time, Mr. Vu continues on how he helped her get acquainted and learn the ropes of teaching chemistry. “I gave her pretty much everything I had, walked her through it, and from then on, she became a great teacher. I think she’s one of our best teachers in the department.”