Ask Adriana Campos to tell you how she feels entering her second year as one of the founding teachers at KIPP Durham Elementary (KDCPES) and you might hear her voice melt into a soothing, joyful rhythm.
“Once you walk in here, it’s so genuine,” Campos says. “We don’t have to try to be ‘team and family’. We just feel it and we all believe it, so it comes true…it’s almost infectious.”
Campos is the founding third-grade math teacher at KDCPES where, along with its co-located school sibling KIPP Durham Middle, nearly half of the student population identifies as Hispanic or Latino. She was intentional about choosing to teach at the school where so many of the students’ lived experiences mirror her own.
As a girl, Campos entered classrooms where English was a foreign language to her. Unfamiliar. Intimidating. “…growing up, I was an ELL student, which stands for English Language Learner student”, she says, “and so [I] felt like this is where I needed to be to help grow those kids and provide the education that I wish that I had, as someone [for whom] English was not their first language.”
In Campos’ classroom, the celebration of Hispanic heritage is not limited to one month—it’s every day. She reminds her students that language is not a barrier but a bridge. “We understand where our students come from, and we’re intentional about meeting them where they are,” she says.
KIPP Durham is not just a school, it’s a family, Campos says. Teachers collaborate across classrooms, ensuring that every child, no matter their background, feels a sense of belonging.
“[E]ven the staff that does not know the language, they are trying to do everything in their power to support that student despite not knowing that language. For example, I was walking through a couple classrooms and in every teacher’s classroom, everything that’s in English is also in Spanish because we know that that’s the demographic that we serve.”
For Campos, being an educator is a calling. She recognizes that her role isn’t just about teaching the curriculum, it’s about creating an environment where her students feel loved, seen and heard. They are learning that their voices matter, in any language.
“I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to serve those children.”
In moments like these, we are reminded that Hispanic Heritage Month is more than just a time of recognition; it’s a celebration of the future these students are building, filled with hope, opportunity, and belonging.