DCIS alumna returns to teach at DCISM

Only four years have passed since Linda Castillo graduated second in the 2007 class of Denver Center for International Studies.

Now, Ms. Castillo, who graduated this year from the University of Pennsylvania, is returning home to teach at DCIS at Montbello. She has joined Teach for America and will serve as an English as a Second Language (ESL) Intervention teacher. 

Ms. Castillo is returning to Denver for far more than a job. 

"More than anything, I hope that my past will serve as a testimony to what DCIS students are capable of," she said. "I want my students to become excited about reaching their goals. I hope my experiences will resonate with my students. I hope they will perceive what I have done as basic and easy and that they will be ambitious to attain more."

DCISM students will have a lot to look up to in Ms. Castillo, who majored in Near Eastern Language and Civilization and Religious Studies, speaks fluent Spanish and has a working knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic. She also has traveled extensively, visiting France, Italy and Spain while in high school and studying for a year in Israel while enrolled at the Ivy League's "Penn." Ms. Castillo's travels also have taken her to Egypt, Jordan and Russia -- and to Mexico, where she visits family. 

"The goal is to prepare our students and have them come back, be role models and mentor our students," Principal Trent Sharp said about this happy homecoming. "The actual success of our school will be on DCIS graduates, their legacy and building on it."
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