Student Highlight: Maria Carmen Gutierrez

Coachella Adult School

Coachella Valley Adult School takes delight in presenting this week’s special feature among our adult education students: Maria Carmen Gutierrez! Carmen originally came from Sinaloa (popularly known as “Mexico’s breadbasket” due to its prominence in terms of agriculture–) in northern Mexico. Initially settling down in Indio with her in-laws, Carmen and her husband chose to settle down in Coachella where they built their own house and raised three (3) successful children who are all professionals in the field of law and public service.

Carmen and her sisters owned a hair salon when they lived in Mexicali so when she moved to the USA, she started work in her residence as a hair stylist before deciding to apply in the Coachella Branch library where she successfully got hired as an assistant librarian. Active in the library’s “story time” hour, parents began taking their children to the library just to hear Carmen read stories out loud and bi-lingually explain to them the plot of each story so they could comprehend the sequence of events more clearly.

Now retired and an ‘empty nester’, Carmen has said that it would be easy for her to relax and be a stay-at-home wife but since she still wanted to sharpen and refine her English language (EL) skills in all domains, most especially in writing and in expanding her vocabulary, she enrolled at the adult school where she started in August 2022 at the English as a Second Language (ESL) Level 2 program.

Thriving in a learning environment, her CASAS scores showed a steady rise and consistent improvement that by 2023, she was placed in ESL Level 3, and by February 2025, qualified to be in the ESL Level 4 program. She is also conscientious in answering her EL Civics exercises, where she writes several drafts before submitting a paper she thinks meets her academic expectations. In addition, she has decided to go back to the Coachella library where she now volunteers every Wednesday.

During reading time, her peers look up to her for the proper pronunciation of English words and when they need to translate some higher-level English words such as “manor” (house), “meticulous” (careful), and “monarchy” (kingship). She has always been gracious, considerate, and supportive towards all her classmates and enjoys helping out.

Truly another gem in the midst of our Coachella Valley Adult School population, we remain appreciative of Maria Carmen Gutierrez and wish her continued personal success!