SPRING BRANCH, Texas — Most teachers will tell you teaching is their dream job but not Maribel Arias at East Central ISD. Arias says she had other dreams and aspirations before unexpected life events seven years ago, pushed her toward education.
Despite that, she’s considered among the best educators in our area. Her school district nominated her for our KENS 5 EXCEL Award, which comes with a $1,000 check from our partner Credit Human.
Just outside her Oak Crest Elementary classroom, Maribel Arias' has a small garden where she and her students grow all sorts of things.
“We grew some loofahs and we cut them up, dried them, took out the seeds, and they made their own little soaps," said Arias.
One seed at a time, Arias is sowing the future.
"She's the queen of plants,” said one of her third graders.
Arias is a natural and not just with plants. Her third grade dual language students are flourishing too. “She’s somebody for us that actually loves us with her whole heart,” chimed in another third grader.
Though Arias will tell you her heart for teaching only bloomed in recent years, a fact she’s not shy about sharing. "It wasn't what I wanted to do,” Arias said, “Being a teacher was not in my plans."
Arias served four years in the Navy but her plan after that was to pursue her passion for criminal justice.
"I wanted to be an FBI agent, and be a homicide detective or something like that."
However the week Arias got her dream job offer from the agency, she says she received a devastating call that would change the course of her life. Her brother and his wife were killed by a drunk driver.
"They left behind, four children, three girls and one boy,” Arias said. “My husband and I decided that we wanted to take them in."
The mother of four became a mother to eight children soon after. The youngest child was just five years old. At the time her brother’s kids were attending East Central ISD.“ I decided to come to east central and be here for my kids now.”
Arias said she didn’t want to disrupt their lives anymore so she turned down the FBI job, put aside her ambitions and delved into foreign territory for her, teaching.
“I pursued getting my certification and became a teacher,” Arias said. “It was hard at the beginning, I didn’t want to do it.”
She started as a paraprofessional then fell in love with being around kids at school, “watching the students and seeing their passion made me love it.”
Now Arias says she has found her purpose among these kids.
"I love y'all very, very much,” she told her students. “And, I'm very glad to be a part of your experience in education. The world is at the tip of your fingers, that anything you want to do is possible."
Arias has even joined or created several extracurricular programs, including her gardening, science and writing clubs. “They can write whatever they want,” Arias said while proudly showcasing their “Live from the Southside” magazine where students get to see their writings published.
“Some of my students from my class bring me work, and they just drop it off in the morning. I read it and we edit and revise their work and then we submit it,” Arias said.
They also get to create their own little businesses through the gardening club. They grow flowers and make products then sell them to raise money which goes toward their extracurricular clubs and they collaborate with the Texas Farm Bureau.
“The kids watch the video from the Farm Bureau and they answer questions. They can learn about trees, pecans, cows, pigs, and how baseballs are made out of leather,” Arias said.
Regardless of what they end up doing in life, Arias hopes they walk away with this advice in mind “Even though things happen in life, they can still do what they want to do, that they can pursue their dreams, they can reach their goals, they can be who they want to be and nothing should stop them.”
Winners of the KENS 5 EXCEL Award are nominated by their school district.
KENS 5 and partner Credit Human work with 19 area school districts yearly to honor winners with the award and a $1,000 check.
This is the KENS 5 EXCEL Awards 25th years partnering with Credit Human to honor local teachers. If you’d like to watch past winners, click on kens5.com/EXCEL.