John A. Ferguson Welcomes Ms. Pinto

After Raymond McGuire’s retirement last year, Jeidi Pinto took on the role as the new IB Biology instructor at John A. Ferguson. Ms. Pinto has already accomplished so much at the young age of 23 and we look forward to seeing how her first year will go.

This school year is Pinto’s first time teaching the IB curriculum, but her second year teaching at this school. She used to be an educator for the Marine Biology course. However, with her background as an IB student, Mr. Villalobos (last year’s principal) gave her the opportunity to get interviewed for the position.

Pinto was born into a Hispanic, middle-class family in Florida, with her parents from Honduras. When she reached the age of eight, her parents split up and she was raised by mother. “My mom was a single mom for a while until she met my step-dad, so that did motivate me to work harder in school, to not give her too much trouble with money.” she shared. Hence, Pinto sought scholarships for college so that her mother didn’t have to pay for her college expenses. Pinto says that growing up, she had to be really independent because her mother was often at work. Therefore, she created a habit of only relying on herself for everything. “I’ve been trying to be more dependent on others and know it is okay to ask for help and not always have everything together,” Pinto said.

Pinto ended up studying at Florida International University (FIU) where she took primarily Biology classes, but also several psychology classes, like Neuroscience, for her personal interest. “I am driven and hard-working. I prefer to set long-term goals rather than short term goals,” she said. Pinto elaborates on this saying that she prefers long term goals because making constant short term goals gives her stress. As a young teacher, she has much time to explore her interests and progress in the field of education. Thus, she has set multiple goals for the future that she hopes to accomplish, such as furthering her studies in psychology.

Pinto always knew Biology was an interest of hers since her early teenage years. She recalls finding science intriguing, but also a little difficult to comprehend in her middle school years. However, the professors from her high school strengthened that initial interest she had for the subject by making the class interactive as well as showing her how certain topics applied to the real world. Therefore, Pinto realized the passion she had for biology at high school but remained unsure of how she would apply it to her profession. Hence, every career Pinto has ever considered has been related to the science branch. Once Pinto reached college, she fell in love with education and the idea of teaching others. She pursued this interest and began her goal of becoming a teacher.

“I did not want to burn myself out,” Ms. Pinto said in regards to her reason why she transitioned from studying to working as an educator. “Teaching is something I enjoy, so it does not tire me out nor do I mind it,” she shared. Ms. Pinto strives to make her class enjoyable for her students through hands-on activities just like her own high school professors, who inspired her to choose this career path, did.