Montessori graduate finish college

Upon graduating from Goucher College in Maryland, Natalia Torres Ramos remembers that it was in 5th grade that she started in the Montessori program at her neighborhood school, Montessori school Juan Ponce de León (JPL). 

Today, years later, and from distant places, she remembers what she lived there and how it is part of who she is today. 

Upon arriving at the Juan Ponce de León school, she found a different school than the one she had previously had. This experience taught her many things that still remain with her. 

Natalia was in the JPL Montessori public school from 5th to 9th grade. She enjoyed Elementary 1 and 2 on that methodology. 

''I feel that the Montessori methodology has some elements, characteristics and experiences that are very important for children in their training, such as community, respect, independence. It's something different,'' said Natalia, emphasizing why she continues to believe in the Montessori public education she received.

Among the most important things, she highlighted the treatment she received from her teachers who she understands guided her to give her best as a human being and academically, they guided her to be her best person. 

Upon finishing her 9th grade, Natalia received a scholarship at the Colegio Puertorriqueño de Niñas where she studied until senior year. Then, Natalia decides to go to Goucher College in Maryland to study education, a vocation that she found when she was just 11 years old. 

For her, the adaptation process was good and fast, she immediately felt welcome and part of the community. To the Montessori philosophy and methodology, she expressed, she is grateful for her academic preparation that later has allowed her to continue studies at the university. She highlighted the field studies that she did every year as a formative experience, especially the experience of spending days on Vieques studying the island, its history and society.  

Her decision to study general education, and Administration in particular, was inspired by Ana María García Blanco, who was her school director for a few years, and with whom she later did an internship work at the Instituto Nueva Escuela (INE). 

Natalia fondly remembers the summer she spent working with Ana María and the INE group. She learned a lot from the multiple visits they made together to public Montessori schools across the island. For her, Ana María is her mentor and her "companion on the road". 

The Montessori education that she had at the Juan Ponce de León school meant so much that even in the distance Natalia has dedicated herself to making the Montessori educational method known in research that she has carried out at the University and with her high school classmates from many parts of the world. 

''I think about the Montessori system a lot.'' 

Natalia has just graduated from Goucher College in Maryland and in her last year she thoroughly investigated how Montessori education influences the personality of boys and girls and how environments and materials help the development of this methodology. 

Research that has been put at the service of INE.