As a young child, Romina Bonilla, along with her parents and four sisters immigrated from Oaxaca, Mexico to South Central, Los Angeles in 1989.
It did not go unnoticed to Romina’s parents that education was a lifeline in underserved communities of color. Her parents took advantage of the ESL courses offered locally. They were both able to obtain their GEDs that essentially forged a new path for her parents and launched the five sisters on their own successful career paths.
Education had a domino effect on Romina’s family. Once their parents made the first move, there was a chain reaction with her sisters.
Today, inspired by her parents’ resilience and grit — and the educational opportunities that turned their American Dream into a reality, Romina is an ESL teacher for Five Keys. Her oldest sister attended UCLA’s medical school and is an anesthesiologist. Another sister is an electrical engineer, another a social worker, and her youngest sister just graduated high school with a 3.8 GPA.
“Programs like Five Keys give people a second chance at reaching hopes and dreams they might not have been able to reach at a younger age due to life circumstances,” says the 34-year-old mother of two young children. She is married to Jose Sanchez, who is also an employee at Five Keys. They live in Downey, CA. Romina currently teaches at Five Keys’ Weber Community Center in South Los Angeles, while her husband works as an Assessment and Technology Specialist out of Five Keys’ main office in Boyle Heights.
After obtaining his GED, Romina’s father, Vincente Bonilla, opened a TV repair business. After hard times, he closed his business but still remains employed full time as a technician. Her mother, Araceli Gorostieta, chose to stay at home to raise her five daughters but also became an active volunteer at the Hope Street Margolis Family Center, a health, education and recreation program of Dignity Health California Hospital Medical Center. It has been recognized as a national model for integrating healthcare within its community of downtown Los Angeles. At Hope Street, her mom immersed herself with parenting courses, eventually becoming a parent leader and mentor.
Romina paid close attention to her mother’s role modeling. The organization also caught a young Romina’s attention because she realized she wanted to give back to her community as she saw Hope Street’s mission guided her mom to do. This drew her closer to Five Keys and how it partners with the Homeless Outreach Program Integrated Care System, El Nido Family Centers, and the WorkSource Centers, all in Los Angeles County, to help students with their goals.
“Five Keys looks at students in a more holistic manner than your traditional school setting. We see people as wholes and understand that you cannot instill true intrinsic change by simply giving students packets of homework to complete and get graded on. You have to provide them with meaningful educational experiences that spark them with moments of reflection and eventually personal growth,” said Romina.
What she especially loves about teaching at Five Keys is the strong relationships teachers build with students and connecting them to opportunities they might not otherwise know exist during school and even after graduation. From helping students apply to college, to connecting them with scholarship opportunities, to offering the welding training program at Weber Community Center which serves as a great start to a potential new career path for students, she says.
Romina, who graduated from California State University LA, worked for the adult division of education for the Los Angeles Unified School District as an ESL teacher in 2009. She joined Five Keys in 2012 and taught ESL at Pitchess Detention Center.
“My experiences teaching in-custody molded me into a better teacher,” she says. “Learning about restorative justice taught me about empathy. I really think that before I began working here, I only knew what sympathizing is. But after engaging and continuously learning at Five Keys and having other interactions with the diverse student and teacher population I work with, I truly began to understand and appreciate other people's feelings and experiences.”
She adds: “I love what I do because I see the effect we have on students who are used to people merely sympathizing with them and walking away instead of empathizing and actually lending them a hand up,” she says. “This is what Five Keys does and this is what Hope Street did for my family. Without this support I have no idea where my family and I would be. We will carry our experiences with us in our hearts with lots of gratitude for the rest of our lives.”
Her advice for people considering becoming students at Five Keys?
“Just do it! Five Keys is a door. All we need from students is to open it and our teachers will guide you with the rest! Who knows, maybe making this move will be the domino effect to a better future for their family and future generations to come.”
