Angie Cabrera, ISLA founder: inspiring, positive, and always a visionary.
Angie inspired others to be better teachers and people. Angie had a unique rapport with children. She was compassionate and gentle. She believed in each student and always had an incredibly calm manner about her. In all the years she worked with children, never did she utter a single negative word about students. Not even “My class is driving me crazy!” That inspires all of us to be more like her.
Her positive attitude led others around her to believe we could do anything, and with her we did.
Angie had a gift of vision that most of us never experience. She worked in an orphanage in Guatemala early in her adult life. She saw herself always moving into great things in education. Taking much of what she learned from that experience in Guatemala, she began teaching at Robbinsdale Spanish Immersion school its second year of operation. There she began the first and second grade teams, moved on to start-up the fourth grade, and then moved into the position of Media Specialist where she increased the Spanish collection and moved into an active role in teaching students as part of her responsibilities. When she was presented the opportunity to set up a new media center for FAIR school, she had a vision for what that could be, and moved into that position ready to do great things.
It was in the fall of 2004 that Angie took her vision to a new level. She had a dream to create a new Spanish immersion charter school, and convinced three others that this was a great new path to take. Angie did much of the early investigating into the process of developing a charter school. She was active in meeting with representatives at the state department, and some of you may remember her from the first informational meetings we held at local libraries.
It was about a year into the development of ISLA that Angie was diagnosed with cancer. This was a significant blow that sidelined her from the months of ISLA work that followed. She worked through some very difficult days and months, and felt a bit better by the fall of 2007 when ISLA opened its doors. Angie came in a few days a week that September and supervised on the playground , brainstorming ways we could improve our recess structure. She saw that the teachers needed easels, and went to Home Depot to purchase supplies to make the easels herself. She went through boxes of materials from her teacher days and donated everything she could to ISLA. She kept her vision of this new and improved immersion school alive.
While she was battling a nasty disease that presented her with many painful days, she found time to send encouraging notes of praise for what was being done at ISLA. She was always looking for potential teacher candidates, and kept up-to -date on our progress.
It’s important you know of Angie’s contribution, as she is no longer here to attend Board meetings or work to continue to move ISLA in the intended direction. Angie passed away in late June. Please remember her every time you find something you really love in ISLA. She was, and continues to be a big part of establishing that.
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