Hamline alum Crischelle Navalta (‘04) loathes the famous idiom, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.”

“Because a lot of teachers I work with…they can teach!” Navalta said, the exasperation in her voice almost palpable. “It’s really hard, how to communicate with young people and be a role model…you bear a lot of responsibilities, and it can also be a thankless job. But the greatest thing about it is every day is new. And you develop relationships with your students that last forever if you want it to.”

Navalta teaches eleventh and twelfth grade at IDEA College Preparatory Donna High School in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. This year, she is one of the eight winners of Teach for America’s Alumni Excellence in Teaching Award, a prestigious honor given each year to recognize exceptional educators.

“What you’ll see among all of the recipients is just a pretty tremendous impact in terms of their students academic growths, and then also their growth outside the classroom,” said Becky O’Neill, Managing Director of Regional Communications at Teach for America. “You know, these are those teachers that are really just going above and beyond for their kids and for their school communities.”

Teach for America is a national nonprofit dedicated to solving inequality in education by placing passionate educators in high-need schools.

“We believe that all kids deserve access to a great public education,” O’Neill said. The organization attracts recent college graduates and other educational professionals, who are then assigned to teach in highest-need classrooms across the country. Once completing two years of service, they become Teach for America alumni who continue to exemplify the values of the organization.

“They [alumni] go on to become real advocates for educational justice and to join in this broader movement to make sure that zip code and income bracket or skin color don’t become the determinants of whether a kid has a shot at a great education,” O’Neill said.

It’s no surprise that a dedication to social justice appealed to a Hamline graduate. Navalta became involved with the program in 2005, shortly after graduating from Hamline.

Many of the skills that make Navalta an exemplary teacher budded during her time at Hamline. She cites not only her professors—Veena Deo, Mark Olson, Mike Reynolds, Alice Moorhead and Steven Jongewaard in particular—as an inspiration, but also the professors and staff involved in her extracurricular activities.  

“I definitely want to shout out Professor Yali You, I think she gave me grit,” Navalta said. “I did orchestra all ten semesters at Hamline and she really had high expectations, and I think I take on her persona with my expectations with my kids.” 

Navalta also honed some of her leadership skills at Hamline while serving as President of the Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC) during her sophomore year, and working with Commitment to Community during her time at Hamline. Hedgeman Director Carlos Sneed encouraged her to pursue those leadership roles.

“The skills of being a leader and inspiring a team and all that stuff—I think I started from the stuff I did at Hamline with his guidance his mentorship,” Navalta said of Sneed.  

Navalta graduated Hamline as a part of the 150th class in 2004. Armed with an English major and a minor in education, Navalta wanted to pursue teaching but found herself at a standstill. 

“I was really worried about finances too and having to spend another year at Hamline to be certified to teach,” Navalta said.

Her parents, nurses themselves, encouraged Navalta to pursue a career in nursing. She enrolled at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, but quickly discovered that nursing was not her passion.

Around this time, Navalta got an invitation from her friend and fellow Hamline alum Liselotte Kaiser, nee Stuecher, ’04. Kaiser was working with Teach for America and suggested that Navalta pay her classroom a visit.

“It was exactly the right timing,” Navalta said. “I flew down and volunteered in her classroom for about a week, and after a week of doing that I was like, ‘Actually my passion is in education, and I don’t know what I’m doing thinking about nursing.’“

Navalta applied to work with Teach for America in December of 2004, and by spring of 2005 she’d been accepted into the program and was headed for the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. She worked in her placement school Benito Juarez-Abraham Lincoln High School for three years, before starting at IDEA College Preparatory Donna High School in 2008, where she’s been teaching ever since.

Navalta currently teaches Theory of Knowledge, but she’s taught speech, writer’s workshop and various other English courses in the past. Because the school is located in an an area close to the Mexican border, Navalta takes care to arm her students with English writing skills without diminishing the importance of Mexican culture and language.

“My students talk about why their Mexican tradition is important to them,” Navalta said, “but also they know that being able to write and speak fluently in English is also just as important, because they know that they’re going to have to use that when they leave.”

This multiculturalistic approach carries through in her teaching. One of her strengths as an educator is fostering a strong cultural identity in her students by encouraging students to bring their personal experiences into the classroom, discussing local topics in class and actively engaging with students beyond the classroom. 

“I really encourage personal experiences to be part of our discussion in class and we try to make connections,” Navalta said, “We’ll read other texts, but a lot of the stuff that we talk about in class is local stuff. So, like the issues that are happening in Texas, the issues that are happening in living in the border, anything dealing with the Mexican-American experience.”

She doesn’t shy away from potentially controversial or heated topics, such as the recent abortion clinic shutdowns in Texas or racial inequality in education. She knows that many of her students will have to face financial, social and systematic difficulties post-graduation, so she seeks to empower them the best she can.

“There are not as many opportunities for them if they don’t work really hard to get it,” Navalta said. “I’m pretty laid back. [But] my students know when I’m being serious.” 

Her support doesn’t end when they graduate, however. Navalta contributes to IDEA’s “give me five” program. With a teacher’s consent, a portion of their paycheck is put into a fund that can then be accessed by graduates who run into financial problems in college, such as steep textbook fees. She also offers a sympathetic and supportive ear to graduated students.

“I have students who’ve graduated and who come back and just ask advice, like, not even advice but just talk to someone about what it’s like to be in college,” Navalta said.

It is precisely this extraordinary commitment to her students that earned Navalta the Alumni Excellence in Teaching Award. There were 25 finalists chosen out of a pool of over 10,000 Teach for America alumni. A selection committee comprised of teachers, principals, instructional coaches, university faculty and members of Teach for America senior leadership then completed three rounds of review to choose the final eight winners of the Alumni Excellence in Teaching Award.

“In making those decisions, they’re looking at…teachers who are demonstrating dramatic impact on the educational outcome of their students, a commitment to the schools and communities where they teach and, most importantly, an unwavering belief in the potential of all kids and a long-term commitment to teaching as a road to fighting educational inequity,” O’Neill said.

All of which are qualities that Navalta possesses in spades. 

“I was surprised I won because there are so many passionate and caring teachers,” Navalta said of the award. “Actually when I got the phone call that I won, I was already prepping myself that it was great to be a finalist but [that] even if I didn’t win, it was still wonderful to even be considered a finalist for the award.”

As well as a momentous recognition, the award comes with a monetary prize, which Navlata plans to add to her savings. In the meantime, she’ll continue her important work in the classroom.

“Every year and every day is different, and it’s not boring,” Navalta said. “It feels like you’re continually working on improving yourself, and you’re not doing the same old things.”

Navlata has already seen first-hand the impact of her hard work in the classroom. Not only does she watch her students flourish through the year, but she’s also been inspiring a new generation of passionate teachers.

“What’s really validating is a lot of my students are coming back and saying they want to teach, and so I feel like I’ve been a good role model because they know that teaching is powerful,” Navalta said.

She had a few words of advice for any current Hamline students pursuing an educational degree, as well as any students who, like Navalta all those years ago, find themselves questioning the logistics of teaching as a profession.

“My advice is, love your job and tell your kids how much you love your job,” Navalta said, “only because I feel like a lot of students leave school thinking, ‘I’m going to go be a doctor, be a lawyer, I’m going to do everything but teach, and we actually need really great teachers…the progress in our country could be so much more if we had teachers who are passionate.”