Early Childhood Ed Professor Urges Students to Be ‘Agents of Change’
For Marisol Diaz, her career in education started with her younger siblings and a couple of neighborhood children.
Diaz, who grew up in El Paso, would often play school with her little brother and sister and others, always taking on the role of teacher. Those youthful days taught the early childhood professor in the College of Education and Integrative Studies an invaluable lesson she never forgot —that all students can learn.
She recalled one lesson that involved explaining to her brother Marco, who has Down syndrome, how to write X’s on a small chalkboard, unsure of what she could teach him. He quickly wrote the X’s without pause.
“I was so surprised and later reflected on how my own perception of intelligence was so limited. Even my deficit views of what people with disabilities can and cannot do was challenged at an early age,” Diaz said. “I thought, ‘My brother just taught me that I am very narrowminded.’ He knew how to do a lot of things, and it was me who hadn’t expanded my imagination to capture that other way of being.”
In college, developing a growth mindset was further reinforced at the University of Texas, El Paso. While initially a microbiology student planning to go to dental school, Diaz decided to pivot to pursue her passion for teaching. Since then, she has only strengthened her belief that all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, background or ability, can learn.
When she graduated and taught elementary school in El Paso, her social justice-approach was an important asset in the classroom. After all, she had a lot in common with her students. Diaz immigrated from Mexico to the United States as a toddler with her mother, who came work in the lettuce and strawberry fields. Diaz grew up poor, working during high school and college to help support the family, often digging around for change to pay for gas or bus fare to get to school.
As a faculty member at Cal Poly Pomona, her early struggles and activism have inspired Diaz to create S.E.M.I.L.LA., which stands for Students Engaging & Mobilizing In Lifelong Learning through Advocacy. Semilla means seed in Spanish. Diaz received a fellowship in 2024 for the research project through CEIS’ Community-Care and Wellness Initiative, which allowed her to recruit students to conduct surveys on local schools in Pomona.
Diaz also led the Rocket Club at Euclid Elementary School in Pomona designed to introduce students to basic engineering concepts like lift, thrust and drag, as a CEMaST (Center for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching) faculty fellow for 2024-25. Volunteers, including students from the CPP Liquid Rocket Lab, helped guide the students at Euclid Elementary as they built rockets.
Diaz said she hopes to be the kind of teacher she wishes she saw more of growing up. She encourages CPP students to become agents of change and work to eradicate systems aimed at keeping marginalized students from thriving.
“I tell my students, ‘You’re going to work with children, and there is a social responsibility to do the socially just thing,’” she said. “That means being prepared, doing lessons that are the most rigorous, engaging the families, even outside of school time, and not viewing yourself as the ultimate person with knowledge, but learning from your students.”
As a Hispanic-Serving Institution, Cal Poly Pomona proudly celebrates Latinx Heritage Month and the experiences, leadership, and impact of our students, faculty, staff and alumni. Read more stories about our community on CPP News. Show your Bronco pride by using our new Zoom background this month.