Naomi Fierro Peña has worked at Lick-Wilmerding High School since 2019 as the Director of Student Inclusion for the Center for Civic Engagement. Over the past three years, she has become a role model for many students in our community.
Peña was initially drawn to the LWHS community because of its reputation for valuing both academics and art. She said, “I liked the duality and the multiplicity of an institution like Lick, admiring the shops and rigorous education.”
photo by Odin Marin
Peña was raised in the Excelsior district which is adjacent to LWHS’ neighborhood. She attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory (SI), then graduated from Georgetown University in 2015 with a degree in Government and Education and a minor in Spanish.
Peña explained her sense of home and the powerful experiences of her childhood: “my childhood keeps me real. I grew up doing donuts in Excelsior, going to Don Chuy’s to get a burrito…being in lowrider shows with my dad and sitting on the stoop knowing all of my neighbors. The Excelsior and the Mission historically have been immigrant working-class neighborhoods and those communities are my communities. No matter where you go, whether you went to college or you’re working for a big company and making a lot of money, always know where you came from.”
Peña has worked in education ever since she graduated from Georgetown. She was initially drawn to working with youth because “they’re underestimated or tokenized. I don’t think the majority of adults in our society give youth enough credit or take them as seriously as we need to. Adults can compliment young people, but those compliments don’t often come with truly respecting their power.” Peña wants to ensure that the younger generation has the power and the right to produce change. She believes that young people can see a future in our world that doesn’t exist yet by constantly questioning the status quo of our society.
While attending SI, Peña struggled with her self-esteem. In the eighth grade, in a predominantly POC middle school, she was constantly told how smart and intelligent she was. At SI she began to straighten her hair and thought that skinny equaled admirable. She thought, “This is the only way I can be worthy of being loved.” Her experience at SI forced her to question her values. She decided she wanted to become the adult that she wished her younger self had. “I want every student, not just white students, to feel like there is a place for them wherever they go.”
Peña’s first job out of college was as a dual immersion eighth-grade teacher, teaching history and science in Spanish at Everett Middle School in San Francisco. At Everett, Peña helped found La Raza Club which is the equivalent of LWHS’ Latinx Unidos Club.
After Everett, she served at City Hall as an advisor to the San Francisco Youth Commission, a group of young people who create policies that directly affect San Francisco’s youth. Peña taught the youth how to lobby, and how to demand a transparent budget. At times, she found it very difficult to advocate for change. She said, “Adults can be really difficult and disappointing.” Peña left the Youth Commission to work at LWHS.
As the Director of Student Inclusion, Peña took it upon herself to actively spend time outside her office and interact with the student body. Her strong relationships with students and faculty became the foundation of her experiences at LWHS. The Student Inclusion chairs Olivia Castillo ’23 and George Duran ’23 worked closely on several policies including the attendance and hate speech policies. Duran said, “Mrs. Peña has always had a very big presence on campus. She is the adult on campus that will always be in your corner supporting you and be a safe person to confide in.”
Peña says of the many initiatives she has fostered at LWHS, “I’m really proud of and the most excited that ethnic studies will be a class at Lick next year.” Peña and the student inclusion chairs’ ultimate goal this year was to make LWHS an inclusive environment for the whole student body.
Duran said, “After returning to campus from Covid, we knew the student body was going to be very divided. We wanted to create an atmosphere where everyone felt welcome and safe. We also wanted to implement new policies regarding racial injustice in our community.” One of the initiatives Peña and the inclusion chairs enacted was to found the Student of Color Leadership Network, a group led by POC club leaders to create a safe space for students of color, to create events and celebrate their presence and voices on campus. Peña said, “the space is so joyful — that is radical in itself.”
Peña reminds students, “Create the change you want to see.”
Peña is currently working on opening an art studio for BIPOC adults. She would love to work for herself. “To me, that is the ultimate form of freedom,” she said. She hopes to encourage joy and healing through play at her studio and she dreams of having sewing, gardening, dance classes, and other forms of media in her studio.
Peña celebrates all of her students as she steps down from her position at LWHS and says goodbye. She said, “I love them fiercely and with my whole heart, even after I leave I will continue to always be your biggest fan.”
