> Back to Who We Are 

Regina Becker has been teaching in Colonial for 14 years, but she’s no stranger to the district. Becker grew up in New Castle, graduated from William Penn in 2003, and returned as an elementary teacher after graduating from the University of Delaware. What’s more, Becker married a classmate she met in the third grade who also happens to be a teacher in the district!

While Asian American Heritage Month is now being celebrated nationally, Becker, a first generation Vietnamese American, says she is happy to see that Colonial has been creating the space and time for equity workshops, discussions, and professional development sessions in recent years. She believes this effort is helping the district move towards creating a more equitable educational experience for students and staff adding, “As an Asian American woman, I think it’s important to be included in these discussions, given the current climate of our country during the pandemic. I think it is also important to raise awareness about not only what is happening now, but about the Asian American experience that isn’t talked about much in our history books and everyday learning.” 

Becker says she became a teacher in Colonial because she wanted to give back to the district that gave her so much as a child and that she purposefully includes ethnicity, race, culture and inclusion in her lessons. “I have found that the best way to do this is to be open and honest about my own experience and life, and to include diverse literature in my classroom,” she says. Becker recalls that her parents fled from Vietnam during wartime saying, “their experience is a huge part of who I am today and how I face diversity. While I haven’t experienced any racism recently, I often think about what my parents endured in their lifetime and how those experiences have begun to parallel the stories that I see in current events. I have definitely been on higher alert in my everyday life, but I don’t live my life in fear. I realize that ignorance and misinformation exists and that to some, the shape of my eyes and color of my skin may have more bearing on some people’s perception of me than the fact that I was born in the United States or that I am an educated woman. I don’t let that bother me because I know who I am.” Regina Becker believes her life has come full circle by returning to Colonial where she and other Asian American educators play a major role in Colonial’s culturally diverse student and staff populations.