Get to know the College of Education and Human Development’s new dean, Dr. Margo DelliCarpini
Beyond the boxes, furniture, and dust that filled her grandmother’s attic sat a stack of paper belonging to Dr. Margo DelliCarpini. At the top of this stack was a resume that she had typed up on a typewriter as a teenager for a lifeguard position at a local pool. Under career aspirations, a single word was listed; a word that marked the beginning of a dream career for the new dean of the UTSA College of Education and Human Development.
That word was “linguist.”
“I don’t even think I knew what a linguist was at the time,” said DelliCarpini. “I always had some sense that I would be in education. I don’t think I have ever thought about doing anything else.”
DelliCarpini’s love of language and education began in her grandmother’s household in New York. As a young girl fascinated with teaching, she would repeatedly quiz her grandmother about what school was like for her growing up.
“I used to talk to my grandmother and ask her a thousand questions,” said DelliCarpini. “When I was finally able to understand that English was not her native language, I was fascinated about what happened for her in school.”
DelliCarpini’s grandmother came to the United States at a young age from Puerto Rico. They placed her grandmother, and her grandmother’s older sister, in a class together. Neither of them knew any English, but over the course of a year, they were able to learn the language. Back then, English as a second language (ESL) classes did not exist.
“I remember asking my grandmother, ‘how did you do it Nina? How did you not understand anybody?’” said DelliCarpini. “She said she didn’t understand the language, but she always knew who wanted her there at school and who didn’t. So when I became an ESL teacher, I thought to myself, I want to be the teacher who shows my grandmother who is wanted. That, to me, is the role of the ESL teacher.”
DelliCarpini took on this role during her time in New York as an ESL teacher in an alternative high school, working with misunderstood, and often, unwanted students.
“I loved every minute of it,” she said. “Sometimes I would go home and think ‘I didn’t do enough today,’ but I loved it. I always said that if I woke up tomorrow and everything had been a dream, as long as I was still an ESL teacher, I would be happy because I was always happy being an ESL teacher.”
One of the things these students taught her was the importance of listening. Many times, she said, the students in her classroom were overly frustrated because they weren’t being heard. She would sit with them, listen, and help them work through their problems. Sometimes they were just happy that someone, anyone, was listening.
“What I found with my students was that they were at their most frustrated when they felt like they weren’t being heard,” said DelliCarpini. “Sometimes there was no solution to anything, but just their ability to tell me what was on their mind made them feel better.”
This, she said, is something she has continued to develop throughout her career in higher education and has brought with her to her new role as dean of the college, which began this past summer.
“I learned that you have to listen to your students, so listening has become a big feature of how I interact with people,” said DelliCarpini. “I’ve taken that with me that people want to be heard and people deserve to be heard.”
As dean, she has taken her listening skills to the community, to strengthen the partnerships between the college, non-profit agencies, and the community.
“I really like the interaction between the university and the community,” DelliCarpini said. “It enables me to highlight the good things that are happening in our college, and find places where we fit outside in that community. I hope that we can have a great impact collectively and be able to make connections with the community to participate in opportunities that we didn’t know existed.”
These partnerships and opportunities, she said, will help the college produce the best education and human development professionals in the state of Texas.
“I want to continue creating the best opportunities that we can for our students,” said DelliCarpini. “My aspirational goal is that we are number one in the state for educator preparation.”
And there’s no better place for that than in San Antonio, a city that has become her home and reignited her passion for language.
“I love that San Antonio is truly a bilingual and bicultural city,” she said. “I love the fact that what I’ve seen of the city so far is a welcoming place where people come together and celebrate the rich history of the city and its arts, culture, and heritage.”
