IN THE CLASSROOM

For 40 years, Amarilis Sierra has dedicated her professional life to educating children – first in her native Havana, Cuba, and now for the past 13 years in Miami-Dade County Public Schools.  A foreign languages teacher at Booker T. Washington Senior High School, Sierra says that teaching gives meaning to her life. “Seeing so many young faces looking at me, eager to learn and depending on me to understand the world, is an amazing source of inspiration and strength.”

Sierra encourages her students to give their best everyday. “Giving your best has to be a way of life,” Sierra says. She doesn’t just expect her students to give their best, but she, too, demands her own personal best. Her goal each day is to make sure her students leave her classroom having learned something new, and she wants them to have fun in the process.

Sierra says that teaching is not just a profession, but it is also a vocation that requires patience and dedication. Her personal credo is: Anything is possible. This lifelong educator says she believes “... anything can be achieved through hard work and perseverance.”