Spotlight
Debra
Carrera
Assistant Superintendent of Philadelphia
Schools
Interviewed by Luke Torres
EVDG: First question , where are you from?
DC: I am from Philadelphia , North Philadelphia, born and raised.
mother and Father are Puerto Rican and I was raised here.
EVDG: What do you do for a living?
DC: I am an Assistant Superintendent for the school district of
Philadelphia.
EVDG: What was your journey like to where you are today?
DC: Big Question. Well growing up my mom was a single mom with 6
kids. We knew our dad but my mom did most of the work raising us.
When you grow up in a family with 6 kids you really have to do a lot to
get attention so early in my childhood I was very talkative, I like to
perform, to sing pretty to have a role in the family. We grew up really
poor. We struggled a lot..alot. Imagine a woman with 6 kids and her
education was up to the 8th grade and my father's was up to the 4th. My
mom worked in a factory and there wasn't a lot of money.
During that time if you wanted welfare you had to sign over your property and since my mom owned the house we
lived in she did't want to do that. I am so glad she didn't. So we never were on any type of public assistance. We
depended a lot on a program where we would get free breakfast and free lunches for the summer. So the schools
free lunch and breakfast programs and the hand me downs my mom could give us. The one thing that my mom did
was raise us up in church. We spent a lot of time in church and that was a great outlet for me to develop that faith
and hope that there was more to life and things have to get better. Church is where I was i ntroduced to children's
ministry. I had some of the best Sunday school teachers ever. At 13, I was given the opportunity to teach preschool
and I loved it. I loved being give a curriculum, to plan activities and teach bible stories. That's where my
passion started.In high school I was in a early childhood development program, I worked at a daycare in the school,