Lupe Balances Motherhood and Teaching with Confidence

By Molly Ryan

March 24, 2022

During the 2020-2021 COVID-19 hybrid school year, students walked into Jaclyn Lupe’s English 11 classroom and saw her smile even through a mask; their moods automatically lifted.

Lupe always has a smile on her face, her hair and makeup nicely done, and clothes always fashionable.

Growing up, Lupe was eager, curious, and talkative as her mother would describe. The enthusiastic Colonie native spent her elementary school years at Shaker Road, then graduated from Sand Creek Middle school, and soon after traveled down the road to Colonie Central High.

Her college years were spent at Saint Rose, for her undergraduate in English, and then she went to UAlbany for her Master’s in Education. During her college years, Jaclyn Lupe worked here at Colonie High in the copy room.

When she was in High School here at Colonie, she knew by eleventh grade that she wanted to teach English, due to her love of AP Literature. Many teachers throughout her high school years influenced her love for English, like Mrs. Moore. She wants to thank the good teachers she had, and also the not so good ones. Lupe has been teaching for 18 years now, and she plans on continuing for many years.

Lupe has a three year old son named Adonis. She describes being a mother and a teacher as chaos; walking into the English office at 7:15 in the morning is like a breath of fresh air for Lupe.

“Most of the time I say to people in the office, I am here, and now I can take a breath.” said Lupe.

Despite it's challenges, she is ecstatic to be raising a good human in this world and she loves her adorable son. Lupe’s favorite part about being a mother is getting to relive everything again. She loves to look at things through a different perspective like seeing Adonis enjoy the fun holidays like Christmas and Halloween.

“It’s like seeing everything again in a different lens with Adonis,” said Lupe.

With Adonis, everything is an adventure. She loves to take him to the park or somewhere new like an aquarium.

Lupe's influence extends beyond motherhood; confidence draws students and fellow teachers in. She is happy with herself and how she turned out.

“I found out early on who I was in my own character, and I am very content with myself,” said Lupe.

Colonie senior, Dina Ribeca, describes Lupe as passionate, confident, and empathetic. When asked how she has made an impact on her life, she explained that Lupe was one of the reasons that Ribeca started to like school. She misses talking with Lupe about anything during class in junior year.

“She made me see things from different points of view and made me be OK with things not actually being OK. I am extremely grateful for her” Ribeca said.

Juli Hutchins, an English teacher at Colonie and also one of Lupe’s best friends, would describe her as caring and one of their favorite memories together is going to Maine every year right when school ends. They have been going for 8 years and they plan to continue this vacation for years to come.

“It sounds so cheesy, but I genuinely do not think I would be who I am today without her,” said Hutchins.