 Growing up, I wasn't at-risk youth. I barely graduated high school. Even during the darkest times of my life when I was going through substance abuse and having a father that wasn't in my life, teachers kind of filled that void and I had specifically several teachers that were inspirations to me, never gave up on me. And so when I picked a career, I really wanted to give back to my community. Cricket, good, all right, good job. It has been truly an honor and a privilege to serve as their ESL teacher the last four years of Buffett Middle School. We have over 21 languages just spoken here in Buffett. One of the things that Lee cares deeply about is never losing your identity, your heritage, your culture. On your poster board, you're gonna take what you wrote in English and then you're gonna write that in your native language here. You will hear him ask students to speak in their native language. So I want my students to not only learn about their own cultures, but I want them to learn about other cultures that are present within this classroom. And I think that really kind of creates a sense of a collectivist community where students can value differences, but they can also celebrate the similarities that they see within each other in their classmates. And I'm really like grateful to have my teacher because without him, I don't think I would have a lot of friends and want to be on camera. Mr. Perez, I don't think he really knows how powerful he has impact our students. A lot of our students have this connection with him that they are able to see where Mr. Perez comes from because he talks about also his experience about his families too. He tells his story so that he can help students across the state overcome their challenges. And I think that's super important for our students every day to see themselves represented. You know, I had to have fairly graduated from high school and I went from that to now. Teacher of the year. Teacher of the year. No matter what you go through in life, you can still be successful. Okay. Mr. Perez was one of the teachers that inspired me to want to go into the education field. He not only helped me continue with my Spanish in the classroom, but also uplifted my confidence. So that's one of the things that I look forward to doing for other students. Lee Perez is all about showing off his students. He will ask them to do something. He will then bring all that they have done and he will lay it out for teachers to see. I think it's about his advocacy for students. You have to be a voice sometimes for the voiceless in regards to English language learners. Oftentimes, they're a marginalized community and there's a language barrier. And so I try to see myself as their champion and absolutely their advocate and their voice to basically push for programs that will be culturally equitable for them inside the classroom and outside the classroom. I think sometimes we wanna define equity in a sense of education, but no, what's defined equity in a sense of life? I think if we all had that sense of groupthink, I think that education in this country would move forward in a more progressive value.