Sky’s the limit for Mennonite student
Guenther defies family by pursuing teaching career
How many people can say they’ve accomplished their dream? Anna Guenther can.
The 24-year-old will graduate in a month with her teaching degree from the University Windsor making the Mennonite woman’s lifelong goal of becoming a teacher a reality. She’s the first person in her family to have graduated from high school, not to mention university.
“There were moments when I was ready to give up,” she said recently as she taught Grade 5 students about the science of flight and helped them make kites as a student teacher at Eastwood Public School in Forest Glade. “Then I reminded myself that it wasn’t going to be easy. I’m happy and excited about my accomplishment.”
The journey has not been easy for Guenther. The Star profiled her seven years ago after she was forced to leave her parents’ home in the Leamington area to finish high school.
Her Mennonite family, who used to shuttle between Mexico and Canada, settled in Leamington 12 years ago and wanted Guenther, at 17, to get married and quit school.
Although Guenther’s father said he wanted more for his 11 children, religious pressure made the family shun finishing high school.
Vowing not to become an uneducated greenhouse worker, Guenther left home and lodged with a family from her church. She graduated from high school and received a Spanish and German language degree from the University of Windsor.
This wasn’t an easy task. Estranged from her family, few would speak to her in public until the family reconciled a few years ago. Lacking for financial support, Guenther worked in the greenhouses during the summer and had part-time jobs to supplement any scholarships or bursaries she received.
Despite swearing she’d never marry, Guenther got married three years ago and is now the mother of a 23-monthold boy. She’s passing on her love of languages to her son, who speaks low-German with his mother, Spanish with his father and English when out in public.
“I broke my own (pledge),” she said. “I had desired not to be married because it was more with what I grew up with.”
Her family teases her all the time about her strident opinion about marriage, but marrying Guatemalan-native Danny Jiminez gave her a support system that she’d never had before.
Unlike many in the Mennonite community who shelve personal goals once married, Guenther said there was never a consideration that she wouldn’t continue schooling. After having her son, her resolve only strengthened. Whenever she struggled at school, she said to herself it wasn’t just for her anymore. She wanted to succeed for her son.
“I’ve reflected back on everything I’ve been through and sometimes it was extremely hard, but this was my dream to get to work with students,” she said. Her experience has given her a unique insight into the challenges students face, especially those from different cultures.
“When someone is lacking because of family issues, I can relate,” she said. She proposes ways the student can cope and tailors a lesson plan to the student.
Eastwood Public School principal James Cowper first met Guenther when, as a teenager, she worked with younger students in a homework club at Mill Street Centennial Public School in Leamington.
“I’m not surprised she achieved (her goals),” Cowper said. “She never presented herself as someone who would give up. I gave her a lot to do, in relation to her community, and she never batted an eye.”
Cowper said he admires her for making some “very adult choices at a very young age.”
Guenther said her journey isn’t over. She’s set new ambitious goals for herself. She might get a master’s degree and she wants to have an influence in the Mennonite community and convince more young people to pursue education. She has the contacts as a settlement worker with Adult Language & Learning at Tilbury high school.
“I’d love to have a program to work with the school board and get Mennonite students attending school,” she said. “I want to continue influencing the community.”
Her persuasion started in her own home as of her five younger sisters, one graduated from high school and one is about to graduate and has been accepted at a community college. Her parents now allow her siblings to go to school and they even have a computer and Internet access.
“I do agree that the sky is the limit,” she said. “Sometimes we create our own barriers and we have to keep the pathway open.”