The latest installment of An Apple for Our Teachers. Each Wednesday I’ll be publishing stories from Camden teachers about their lives and choice to teach here as a way to celebrate their dedication. It was local parent Carmen Crespo who came up with the idea, and first starting soliciting these stories. Here’s what she had to say about the importance of teachers telling their stories: 

Camden is NOT an easy city to teach in. The resources are low, the children face severe adversity, and the pay isn’t great. Yet, we have wonderful people who choose to get up every morning and come to Camden to make a difference in our children. Too often we hear and see the negative about Camden. So I’d like to open up the floor to our awesome teachers.

Our third story is from Lisa Guzik (I’ve lightly adapted the story b/c Carmen collected the story in a series of chat exchanges, which I’ve united here): 

I work at Forest Hill Elementary. I started teaching 14 years ago at the old ECDC. I wouldn’t teach anywhere else. My family’s roots are in Camden. My aunts all went to Hatch and Camden High. I grew up delivering bread on weekends with my dad to all the mom-and-pop shops through Camden on his bread truck. I grew up loving the city, I’m not quitting that ever! 

Some of my best childhood memories are riding through Camden with my Dad meeting all the shop owners and them teaching me Spanish and giving me gum! That’s where I learned to love the city. The people there have big hearts but the city has a bad rap! 

My grand mom lived on South 4th Street until I was 15. We would visit her every weekend and play in the street. I loved the kids and the memories, it seemed like such a community! 

It’s boarded up now. That makes me sad, but I feel like I’m helping the next generation by teaching! 

I was born in Lady of Lourdes, my family roots are in Camden! Both sets of great grandparents emigrated to the US and settled in Camden during WW1. I spent most of my weekends working in Camden until I was old enough to start at McDonalds. I won’t give up on Camden! It hasn’t given up on me! We can win this together!

If you are a teacher or know a teacher who would like to share their story in future weeks, please email me at Stephen.danley (at) Rutgers.edu. I’ll pull teacher stories up from the comments as well. The hope is to highlight a teacher story every Wednesday for as long as the stories keep coming! Thanks to Carmen and to Denise for making this happen, and even more, for caring about our city and being committed to it.