Lopez grew up in a little town called Clatskanie, Oregon, but considers herself a Texan. She likes spends some time in Costa Rica where her mother is from. Lopez attended some high school in Brazil for a year as an exchange student with the American Field Service program. She attended Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and graduated in 1996 before earning her master’s at California State University in Sacramento in 2000.

Lopez and her husband Alberto, a lifelong Texan with family roots in Mexico, have seven children, whose ages range from 2 to 15, which means “never a boring moment" for the parents. They enjoy seasonal sports such as soccer and are into arts, live theater, international dance, and music performances.

Some of Lopez’s hobbies are oil painting on canvas, writing poetry and short fiction, hiking outdoors, traveling and cooking, especially trying out new ethnic meal recipes. What is the most unusual gift you ever received? How about a watermelon? Lopez has--a student gave her a huge watermelon that could barely fit on her desk. Lopez said that is the most unusual thing that has ever happened to her.

This is not Lopez’s first time teaching; she taught the dual-credit college classes through Hill College in Hillsboro, Texas, and at Hillsboro High School for five years and English composition and literature for the past 10 years elsewhere. Lopez has also taught in California, Arkansas and Texas. For many years, she also taught English as a Second Language to a tribe of indigenous women in Boruca, Costa Rica, and other countries.

“I did that teaching overseas while I was on a summer term in 1994 (my junior year of college,) It was a science field research program through ACM (Associated Colleges of the Midwest). I started out assigned to find and study petro glyphs, the ancient pre-Columbian rock carvings that were plentiful around that rural area during that time.”

Lopez’s group rode horses out on steep rocky cliffs with snakebite kits and chlorine tablets for the drinking water to find the artifacts and then traced them with a special process to turn in later to the museum which supervised their project at the capital city, San Jose.

“While I was staying with the locals, I taught the English class to learn more about their culture and native language, which was similar to the Mayan language of Quiche (nothing like Spanish). Some of the younger generation did speak Spanish, fortunately for me. They helped me a lot while I was there.”

She says all cooking, toileting and bathing took place outdoors and that pillows were dried banana leaves inside of a real pillow case that was hand woven from locally grown cotton dyed with tree bark and other fruits and vegetables to get its color.

“I learned so much while I was there overall and really enjoyed my time, even though I did get seriously ill a couple of times with dysentery. The malaria pills we had to take helped prevent a lot, though. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime which I will never forget."

Teaching Spanish 1 in room 304, Lopez also has a special class for students who are native Spanish speakers that teach Spanish literacy and proper grammar as well as introducing the cultures of other Spanish speaking nations around the world. “I really like La Vega so far because the other teachers have been so helpful in welcoming me to the LVHS family!”

Lopez enjoys being at La Vega and wants to make this school her last teaching stop before retirement. Her goals are to be the best at what she does as a teacher. Lopez believes “We never stop learning no matter how great we are or how old we get.”

A coach for UIL Spelling and Vocabulary this year, Lopez has accompanied them in only one practice UIL meet last month so far, but she says that it was a good experience for them to see what they are up against. No one placed, but at least they could get a feel for what to expect in the spring meets.

“I hope to become involved in campus extracurricular life more and more as I get established. I really want to help students find and get to their own goals," she said. "Of course I would love to see everyone go to college after they graduate. To me, a good teacher is one who enjoys helping our students to believe in themselves and acquire the skills they need to be successful in life.”