Standing 6-foot-3, Suárez, a starting forward on the Cal women’s basketball team, is happy to oblige the 7 year olds.
Hailing from Oviedo, the capital city of Asturias in northern Spain, Suárez is earning a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies, and recently declared the minor in education offered by the BSE, one of the most popular minors on campus. The undergraduate minor includes field work in classrooms including Sylvia Mendez Elementary School in the Berkeley Unified School District.
“It’s also a way to get out of my day-to-day life and the kids are just full of joy and energy,” Suárez says with a smile.
Suárez being bilingual (Spanish/English) has been a tremendous benefit for the 1st graders in teacher Regina Santa Cruz’s class. The school is two-way immersion whereby native Spanish and English speakers learn to become bilingual and bicultural. In the lower grades, students learn all subjects in Spanish.
“It can be difficult and overwhelming for students that are not native speakers of Spanish,” Santa Cruz said. “Marta was such a great role model of someone that learned both Spanish and English. One particular student needed extra help learning Spanish and encouragement with attending school. This student began coming to school more and having a more positive attitude with Spanish when Marta came to our class.”
On the playground, Santa Cruz noticed that Suárez’s calming and positive presence inspired confidence in more girls to play four-square, soccer, and yes, basketball. Equally important, Suárez supported the competitive students in managing their emotions when they felt frustrated after losing a game.
“Marta seems to really have the skills needed to work with kids and create meaningful relationships. She began observing me and the class and ended with creating activities and games for the kids on her own,” Santa Cruz said.
Suárez’s experience is exactly what UC Berkeley’s Cameron Institute for Student-Athlete Development is aiming to achieve for the 900 student-athletes that it serves. When Suarez was looking for a community service opportunity, the Cameron Institute linked her with the educator minor course EDUC 144.2, which was designed with the School of Education and focuses on service learning.
“Student-athletes build civic awareness through intentional school-based collaborations, aiming to build early college awareness and confidence through sport,” said Jessie S. Stewart, the Cameron Institute's director of Community Engagement and Partnerships. “They have the opportunity to go deeper, and move beyond volunteering, and link collaborative service with deep reflection at middle and elementary schools across Oakland and Berkeley.”
For Suárez, who grew up on her family’s farm in a fairly homogenous town, her life has been guided by values of hard work, community, and gratitude. What has been new at Berkeley is exposure to diversity and seeing more behind-the-scenes of how schools operate.
“In my college classes, we talk a lot about the issues that minorities face, the adversity in their day-to-day life and how the education system tries to discipline students,” she said. “At Sylvia Mendez, I saw how compassionate, understanding the kids were to each other. We ended up having very real conversation, very respectful conversations.”
Not all situations were smooth, Suárez admits. She took to heart what BSE courses emphasize: self-reflection, ask questions from a place of inquiry, and problem-solve together.
“I was talking to teacher Regina and other teachers at Sylvia Mendez and they would say that sometimes they don’t know the answer either,” Suárez said. “It was a great experience for me to develop problem-solving with the teachers, and listening and understanding the kids.”
The 22-year-old wasn’t accustomed to being looked upon as a role model to such young kids. Suárez thought long and hard about what message to offer the 1st graders that would apply to them now, and for the future.
“I wanted it to be a message of `yes, you can. You can do whatever you want to be.’ So determination was something that I talked a lot about,” she said.
"I found basketball and fell in love so I stuck with it. Through determination and commitment to, in my case, basketball, so many other life opportunities came through. I am now able to graduate at UC Berkeley. That was my message to the kids; it’s not so much ‘what’ but ‘how’."
Suárez also offered the students the unique opportunity to go behind the scenes at Haas Pavilion. In a surprise side tour after the students saw a show at Zellerbach, Suárez arranged for their teacher Regina Santa Cruz to stop by Haas Pavilion, where the Cal women’s basketball team was having a low-key practice.
“I just remember I went outside to meet them, and they saw me and they all started screaming,” Suárez said. “I also wanted my team to meet the students because I kept talking about them all the time.”
The tour of Haas Pavilion was a highlight of the year, Santa Cruz said.
“My students were in LOVE with Marta!,” Santa Cruz said. “They all were inspired with her ability to talk in both languages but the greatest experience they will always remember is the tour she gave us of the athletic department. Many of my kiddos said that was the best day ever!!! Many said they wanted to go to Cal when they grow up!”