The pink hair and the eccentric fashion is just part of the dream that Ms. Padilla lives at Lane. A once destined fashion designer, Padilla teaches at Lane, keeping her teaching methods and her fashion fresh.

Padilla started teaching at Lane in 1996, following her first two teaching jobs at Clemente High School and Kelvyn Park High School. Before she had an interest in teaching high school precalculus, she had her dreams set on a job in fashion.

Growing up, Padilla’s older sister had a friend that she viewed as a role model in her early years. Following in the footsteps, Padilla planned to backpack around Europe with no intention to attend college.

“When I graduated from high school, my plans were to go to Europe like one of my older sister’s friends did. I was eleven and I have older sisters who have friends in college. I listened to her adventures and I wanted to be just like her,but my parents wouldn’t let me and I would figure it out when I came back to the States,” Padilla said.

Following her high school graduation, Padilla spent a few years working a part-time job in the jewelry department at Sears until the pressure was off and she felt it was time to pursue a full time career.

In 1989 Padilla got her first teaching job at Clemente High School for two years until she requested a transfer to Kelvyn Park.

In 1994, Padilla left her job at Kelvyn Park High School and  began taking classes at an Institute in Andover, Massachusetts that were dedicated toward precalculus using the the new developments in mathematical technology: graphing calculators.

Padilla ran for the Chicago Teacher Pension Fund which “is the administrator of a defined benefit public employee retirement system providing retirement, survivor, and disability benefits for certain certified teachers and employees of the Chicago Public Schools” according to the CTPF website.

Year round, Padilla participates as a member of the CTPF and is currently serving her second term as the investment chair. She is one of the 12 members in the CTPF among five other teachers, one principal, two members elected by the Board of Education, and the remaining two are, according to the CTPF’s website.

“And in fact, I am the first Latina who has chaired an investment committee in the history of pensions,” Padilla said.

Always busy and always working, Padilla finds a balance between school work, her CTPF volunteer work, and a sponsor of two Lane clubs: Aztlan and Crocheting. As someone with a vast interest in outside activities, Padilla is very supportive of the extra curricular at Lane and sponsors two Lane clubs: Aztlan and Crocheting Club.

Padilla finds that to keep her students attention and to connect with her students is to keep her teacher methods fresh and alternative.

“Her teaching style differs a lot of the time. Sometimes she likes to control things while other times the students will be ‘teachers for the day’,” Angelica Peinado, Div. 670, said.