February 20, 2019 | UHCL Staff
With both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Houston-Clear Lake, Denise Navarro, founder and CEO of NASA contractor Logical Innovations Inc., knows the power of a great education and understands that without support, many students can’t achieve their full potential.
Navarro’s recent donation of $50,000 to UH-Clear Lake’s College of Education has established the STEM Educator Hispanic Serving Institution Internship Endowment, which supports future STEM educators-in-training. “I am grateful for the ability to partner with UHCL through this STEM endowment to provide necessary resources for tomorrow’s teachers,” Navarro said. “I am so happy that through this endowment, these aspiring teachers can focus on completing their training without worrying about how they will pay their bills.”
One recent recipient is Breanna Campbell, who will graduate in May 2019 with her bachelor’s in biological sciences with life sciences 7-12 certification.
“When I came back to school to become a teacher, I didn’t know how I would be able to work and do my student teaching,” said Campbell, a 29-year-old single mother of a 6-year-old daughter who is completing her student teaching at La Porte High School in La Porte Independent School District.
“I have to pay for daycare and go very early to school,” Campbell said. “The daycare takes her to school, gives her breakfast, and picks her up from school because I have to stay late. The costs add up and this financial support is sustaining me so I can become a teacher.”
Campbell added that since she does not have to worry about making money, she can plan better activities for her students and focus on doing more in her classroom. “People have to give up their jobs to do this internship, which is why a lot of them do the alternative certification, but then you don’t get the classroom experience if you go that route,” she said. “This grant helped with everything.”
Previously, Campbell said, she’d worked in restaurants and as a bartender. “I didn’t have the appropriate professional attire for teaching, and this grant helped me with that as well,” she said. “Without this support, I could not do what I’m doing.”
Campbell and eight other teachers-in-training met at UH-Clear Lake for a luncheon on Feb. 5 with Navarro and her son Michael, who is also a UHCL alumnus and director at Logical Innovations. They shared their experiences about their teaching internships and ways in which the internship endowment was helping them achieve their goals.
“Education can make such a difference in one’s life, and I enjoy meeting those who are benefiting from this endowment and hearing their stories,” Navarro said. “I am so proud of these young men and women, and excited for the students they will positively influence throughout their teaching careers.”
