Connecticut’s Felipe Reinoso: Expert educator and politician

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Connecticut’s Felipe Reinoso: Expert educator and accomplished politician.

There are many fine educators who have also served successfully in political offices. One of these is Felipe Reinoso, a high school social studies teacher who also served in the Connecticut State House of Representatives.

Felipe was born in 1950 in Arequipa, Peru. He was one of five sons born to his parents, Cirilo and Angelica Reinoso. In 1969, when Felipe was 19 years old, his family immigrated to the United States. They settled in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Felipe earned his Bachelors’ degree at Sacred Heart University in 1984. The school is a private Roman Catholic university located in Fairfield, Connecticut. He earned his Master’s degree from Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1987. Later he earned a second Master’s degree, in Public Administration, from the John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Felipe inaugurated his career as an educator at Warren Harding High School. He taught Social Studies there for 14 years. In 1989, he accepted a position at the Saturday Hispanic Academy in Science at his alma mater, Sacred Heart University. In 1998, Felipe and two colleagues founded the Bridge Academy High School, a charter high school located in Bridgeport. He served as the school’s principal through 2006.

In 2001, Felipe earned the Martin Luther King, Jr. Vision Award from Fairfield University. The award recognized Felipe’s tireless effort to instill and inspire the teachings and ideals of Martin Luther King, Jr., in the youth of his community. In 1999, he was one of 21 honorees to receive the President’s Service Award from President Bill Clinton. The honor was given for volunteer efforts directed at solving critical social problems. The award is the highest honor given each year by the President of the United States for volunteerism.

In 2000, Felipe was elected on the Democratic ticket to the Connecticut House of Representatives. There he represented the 130th District from 2001 and 2009. He was the first Peruvian-American to become a member of any US state legislature. While in the legislature, Felipe worked to lower tuition rates for immigrant students. He also worked towards allowing non-citizens an opportunity to gain a driver’s license.

After he left office, Felipe returned to his native country of Peru. He settled n the capital city of Lima, where he still lives today. To learn more about him, see this link at Our Campaigns.

Teacher, women’s rights activist, and civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune

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Teacher, women’s rights activist, and civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune.

Many fine educators have also made significant contributions to their communities and to society as a whole. One of these is Mary McLeod Bethune, an African American teacher who was was also a women’s rights activist and civil rights leader.

Mary McLeod Bethune was born on July 10, 1875, to former slaves in a log cabin on a plantation in Maysville, South Carolina. Her parents were Samuel and Patsy McLeod. Mary was the last of the couple’s 17 children, and the only one of the McLeod children to be born into freedom.

When the Civil War was won, Mary’s mother worked for her former owner until she could buy the land on which the McLeod family grew cotton. By nine years of age, young Mary could pick 250 pounds of cotton a day.

Even as a young child, Mary showed an unusual interest in books and reading. However, in those days it was rare for African Americans to receive an education. Nevertheless, a charitable organization interested in providing educational opportunities for Black children established a school near Mary’s home. Her parents could scrape together only enough money to pay the tuition for one of their children, and Mary was chosen. The future educator earned a scholarship to attend the Scotia Seminary, a boarding school in North Carolina. She graduated from there in 1894. She also attended Dwight Moody’s Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago, Illinois. Her studies there spanned two years.

When she grew up, Mary retained her strong desire to extend educational opportunities to other African Americans. She established her career as a teacher. While teaching in South Carolina, she married fellow teacher Albertus Bethune. The union produced one son in 1899.

In 1904 Mary founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls in Daytona Beach, Florida. Starting out with only five students, she helped expand the school to more than 250 students over the next few years. Today, this school is known Bethune-Cookman University.

In her later years, Mary became a close friend of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and also a trusted adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt. In recognition of her outstanding abilities, the President made her a member of his unofficial “Black Cabinet.” He also appointed her the head of the National Youth Administration in 1936. In 1937 the indefatigable educator organized a conference on the Problems of the Negro and Negro Youth, and she fought tirelessly to end discrimination and lynching. In 1940, Mary became the Vice President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP), a position she held for the rest of her life. In 1945, she was appointed by President Harry Truman to be the only woman of color present at the founding meeting of the United Nations.

This celebrated educator passed away peacefully on May 18, 1955. For all her accomplishments, Mary McLeod Bethune is truly a chalkboard champion. To read more about her, see this link at the website for the National Women’s History Museum.

More virtual field trips for your homebound students

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I hope everyone is maintaining a good attitude, even though many are off at work, stuck in their homes, attempting to create exciting distance-learning activities for their students, and/or home schooling their own children. Looking for some absorbing activities to keep the kids occupied? The past couple of days I have been offering some suggestions on how to make your time at home with your own kids educational and productive. I have also shared some links to some virtual tours from around the world that your students may find exciting. Here are some additional websites for virtual tours you can share with your kids, or even indulge in yourself!

Here’s the list:  The Anne Frank House, Buckingham Palace, Farm Tours, the Great Wall of China, Holy Land Tour, the Houston Zoo, the Louvre Museum, and Mars.

Here’s the link to the lot: Virtual Field Trips

Enjoy!