Our “Get to Know Our EduDawgs” series celebrates the incredible undergraduate and graduate students who make up the UW College of Education community. Through student interviews and storytelling, we’re highlighting the passions, experiences and perspectives that shape their journeys — in the classroom, in the community and beyond. 🌎✨

Each story is a glimpse into what drives our future educators, researchers and advocates to make a difference. 

Editor's note: This story was written by student associate Winston N. through the College of Education’s partnership with Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle High School.

Finding purpose through language and equity

Alejandro Salas
BA, Education Studies (Multilingual Learning & Equity)

Hometown
Basin City, WA

Experience
Breakthrough Silicon Valley – Teaching Fellow (Eighth-Grade English)

Inspiration
“My mom has always been my biggest inspiration. She’s one of the smartest people I know, even if she didn’t finish high school.”

Growing up in Basin City, a small eastern Washington town with just over a thousand residents, Alejandro Salas remembers the challenge of starting kindergarten speaking only Spanish.

“Before school, I only spoke Spanish at home,” he recalls. “I didn’t know a lick of English when I started kindergarten. It was full on English immersion, no bilingual programs, no dual language classes. I just had to figure it out.”

He did — by fourth grade, he tested out of English as a Second Language (ESL). But he noticed many peers didn’t. “I know students who didn’t test out until high school,” he says. “I don’t want kids to be held back just because they speak a different language. That’s not fair. Education should be equitable for everyone.”

Inspired by his mother, Lupe, who earned her GED after immigrating to the U.S., Alejandro decided to pursue education himself. “My mom has always been my biggest inspiration,” he shares. “She’s one of the smartest people I know, even if she didn’t finish high school. I saw how hard she worked and how much she cared for others, and I wanted to do the same.”

At the UW College of Education, Alejandro is majoring in Education Studies with a focus on multilingual learning and equity. His experiences continue to guide him. “I don’t want other students to face the same challenges I did,” he says. “Bilingualism and multilingualism should be celebrated as strengths.”

That belief deepened when he taught an eighth-grade English class through Breakthrough Silicon Valley. “That program changed everything,” he says. “It was my first time teaching my own class. But it was also one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. When my students told me I made learning fun and that they wanted me to come back, that’s when I knew for sure... this is what I’m meant to do.”

Alejandro says his time at UW has helped him reframe how he sees language and identity. “Growing up, I thought English was the most important thing to know,” he says. “But here, I’ve realized how valuable it is to be bilingual. I’ve even reconnected with my Spanish. Language is powerful, and I want to make sure students never feel ashamed of theirs.”

Looking ahead, Alejandro plans to pursue a Master in Teaching (MiT) degree and eventually teach social studies. “Education is the best way to make an impact because if you start at the beginning, they'll keep it forever,” he says. “If we want to make any change... it has to go through the young people because they're going to grow up, and then they're going to lead.”