Alejandra Molina is a twenty-one-year-old elementary education major at Western New Mexico University. She is from Tucson, Arizona and moved to Silver City at the age of seven has lived here since then. Her family desired a fresh start and Silver City was the perfect peaceful location for them.
At first she struggled with adapting to speaking English when she began school in Silver City. Spanish was her first language growing up and at age five she had open heart surgery so she was not put into school for two years while she recovered from surgery. This created a difficult adjustment from only speaking Spanish at home to having to always speak English in school.
Once she was able to learn English, school became much easier for her. She recalls that one of her favorite parts of living in Silver City was the snow. She had never seen snow before she came to Silver City and she believed it to be “the coolest thing ever to me,” said Molina.
She graduated from Silver High School and is currently in her sophomore year of college. She is bilingual and is intending on pursuing elementary education in the bilingual department. Having the experience of overcoming adversity, she wants to pursue teaching so that she can help kids who struggle with language difficulty in school.
Molina appreciates the diversity in the students present at Western New Mexico University because it gave her the opportunity to meet new people and to learn about different cultures.
Her advice to students who are having difficulty finding activities to occupy their time in Silver City is to explore the area more.
“It’s small town but there are lots of things to do if you like the outdoors. You can go fishing, camping, hiking or just go out for a day at the lake to relax. There’s also a lot of mountains and beautiful views that aren’t in most places. I know that not knowing the area is hard to find places to do those activities. But a fun way to find them is exploring your surroundings,” said Molina.
