Madison San Miguel, Writer, HSHP News
Called the ‘Houdini’ of the classroom, Mr. Carrica is one to strive for a better future and to focus on a student’s success.
His inspiration to coming to the Valley and apply at the Harlingen School of Health Professions began a few years ago when he was working at the University of New Mexico Hospital.
“When I was working with patients, I was seeing that the issue that they had was not so much a lack of caring for their health, but a lack of education,” he says. “What I saw was that the biggest cause in our healthcare system is that most people are not educated when it comes to their health. And, a lot of patients that I was seeing were coming in and had these problems where if they knew what was going wrong with them, they could have been able to alleviate them.”
This led him to education.
“When I applied to the Valley, I applied to Harlingen as a whole. Harlingen contacted me, and in my interview, they said that we have this high school. Right away, I saw that it aligned perfectly with what I wanted to do, which was to educate people about their health so that they can make informed decisions. What better place than at a high school where students already have a desire to be in health care or want to know more about their health.”
He inputs his experiences with the hospital into the classroom as he believes that education is the key to help grow a society.
“A society that fails to educate their youth is a society in remission,” he states. “My philosophy of education is that we should always be striving to improve the next generation so that generation can improve their education after them.”
As a native from Colorado, moving to Harlingen has been a new experience for him. From the diversity of people to the scorching temperatures, he loves the excitement and adventure of a new environment, but still misses home.
“When we were in winter, I was missing skiing. I was watching ski competitions and people skiing. Now that it is becoming spring, I miss mountain biking. I think what I miss most was my life. I grew up skiing, mountain biking, rafting, kayaking, hiking, and all these other activities. Even though in the Valley we have a lot of them, Colorado is the adventure capital of the world, so it is a different level.”
Now a Chemistry teacher here at HSHP, he strives to help students to learn to be successful, whether it is inside or outside the classroom, and to become experts at Chemistry.
“I want my students to develop as a student. What I care more about is that every student learns how to become a successful student in their own way. If every student can walk away from my class with skills that will help them be successful, no matter where they go, because I will not be there for them for their entire life. But, if I can help them install a set of skills for each student to be successful, then they can do whatever they need to do to succeed no matter where they are.”
He knows that each student has the capability to see and discover their own individuality.
“I hope my students realize how special and unique each of them are,’’ he says. ‘’And I think that is really hard for adolescents because when I was that age, all I thought about was ‘Am I as cool as this person?” or “Can I do this like this person?” What I forgot to realize was that I am also really cool and special. I hope all of my students unlock that ability to see themselves in that light.”
To learn more about Mr. Carrica and his Chemistry class, please visit his website at: Mr. Carrica’s Website
hshpnews.wordpress.com 