Zulma Perez-Estrella, a teacher in the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools, recently received the Tom Steadman Teacher-Research Opportunity Award at the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas.
The award gives a high school teacher the opportunity to contribute to original research being conducted within the KUMC Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department.
As a recipient of the award, Perez-Estrella chose to work in the laboratory of Dr. Aron Fenton during the summer of 2017. Her research explored the regulatory properties of the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase, which will contribute to developing drugs to control hyperglycemia associated with diabetes.
This award is named after Tom Steadman, a farmer and rancher in Woodward County, Okla. It was from observing Steadman’s actions that Dr. Fenton first realized the value of academic service as an important way of giving back to the community. Graduating high school students can benefit from help in exploring available career options; therefore, there is a need for individuals in professional fields to create opportunities to supply that help. The ability to see something that is needed coupled with the willingness to fill that need exemplifies how Steadman has led his life.
Zulma Perez-Estrella has been an instructor in the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools for the past four years. During her first year at Harmon High School, she instructed and coordinated classes in the biotechnology program, which has now expanded to a district wide Bio+ Program.
For the 2017-2018 school year, approximately 40 junior and senior Bio+ students were selected from four KCKPS high schools. These students will enroll in Introduction to Biotechnology, Principles of Cell and Molecular Biology, and Introduction to Bio-manufacturing, in which they will practice and perfect numerous laboratory skills and techniques, while receiving high school and college credit via KCKCC.
To further prepare Bio+ students for college and careers in STEM fields, they will also participate in individual laboratory research at partner institutions (past partners include KUMC and K-State Olathe). These students will also be taught how to interview for jobs, especially in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) area. Some will earn paid full-time summer work (past partners include KUMC’s Department of Pharamacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics and Ceva Biomune in Lenexa), where they have put into practice the skills learned in Bio+.
Perez-Estrella discovered her passion for education in 1996 when she became a math and science educator for Girls Incorporated of Alameda County, Calif. In the process of helping young girls deconstruct their fears in these subjects, she developed a new outlook toward STEM training.
For seven years she created interactive science, math and health curricula for summer camps and afterschool programs, which continued while she worked with the Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, Inc., a leader in delivering multiculturally appropriate health care services in Southern Alameda County.
As a health educator-clinic supervisor of TVHC’s school-based health center, she also taught high school health education for four years, and prepared students to lead health education presentations in the community, reaching over 4,000 youth annually.
Upon moving to Kansas City in 2010, Perez-Estrella continued her commitment to serving urban, immigrant and underserved communities. While a student at KUMC, she served as an instructor and curriculum writer for Camp Pathological and KCK Saturday Academy, where she continued to educate youth in her new commitment to the Wyandotte community.
Over 15 years in education has solidified Perez-Estrella’s belief that a quality work force requires teachers who will assume the great responsibility of providing a thorough and rigorous education and inspire student excellence.