With a mortgage on her mind and bills mounting, Alcaraz spent six months applying to teaching jobs in New Jersey as she navigated the certification process. In 2021, she bought her first home and moved across the Hudson River. She started as a paraprofessional and worked her way up to a teaching role while taking college classes, but she was never a fully certified teacher. After trying pediatric nursing and running her own daycare, she spent 15 years working in New York City schools.
Tricia Alcaraz is a proud first-grade teacher, but her journey into the classroom came with long nights of studying, financial worries, tests – and support from a Newark nonprofit.Ī single mother from Trinidad, Alcaraz always wanted to work with children. Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.
