Regina Santiago – Kindergarten at Mounds Park Academy – St. Paul, MN
Regina (she/her) teaches Kindergarten at Mounds Park Academy, a PreK-12 college preparatory school in St. Paul, Minnesota. At MPA, students are challenged to stir the human spirit, stand for justice, and shake the world through an individualized, hands-on experience focused on rigor with purpose.
Regina thinks of food as a highly engaging lens through which students can explore a multitude of topics – not just in terms of academic subjects like math and literacy, but also broader ideas of identity, community, environmental stewardship, and social justice. She has written and taught lessons on topics such as mindful eating, eating a rainbow, and processed vs. unprocessed foods. She has produced and filmed “Kindergarten Kitchen” cooking videos with her students as they learned about the significance and impact of foods from places such as Hawaii and Madagascar.
Regina is a proud immigrant and third culture kid who lived in the Philippines and Indonesia before coming to the United States. She writes and speaks about her immigrant identity and its impact on her teaching. She also writes and reviews the social justice curriculum for Learning for Justice and AMAZEworks. Her writing has been published in Minnesota Women’s Press, a Green Card Voices video and podcast, an education textbook about critically reflective practice, and Teaching Tolerance magazine. She also wrote a picture book for Room to Read’s Peace and Equality collection.
Regina is thrilled to spend her eleventh year in education growing and learning as a Pilot Light Food Education Fellow!