Vendor Coordinator

Coordinadora de Vendedores

Leslie M. Rivera
Bilingual Teacher, Rochester City School District, School #9

My name is Leslie Rivera and for as long as I can remember Rochester has been my home. Though I was born in Puerto Rico my parents sought out Rochester for a better life for my sisters and me. After graduating for the Teaching and Learning Institute at East High School, I earned a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education at SUNY Geneseo. Currently, I am working towards gaining a Masters degree in Bilingual Education through SUNY Brockport. Presently, I am working for the same district that provided me with my education. I have been teaching at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School #9 for four years as a bilingual teacher.

Working with children has been my passion for as long as I can remember and because of it much of my community involvement has been around servicing them. Through my school I have been involved in a mentoring program called, Sisterhood. Sisterhood is a year long program were we work with sixth grade girls mentoring and educating them on becoming women. Recently, I also have committed my time to help coach cheerleading for fifth and sixth grade girls. This is a new endower that both the girls and I are very excited about.

While children are my passion and partaking in events that promote helping and aiding in their success another passion of mine was involving myself in my community. Not long ago I began to participate in the Puerto Rican Festival by volunteering my services. Though that was a way to give back to my community, I wanted to take it a step further. So when I got the opportunity to become a board member I couldn't resist. It has been a great experience being on the board and being able to contribute my ideas to make the Puerto Rican Festival the best that it can be. I currently serve as vendor coordinator.