Jennifer Godoy was five years old the first time she walked into Escuela de Guadalupe. The building was small, the class sizes were smaller, and the pipes in the old bathroom groaned so loudly that she and her classmates were convinced the school was haunted. “We always asked for a buddy to go to the bathroom,” she laughs now. “It was haunted.”
Almost two decades later, Jennifer sits on Escuela de Guadalupe’s Board of Trustees, helping guide the same dual-language Catholic school that once felt haunted. Her path from that kindergarten classroom to the boardroom says as much about her own drive as it does about the kind of foundation Escuela was built to provide.
A Bilingual Beginning Built on Sacrifice
Jennifer was born in El Salvador and moved to Colorado with her family when she was very young. Her preschool, located just a few blocks from Escuela, connected her family to the school, and the fit made sense right away. Escuela offered a full day of kindergarten at a time when many programs only offered half days, and its bilingual model matched what her family wanted for her academically and culturally.
Jennifer now understands that providing a Catholic, dual-language education came at a cost for her parents.
“My mom had to work two jobs to be sure I was provided for. My dad is a mechanic, so he had a bit more flexibility to help with pickup and drop-off. I really only saw my mom at night.”
Looking back as an adult, Jennifer also credits Escuela with helping make that sacrifice possible in the first place.
“I think Escuela did such a good job working with my parents so that they could make it affordable for us.”
That affordability, paired with the rigor of the bilingual curriculum, shaped the rest of her life. “I’m able to read and write fluently in Spanish, and I picked up other languages along the way,” she says. “Who I am now, it all started at Escuela.”
From Challenge Foundation Scholar to Global Consultant
When Jennifer finished 5th grade, Escuela did not yet have a middle school. She went through the admissions process for the Challenge Foundation scholarship program and, with its support, attended St. Mary’s Academy for middle and high school. From there, she earned a full-ride scholarship to the University of San Francisco, where she studied economics and international studies.
Her career took her to PwC, then back to graduate school for a master’s degree in economics and global management, with coursework that took her to Barcelona and Taiwan. She graduated in 2020 and returned to PwC, where she now works as a consultant helping organizations design and implement strategy and operations, with a growing focus on artificial intelligence.
That AI expertise has followed her home. Jennifer is now working with Escuela’s leadership to help the school think through its own approach to implementing AI, one more way her professional path has looped back into the community that helped to shape her.
Coming Home to the Board of Trustees
Jennifer never really left Escuela. Her younger siblings came through the school after her, she stayed connected through community service, and she watched the campus and the community around it grow over the years. When the opportunity came to join the Board of Trustees, it felt like a natural next step.
“It’s a great opportunity to give back to a community that helped shape me into who I am now. I’m learning things I never realized as a student.”
Chief among those realizations: just how much work goes into running a school well. “It’s not just the teachers,” she says. “They take on so many other roles, and so do the administrators. I have a newfound respect for them.” Sitting through Escuela’s accreditation process gave her an especially close look at that work, from reviewing materials to studying the metrics the school uses to track its own progress.
“I didn’t realize how much the school focused on scores until I saw the growth data. Now I understand why Escuela has such high achievers.”
Jennifer Godoy, alumna
Seeing the School Through a Board Member’s Eyes
As a student, Jennifer admits her reaction to yet another assessment was usually some version of “one more test.” As a board member reviewing growth scores in a recent meeting, she saw those same assessments differently.
“I didn’t realize how much the school focused on scores until I saw the growth data. Now I understand why Escuela has such high achievers, and it’s clear the school is always looking for ways to help each individual student succeed. I’m not sure other schools pay that much attention to every student in every class.”
She’s also seen the campus itself transform. A few of the changes she points to since her own time as a student:
- Addition of a middle school, which lets students like her younger brother stay with the same close-knit group of friends from kindergarten all the way through 8th grade.
- Growing athletics program, including volleyball, which her younger sister played and which Jennifer wishes she’d had as a student.
- Newer campus building, a far cry from the small original building she remembers from kindergarten.
- Larger and more diverse community, both in the classroom and among the families supporting the school.
The school’s fundraising has surprised her too. Attending events like Salud as a board member, she’s seen firsthand how many people turn out simply to learn more and get involved. “It speaks to the impact the school is having,” she says.
Bringing the Alumni Community Back Together
As she looks ahead to her role on the board, Jennifer’s focus keeps returning to community, specifically, reconnecting Escuela’s alumni with the school that shaped them.
“I hope to bring more people back to Escuela. We all have fond memories, and I’ve stayed connected because my siblings kept attending. I want to help bring the community of graduates back to the school, and honestly, it’s already happening organically.”
