- Finding a book that has a character that you can so deeply relate to is life changing.

My name is Stephanie Ruiz, I am a teacher at Hillcrest Junior High, I teach eighth-grade English and Latinos in Action.

- One thing that really stands out about Stephanie is her passion for teaching, and Stephanie's class really does create something that goes beyond the grade, they're learning about themselves in the process of learning about the content.

- All throughout school, I never really felt that it was a space that I necessarily belonged to, and so I decided that I wanted to develop a space for kids like me.

- Some of these kids have never been seen by a teacher before, and she sees them.

They're like, "Well, if Miss Ruiz who knows me this well knows that I can do this, then I can do this."

- My goal is that any student, no matter who they are, can walk into my classroom, go to my classroom library, and find something that they can connect with.

- We have already switched things up so much that they can actually see themselves in the characters and they're reading things that feel like they were meant for them.

- And I've heard that from several students, that like they've never read a full book in their life, and then they found one in my classroom library and they could relate to it so much that they wanted to know are there other books that are like this?

- So that's truly what she cares about is, "How am I gonna work to improve the lives of my students and to make the learning real and authentic and meaningful for them?"

- And I remember talking to her when Kobe died, and she said, "Our kids are gonna be devastated over this and I wanna make sure they're okay."

- To so many of my students, Kobe Bryant wasn't just an athlete, this was the death of a role model.

And I thought that it would be a quick 10 or 15-minute discussion, and it ended up needing to take the whole class period.

And it was beautiful to see students being comfortable enough to share those deep thoughts and those emotions, but also seeing them lift each other up.

- No one else carved that space out for them, and she always puts mental health first.

I asked my students if they had Stephanie in the past and wanted to share some kind words about her, and I received over 85 responses.

(laughing) "I love Miss Ruiz's compassion, she's very caring and understanding, she teaches in a way for a teenager understand and she really cares to make a connection with her students."

The fact that I only hear great things about this woman says so much, because if you're gonna get all of the details, it's gonna be from a middle-schooler, they're gonna tell you the absolute truth.

And the truth to them is that this woman is someone in this building that cares about them.

- I mean, I was thinking about my students and the past students, and so I think if I was talking to them, I would say, "Thank you, thank you for trusting me to be a part of your journey, for accepting me into this crazy journey of junior high and adolescence and allowing me to watch as they mature, and watch as they began to learn how to critically analyze the world around them and the things that are happening and figure out where they belong in all of those things, like it's truly an honor to have taught every single student that's walked in my classroom."

(bright music)