Paulette Nungaray follows in her mother’s footsteps to become a teacher

Paulette Nungaray doesn’t have to look far for inspiration when it comes to her educational journey.

Her role model, her mother Mireya Uresti, sat next to her doing classroom lesson plans while Paulette completed her homework and developed a voracious appetite for reading. She encouraged Paulette and her brother to pursue higher education even after the family’s patriarch, Cesar Nungaray, died in 2005. 

Uresti, a longtime teacher at Central Elementary School and a San Diego State University alumna, would return to school too, earning her master’s degree in elementary education from Concordia University–Irvine in 2019.

A year later, her son, Cesar Nungaray Jr., would graduate from SDSU with a degree in interdisciplinary studies with an emphasis in rhetoric and writing studies, exercise and nutritional science and nutrition.

And in 2021, Nungaray would start her own SDSU education, culminating this week with commencement. 

“Having experienced something so traumatic at such a young age has very much changed the trajectory of my life,” Paulette Nungaray said. “But I think seeing how resilient and how powerful my mom was, even though she was going through some of the worst times of her life. … Having her as my role model has been every single spark or inspiration I have ever needed to continue my journey.”

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Uresti, holding back tears when talking about her daughter and the family’s path to this point, said their drive can be summed up by a quote from Thomas Jefferson: “If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done.”

“I’ve always instilled in my kids the importance of going to school and pursuing higher education,” Uresti said. “Because I was a single mom, Paulette was always with me, she was always reading and doing homework while I was working on my lesson plans, she inspired me.

“Seeing her bloom and become this professional and woman full of knowledge is overwhelming. I am very proud of what she has become, and I know that she still wants to go for more.”

Despite her childhood being upended by her father’s death, going to college was never in doubt, Nungaray said. 

“Honestly, for myself, success has been the only option,” said Nungaray, a 2021 graduate of Sweetwater High School. “I think my mom very much set it up in a way where there was never any doubt in my mind that I was able or capable of doing anything.

“I think that watching her navigate such a traumatic time and come out as successfully as she has was more confirmation that I would be able to do it too,” Nungaray said. 

Nungaray has thrived at SDSU, posting a solid 3.5 grade point average while also being active in Compact Scholars, serving as a mentor the past two years for a total 23 students. 

“The most beautiful thing is seeing how much they’ve grown from their very first meeting to their very last one,” Nungaray said. “Seeing the struggles they’ve been going through and some of the things that we’ve had to figure out together, it’s taught me a lot about them, but myself as well.”

Angel Rocha, who oversaw Nungaray during her first year with Compact Scholars, said her mentorship style is a direct reflection of the type of educator she will become. 

"As a Compact Mentor and executive member of the Compact Scholars Student Association, Paulette refined her skills and positively impacted her community in ways that only she could,” said Rocha, who currently serves as the associate director of the Monarch Unity Resource Center. “She taught me a lot about what it means to teach, which makes me confident that she will be an amazing teacher to younger generations."

Nungaray will return to SDSU in the fall to complete her teaching credential and plans on immediately pursuing her master’s degree in elementary education while working as a student teacher. 

She is set to follow in her role model’s footsteps and become a kindergarten teacher. 

“My mother always said that both she and my father came to the States from Mexico to give us a better life and that they wanted us to be better than them,” Nungaray said. “The biggest motivation and source of inspiration for me was seeing that if she was able to do it, then why couldn’t I without the adversity she faced?”