Blanca Rangel

Apple Valley Adult School

Nominated in 2025

Blanca came to us in 2018 with low skills and high aspirations. She utilized all of our resources including tutoring ,preparation for diploma , career exploration, resume building .She had to leave our program 3 times during the pandemic but she kept coming back. In 2022 she had graduated and shortly afterwards became a substitute custodian for the district . Last year she became a proctor for our district and she supports student safety on our busses and provides child supervision for our adult education program. She was recently trained to proctor CASAS.

Blanca has showed incredible perseverance to be an example for her children . She came to us with the barriers of low literacy , limited English ,she was receiving benefits from Transitional Assistance Department and she was unemployed . She managed to overcome all of her barriers and continues to Thrive.

She has 3 sons . Her youngest is 9 .Her oldest son has traumatic head injuries and she has had to learn to navigate the multiple care providers he has while dealing with his emotional outburst. Whenever I feel like giving up , I think of all she has gone through and yet she still comes to work with a smile on her face and hope in her heart.

During the resent changes in immigration laws, she returned to us very pro-active . She had her right to work documents but she saw we were hosting "Naturalize IE "citizenship workshops and classes . she took advantage of both . After failing her first citizenship test , she came back and studied harder . She became a Citizen on February 3rd, 2025.