Within ACHS’s Spanish program, Leslie Auceda is well known. A Spanish teacher at ACHS, Auceda is a native Alexandrian and a proud Latina whose parents emigrated from Honduras. She first attended Mount Vernon Community School, followed by George Washington Middle School, Minnie Howard, and Alexandria City High School.
Auceda was the first in her family to graduate from high school and college. Currently, she is finishing up her master’s in secondary education. After growing up in a family of educators, like her mother who was a kindergarten teacher, she values education and is proud to follow in her family’s footsteps, especially as an educator in the place where she grew up.
“When I was a student here, I can remember only one teacher who was Latino, and I could not identify with the rest of the teachers here,” Auceda said.
During her journey to become an educator she realized that she wanted to be support for students who grew up similarly to herself.
“I grew up as [a] first generation [student], so I didn’t have guidance in high school. Once I graduated, I had to be the person that went through everything alone and it was very challenging,” she said. Then I realized, “I don’t want someone to go through what I went through.’”
Auceda’s favorite part of being a teacher is interacting with her students. “When students tell me what they are doing and how their day has been, it brings me joy.”
Her least favorite part of teaching, though, is dealing with responsibilities that come out of the school building and balancing work and personal life. “Working more than 40 hours a week can be very challenging for me sometimes,” she said.
Outside of her Spanish classrooms, Auceda sponsors two clubs at ACHS. This is her third year sponsoring both the Latinos Unidos and the Social Justice Club.
Social Justice Club is a club that discusses and advocates about the inequalities at ACHS. The club formed from the local non-profit Tenants and Workers United, based in Chirilagua, Alexandria. Students who are in the club attend School Board meetings and present about current issues and events within the school.
Latinos Unidos is a club that formed when former student Citlali Chambers, class of 2023, approached Auceda to be the group’s sponsor after noticing that there was no club for Latinos.“The club talks about cultura, comida, baile— all that good stuff,” Auceda said.
In her 5 years of being a teacher at ACHS, Auceda has already accomplished so much when it comes to the voices of Latino students, and only time will tell what she continues to do.
