Growing up as an Army brat raised by first-generation immigrants, Lily Eskelsen García’s road to higher education was nontraditional. For her parents, neither of whom attended college, seeing their six children graduate high school “was a very big deal,” says García, president of the National Education Association.
But as García began a career in elementary education, she learned the importance of obtaining a college degree and receiving a postsecondary education. Today, as she leads the nation’s largest labor union, García dedicates her time to ensuring that others have the same opportunities. “It’s what I have for breakfast,” she quips.
After graduating high school in Utah, García searched for a job that allowed her to work with children. The first available position was a lunch lady in a head start program. She then transitioned to a teacher’s aide.
It was a kindergarten teacher who advised García to attend college for her teaching credentials. At the time, she was almost 20 years old, married and the mother of a six month-old baby.
Being a nontraditional student at the University of Utah meant that she was “laser-focused” on her education, García says. Taking double classes, she told herself that she had to finish her degree in four years “because that is what’s ticking on your student loans.”
In 1980, she achieved her goal and received an undergraduate degree in elementary education.
She then decided to pursue a master’s in instructional technology because “there were these new things called desktop computers,” she says, recalling a time before cell phones were commonplace. Equipped with an Atari 800 and a joystick, García sought to merge technology with teaching in a meaningful way.
