Dr. Orozco migrated from Mexico in 1994 as a 10th grader and went to Montebello High School. She completed all of her higher education degrees at Cal State LA – a B.A. and an M.A. in Child Development, a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the CCOE. She is a Golden Eagle through and through.
Dr. Orozco has been in the education field for approximately 20 years. She started as Teacher’s Assistant when she was a community college student, which inspired her to change her career path from pre-med to elementary school teacher. She has since then taught preschool, second, and sixth grade. She has always had great interest in guiding children and adults in the process of learning in general but has always had a special inclination towards mathematics.
Besides being a full-time teacher, Dr. Orozco also spent many years supporting community organizations that have an education focus. She was an organizer and program director at CADRE (Community Asset Development Re-defining Education) where she helped develop the Educational Empowerment Academy – a program that helps parents become strong educational advocates for their children and their communities. In addition, Dr. Orozco spent 15 summers as a Supplemental Instruction Leader and a Math Instruction in our own Summer Bridge Program that is funded and coordinated by the Educational Opportunity Program.
Dr. Orozco completed our Ed.D. Program in 2017 where she focused her research on technology integration in math classrooms. She hopes to be able to continue to document high school students’ experience in math classrooms and their transition to college, especially for students with histories of repeated math failure. She also hopes to highlight some of the amazing work our Summer Bridge Program does in the math component and investigate the impact that this experience has on instructors who go on to become teachers. She is currently conducting research on the newly implemented policies regarding first-year college placement methods and math and English requirements in both community colleges and the CSU.
Publications
Coreas, B., Coreas, J., Fujimoto, E., Ochoa, E., Ochoa, G., Oropeza-Fujimoto, M., Orozco, S. (2020). ¡Juntos Podemos! Community Organizing and the Struggle for School Transformation in a Southern California School District. Journal of Latinos and Education https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2020.1828088
Orozco, S. (2020). Interrogating College of Education Mandates from the Margins: Realizations from a Shift in Perspective. Issues in Teacher Education, 29(1-2), 45–53.
Professional Conference Presentations
Coreas, B., Coreas, J., Fujimoto, E., Oropeza-Fujimoto, M., Orozco, S. (2020, December) ¡Juntos Podemos! Community Organizing, the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) and the Struggle for School Transformation in a Southern California School District. Paper presented at the 10th International Conference on Education & Social Justice. Online.
Restrepo-Nazar & Orozco, S. (2020, October). Developing Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge of Community Cultural Wealth in Science, Mathematics and Literacy Education During COVID-19. Presentation at the California Council on Teacher Education (CCTE) Fall 2020 Conference. Online.
Restrepo-Nazar & Orozco, S. (2020, December). Teaching to Learn: Learning about Community Literacy with STEAM. Presentation at the 8th Annual California STEAM Symposium. Online.
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DREME - Development and Research for Early Math Educators