When Alejandra Quiñones, ’25, moved from Puerto Rico to Connecticut at the age of ten, she found the transition difficult. The teachers who stepped in to help her navigate that tough time left an impression she would carry for years — one that would eventually change the course of her life.
Quiñones is the recipient of the 2025 Prospective Teacher of Color Scholarship, awarded annually by the Connecticut Teacher of the Year Council. The $1,000 scholarship recognizes prospective teachers of color who are enrolled in a teacher-preparation program and engaged in their student teaching experience. For Quiñones, who graduated in May 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in English and a concentration in secondary education, the award is the culmination of a journey that took more than a few unexpected turns.
Quiñones did not arrive at Southern with the intention of becoming a teacher. She enrolled in the healthcare studies program, a pathway designed to prepare students for nursing, because it was a world she knew well — her brother had spent long stretches at the hospital, and she had been there alongside him.
Everything changed when her academic advisor was reassigned. Her new advisor, English Professor Melissa Talhelm, encouraged her to try something different and invited her to enroll in one of her classes — a course on songwriting and the structure of lyrics. “I really enjoyed it,” Quiñones recalled. “I loved the way she taught it.” Talhelm became a mentor, and the encouragement she offered nudged Quiñones toward taking more English courses. What she discovered surprised her.
“I find myself putting more effort into my English courses than the healthcare ones,” she said. “And I felt like — this is for me.”
As a bilingual student who had arrived in the United States as a child, Quiñones faced some obstacles in the English Department. “I feel like I was struggling in a lot of things,” she said. “I remember thinking — I could never be an English teacher. I still have so much to learn.”
But the professors she encountered changed the way she thought about herself as a student and as a thinker. She lights up naming them: professors Charles Baraw, Joel Dodson, Cynthia Stretch, Brandon Hutchinson, Andrew Smyth, and Meredith Sinclair, along with Talhelm. In Baraw’s class, Quiñones encountered poetry for the first time in a way that actually made sense to her. He pushed students to go deeper, she said, and created a classroom where that felt safe. “He was one of the first persons to make me more comfortable in a classroom. I started opening up more.”
What made the difference, she said, wasn’t just the subject matter. It was the feedback. “I had never had professors who sat down and actually read the whole 12-page essay they asked for and actually gave me feedback. I grew so much from just them.” The experience didn’t just make her a stronger writer and reader — it gave her confidence. And confidence, she realized, was what she most wanted to give her own students someday.
Talhelm, who nominated Quiñones for the scholarship along with Smyth, said of Quiñones, “Ally is one of the hardest working students I’ve encountered. I’ve worked with her in multiple classes, and in each, she’s pushed herself more than I ever could. I admire her curiosity and drive toward constant improvement.”
In spring 2025, Quiñones completed her student teaching placement at North Haven High School — her first real experience in a secondary classroom. She described it as tough, challenging, full of obstacles, but also formative.
It also clarified something important about where she wants to teach. “I never saw myself as being an authoritative teacher,” she explained. At the high school level, she found herself having to raise her voice and assert authority in ways that didn’t feel natural. She began to think that a younger group of students might be a better fit for her instincts.
What draws her to middle school, she said, is curiosity. High schoolers, she observed, often feel they already have the answers. Middle schoolers “still have that curiosity. They still want to know and learn. I like the curiosity.”
Smyth, who oversaw Quiñones’ student teaching seminar, called her “an amazing educational leader already,” adding, “She was dedicated to helping her students as well as fellow teachers discover and appreciate the rich diversity of our state and nation, guiding students to a much deeper understanding of the many voices and perspectives available through life, literacy, and literature.”
Quiñones is candid about her current situation. Post-graduation, she has not yet been able to begin teaching; family circumstances and the financial realities of a starting teacher’s salary have meant she is nannying for now, saving carefully, and hoping to land a position by summer.
As for the Prospective Teacher of Color Scholarship, she has already decided what to do with it. “I ended up putting it in a savings account,” she said, “because I’m hoping that when I do start teaching, that’s something I can use for my classroom.”
She is also thinking about the future beyond her first job. Being bilingual, she said, is not something she wants to leave behind — it is something she wants to bring forward. She has her eye on a TESOL certification, a goal she hopes to pursue alongside her master’s degree. Southern, she added, might just see her again.
