Against All Odds

Ana York’s Journey to Assistant Professor of Teacher Education is a Testament to Her Faith, Determination and Passion

by Lori Gilbert

When Ana York arrived from her native Puerto Rico as a third grader, her teacher placed her with other Spanish speakers, mostly Mexicans.

She didn’t understand them any better than she could the English speakers.

“People group all Spanish speakers together,” York said.

Spanish is different from country to country.

Besides, York cannot be easily categorized.

She was a teenage mother, but not by accident. She married at 14 and had the first of her four children a year later.

Despite an abusive husband who disapproved of her getting an education, she earned a high school diploma from Modesto’s Elliott Alternative Education Center through independent study.

She wanted to be a medical doctor, the only kind of doctor she knew existed, but is a Doctor of Education, an assistant professor in Stanislaus State’s Teacher Education program.

To hear her story is to think “resilient” or “survivor,” but York said the word that best describes her is “loving”.

“I love everything I do, and everything I do, I do from a place of love,” York said.

And she does a lot.

York returned to her alma mater as a lecturer in 2018 and since becoming a tenure-track professor in fall 2022, has:

• Worked on recruiting future teachers with the Center for Transformation for Teacher Preparation Programs grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) students.

• Helped establish Educators Rising at Modesto High School, a club that encourages students to learn more about the teaching profession.

• Formed Stan State’s Aspiring Educators, the California Teachers Association sponsored college-level club for future educators and took students to the group’s state conference in San Diego each of the last two springs.

• Secured $400,000 from the We Will! K-16 collaborate grant to take members of Educators Rising and Aspiring Educators to the Educators Rising National Conference for three years. She took her first group, a party of 42, to Washington, D.C., for this year’s conference held June 27-July 1.

• Joined the Stan State Alumni Council and represented the group as a Commencement speaker.

She’s also preparing multi-subject credential candidates to teach social studies and reading, teaches a bilingual reading methods course and supervises student teachers.

A teacher in Modesto City Schools for 25 years — 15 at the elementary level and 10 teaching Spanish at Gregori High — York pursued a doctorate somewhat by chance.

Be impeccable with your words; speak with integrity, don’t take things personally, don’t make assumptions and do your best. That’s how I live my life.

“In 2015, Grand Canyon University came to do some recruitment at our school,” York said. “They pay for you to visit their Phoenix campus. My daughters and I went.”

Her daughters opted for other colleges — two attended Stan State and one UC Merced — but York responded to a follow-up email inviting her to apply for Grand Canyon’s online doctoral program.

She began in 2015 and by the time she finished in 2021, was a lecturer in teacher education at Stan State.

Had she not made that visit to Grand Canyon University, where her son by a second marriage is earning a bachelor’s degree, York said she probably would not have thought about pursuing a doctorate.

“It’s by the Grace of God,” she said. “I’m so grateful. The first time I saw my name outside my office, it hit home. Dr. Ana York.”

Such distinction seemed improbable for a child of Puerto Rican missionaries who ended up in Modesto when her father was traveling by bus to Salinas, saw the name, thought it meant modest and decided it was a good place to live.

Nor would she have thought it likely when at 14, awkward and overweight, she agreed to marry a Mexican man she met at church.

“I had no self-esteem, no self-worth and I doubted myself,” York said, “He told me I was beautiful and that was it.

"My mom was afraid if she didn’t sign the consent form, I would run away with him to Mexico, and she was right. I would have left.”

She certainly couldn’t have imagined it during her 11-year marriage that produced three daughters, when she had to study out of the presence of her husband, whose machismo she blames for his abuse of her.

“I always knew as I was going through it that education was going to be my key to freedom,” York said. “Once I had my baby in my hands, I knew I had to do something for a better future for her.”

York earned a high school diploma and attended Galen College to become a medical assistant.

Unable to find a job in that field, she was encouraged by her mom to attend Modesto Junior College.

York’s high school independent study left her ill-prepared for the academic rigors of college. She began with remedial courses and graduated from MJC as a valedictorian before transferring to Stan State.

She earned her B.A. in Liberal Studies with a bilingual education concentration in 1995 and a year later completed the multi-subject credential program.

Rather than the typical student teacher experience, she was hired as an intern at Rising Sun School in Greyson to teach a class of kindergarten through second graders.

“I think life prepares you,” York said. “I went through independent studies at Elliott teaching myself. I was figuring it out. I was in that marriage, and I was figuring it out. Being at that school, in that situation, I took all those skills. You don’t complain. You just figure it out. That’s what I did.”

She taught at another school in the Patterson district for a year before moving to Modesto City Schools, where she remained until seizing the opportunity to become a full-time Stan State professor.

York’s love for her students is evident in the extra effort she’s willing to expend on their behalf. She follows simple values she passes on to her student.

“Be impeccable with your words; speak with integrity, don’t take things personally, don’t make assumptions and do your best.

“That’s how I live my life,” she said. And she might add, to the fullest.