Natalia Galá, a junior from Anaheim, California, has big plans for her teaching career.

Galá is going into special education through the Teaching All Learners program with a minor in Spanish. Her goal is to open a school in a poor Latin American country and give children in need an access to education. Galá’s example of entrepreneurship is one of the reasons she was named a Shoemaker Scholar, a program that she says isn’t well known amongst fellow education students.

“People think the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering and the Kelley School of Business when they think entrepreneur. You can be an education major and still have those goals. We (as future educators) never have taken them into consideration,” she said.

Galá decided to study education because she loves working with kids. She also feels a pull toward teaching in a Latin American country, and is hoping to go to Ecuador as part of Global Gateway for Teachers.

“I want to be where there is a need for teaching, where people don’t have the means, especially in special education,” she said.

Besides her studies, she took on an extra project for the Cesar E. Chavez Undergraduate Research Symposium. While working with Associate Professor Carmen Medina, Galá researched how immigration is portrayed in children’s literature and gave a presentation on her findings.

Someday as a teacher, Galá hopes to make a long-lasting difference to her students.

“I want to be the reason one kid didn’t drop out of school. I want to be the reason kids look forward to going to school every day, especially with minority kids or kids that would be first-generation college students,” she said.