Help Megan Survive Student Teaching Fall 2022!

Howdy!

My name is Megan Lopez and I am entering into my last semester of school for UTRGV doing my Student Teaching as a Dance Major this Fall at Rivera ECHS in Brownsville, Texas.

Before I talk about the main part of the fundraiser here is a little History about me! I am 25 years old, I have done gymnastics since I was 3 years old competing competitively since I was 6 years old with Team Gionastics and I stopped competing for fun in 2020 with NAIG, literally the last weekend before the world stopped. Gymnastics has been my sport for my whole life and it has brought me to why my end goal is to be a high school coach for gymnastics in the lovely state of Texas. (Yes, there are only a handful of schools that offer this as a high school sport, examples are Round Rock, Dallas, and College Station)

In High school I did cheer and track for 3 years, winning State my Junior Year in TAPPS 5A for Pole Vault jumping 11ft 1/4in at Baylor University, and then receiving Female Athlete of the Year in 2015 as a senior at Saint Joseph Academy. As a cheerleader at St. Joe I would be throwing 16 backhand springs and ending it with a tuck at the end across the football field at almost every game I participated in. I am a VERY dedicated to what I love to do, if I know I can do it I will do everything I can to go after it.

My education and work life starting with Good Samaritan in 2017 & UTRGV in 2019:

I started working in 2017 with a company called Good Samaritan Community Services and with them I would visit schools year round and run the after school program for cheer and dance for 3-5 graders for Skinner Elementary (4years), Resaca Elementary (1 year), Sharp Elementary (3 years), Faulk Middle school (1 semester), Porter High school (1 semester). I have been recognized by the Superintendent of BISD for my work with these students in the peak of my after school career right before COVID hit. I would cater to teams from 12 students to about 46 on a team, and majority of the teams were 30+. I have worked endlessly to provide the best quality and quantity of support for all my students to drive them to work hard, be respectful, and celebrate the achievements they have made. Mean while during this time I graduated from TSC in December 2018 and started my Journey with UTRGV in spring 2019, in the Dance Program to become a Certified Teacher. The biggest challenge I have been facing since I started in 2019 is that I live in Brownsville, my work is in Brownsville but the campus site of UTRGV for the Dance Majors is located in Edinburg. So what dose that mean? That means majority of my days I would wake up at 6am go to the Vaquero Bus Stop and take the bus at 7:30am and get to Edinburg at 8:30am and doing my morning technique classes. I would take my morning dance classes till about 11:30am and get back on the bus to Brownsville and go straight into teaching and coaching until about 6pm. Monday - Friday this was my schedule, not including the endless other times I would need to go right back to edinburg for rehearsals. This continued from 2017- to the fall of 2021 when I ran out of my morning dance classes and I needed to finish all my senior classes, no longer able to work at the job I was at for almost 4 years! From there I picked up Substitute teaching in October and that was my main income while I had my full time schedule with night time classes so I can work something during the day. I continued with Substitute teaching during the Spring semester of 2022 mean while completing all the requirements for my Dance Degree. I had enough money saved to hold me up to paying my rent up to this month in August. This semester starting on Monday August 29th I will be starting my Student teaching at Rivera ESCH. It is a 75 day 8am-4pm, including staff meetings and trainings after hours as well that I wont be getting paid for. 75 days of NO PAY from August 29- December 3rd. It’s going to be very hard to get a stable well enough paying job to help support me this semester, but it is not impossible. Right now I am still on the hunt.

*I do work side jobs, Country line dancing every Wednesday at the Sprocket, private and group cheer classes, babysitting, income from Choreographing VX’s, sweet 16’s, weddings and officiating weddings.

This is still not enough to get me through this semester, but this is where I am looking to our community who have seen me work endlessly every minute of the day these past years to get to this point and now I am here.

I appreciate any amount of donations, and I am extremely grateful for all the teachers, students, faculty, administrators and parents that have trusted me with your students to make a long lasting impact. “If there’s anything you need let me know”- at the times where people have said this to me nows the time! (I have October covered due to me substitute teaching the aug. 17-26 these past weeks.)

Expenses that I have monthly are as followed

$500- house rent (Sister pays $100) (September, November, December)

$65- water PUB (Sister pays $32.50) (September, November, December)

$90-120 electric (Sister pays half )(September, November, December)

$100- food

$100- gas

$150- clothes for student teaching (work shirts, leggings, and dance shoes)

I do live in a duplex with my 19 year old sister and her 3 year old. She does chip in and she works in an Urgent care place, but her main goal is to provide for her daughter. My family has helped me a lot also through this but at times there’s only so much everyone can do!

If you would like to reach out to me or want to donate in other ways here is my information Cashapp $meganlynn97 , Facebook Megan Lynn Lopez or if you have my phone

Thank you so much for taking your time to read everything, please let me know how I can also be of services!!!!