ABOUT

ME

Devoted Champion of Youth Empowerment

LaToya Fernandez was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut LaToya became a resident in San Jose California in 2009 and began her pursuit of community empowerment through her employment at the YMCA Silicon Valley. Upon her involvement with YMCA LaToya started her career with Rocketship Education initially serving two campuses. Throughout her five-year career at Rocketship LaToya served as an individualized learning specialist and a top performing English Language Arts Teacher with a record breaking 2.2 years of reading growth for primarily English Language learning students thus closing the opportunity gap in her classroom.

LaToya operates as a solutions oriented leader and because of her observations of certain community deficits LaToya designed and implemented a social justice based common core aligned curriculum for students in grades k-5, this curriculum built awareness and called upon students to advocate for equity and justice in their neighborhoods. LaToya has served local San Jose schools as a Restorative Justice Coordinator supporting students, educators and families with cultural responsiveness, competency and community building. LaToya is now the Multi Tiered Student Support Services Lead at Downtown College Prep and serves the community as Neighborhoods Commissioner. LaToya is the Founder of Queenhype; As a community advocate LaToya is passionate about creating platforms for youth.

Training / Development

Breathe For Change- Social emotional learning/mindfulness and yoga
Gilder Lehrman Institute- History of The Supreme Court ( Law and policy)
Teachers 4 Social Justice - ( Social Justice)
Justice and Peace Center - Concepts of peace and Equity
Seeds - Restorative Justice
Museum of Tolerance Educator training programs - Common Core aligned
Nonviolent Communication Training
Code.org - computer science, computer coding

Press

Publication

Awards

Gene Young - Presented by The African American American Community Service Agency
2014-2015 - Rocketship Education Awarded Top performing teacher ( highest academic growth- 2.2 years in English language Arts)
2015-2016 - Rocketship Education Awarded Top performing teacher ( 1.6 years of growth English Language Arts)
2016 - Kaiser Permanente and City of San Jose awarded first place for creating empowering youth media content
2017 - City Of San Jose Presented Outstanding Leadership Award
2018 - Commendation City Of San Jose Mayor and City Councilmembers for empowering school aged girls of color through Queenhype
2019 - Resolution during Black History Month Recognized as Leader in Education by State Assemblymember Ash Kalra
2019 - Commendation City Of San Jose Mayor and City Councilmembers for designing a social justice curriculum that empowered students and closed the opportunity gap
2019 - Laverne Owens Community Service Award presented by The Santa Clara County Alliance of Black Educators
2019 - Resolution presented by Assemblymember Ash Kalra for bringing awareness to the importance of providing STEAM opportunities for students of color.