Student Spotlight: JOANA SALDANA

Coachella Valley Adult School

This week, Coachella Valley Adult School appreciatively highlights Joana Saldana’s path to adult education which started last May 2024. Hailing from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Joana moved to the USA after getting married and making a hard decision to leave her thriving shoe business called “Calzado Tami De Leon”. 

Realizing that she needed to communicate in English with her neighbors, dog park companions,  restaurant servers and the community in general, she enrolled in English as a Second Language (Level 1) in May 2024. With sheer determination, diligence (she is rarely, if not, never absent), organization (each lesson is color-coded in her binder), and attention to detail (her binder reflects comprehensive vocabulary and grammar note-taking skills)– Joana quickly moved up class levels that by February of 2025, she qualified to be in a Level 4 ESL class. 

For every EL Civics assignment, Joana goes over and beyond what the task requires and would include a recorded video (role-play) along with her written assignment. She makes an extra effort in researching vocabulary words and their synonyms and would include that in her essay or journal assignments. Although hesitant to speak in class at first, Joana slowly developed the fortitude to verbally read, converse with a peer, and share her meaningful experiences with the class. One of the challenges she has been open about is her listening skills especially when people are speaking too fast. However, she has shown progress in this area as reflected in her CASAS Listening score and during in-class listening quizzes, where her scores now range between 75% to 100%. 

Ever the avid learner, Joana also enrolled in the adult school’s Business class since her dream is to one day open up a holistic business where she is able to guide people in their overall health by using natural ingredients and herbal medicine as an alternative to pharmaceutical drugs. She has also shown courage by accepting an invitation to be one of the interviewees for the CVAS marketing video. 

All in all, Joana continues to present a sense of hope and unmitigated motivation for all other students wanting to personally and professionally succeed. We remain truly grateful for having Joana as part of our Coachella Valley Adult School family!