We recently announced our 2017 Au Pair of the Year contest winners, and we are pleased to spotlight our second-place winner, Karla Aguilera Garcia, an au pair from Mexico who has become an integral member of her American host family. She has been especially valuable as a caretaker and companion for 5-year-old Gabriel, who has learned many Spanish words and benefited tremendously from having an au pair.
Here is an excerpt from the essay submitted by Karla’s host family:
“Karla is a remarkable, passionate and caring young lady whom we are very fortunate to have welcomed into our family. She is extremely dedicated to not only providing phenomenal care to our son, Gabriel, but to also being a member of our family. As such, she came to our family prepared to not only provide a safe and supportive environment for Gabriel to thrive, but she also brought with her many activities to enrich Gabriel’s educational experience through learning Spanish and customs from her home country of Mexico. After first discussing her ideas with us, she began teaching Gabriel to speak Spanish as well as English. Each day she chooses a word and explains the definition to Gabriel and then says it in both English and Spanish. Gabriel enthusiastically repeats the word and each night tells us about ‘his Spanish’ he is practicing with Karla….
In addition to taking such good care of Gabriel, Karla is also very involved in Gabriel’s schooling, after-school activities, and our community. Our neighborhood is very ethnically diverse, and nearly seventy percent of Gabriel’s elementary schools speaks English as a second language. In an effort to be involved with Gabriel’s schooling, Karla accompanies the family to school events and brings Gabriel to all of his after-school activities. Karla’s proactive and compassionate personality often is recognized when she acts as an interpreter for those parents who only speak Spanish and are having difficulties communicating with educators and other parents. Although Karla receives little recognition for her efforts, you can see the gratitude in the eyes of the children when the burden of helping their parents understand is shifted from their shoulders to Karla’s shoulders. In addition, Karla immediately enrolled in English courses at our local university to improve her English skills to enable her to assimilate into our community more quickly. She is very dedicated to learning our language, customs and traditions.”
Congratulations to Karla for her outstanding efforts and recognition as an Au Pair of the Year award winner!
To view profiles of fantastic au pairs like Karla from all over the world, and to learn about how you can make Au Pair in America your family’s child care solution, visit https://www.aupairinamerica.com/.
