Originally posted: Sep. 29, 2026
By: Kelsey Claus
For Ester Gonzalez, becoming a teacher has never been a question of whether she wanted to do it. The dream has been there since high school. The question was always whether or not life would give her the opportunity.
Now, more than three decades after graduating from high school, Gonzalez is finally turning that dream into a reality through the Nevada Forward™ Undergraduate Pre-Apprenticeship Program.
At 51, Gonzalez is pursuing her degree while continuing to work in the school where she’s supported students for more than a decade. Her journey is more than earning a degree or moving into a new career. She is making space for that dream she has carried with her for most of her life.
“Now is my time,” she said.
A dream passed down
Gonzalez grew up in California and moved to Nevada in 2004. Her connection to education began long before she entered a Nevada classroom. As a student, she participated in parenting classes and discovered how much she enjoyed working with children.
She also had a personal example close to home.
Gonzalez’s mother had wanted to become a teacher in Mexico, but growing up in a low-income family and later immigrating to the United States meant that education was not an option available to her. Instead, she went to work.
Her mother’s unrealized dream helped inspire Gonzalez to pursue teaching.
When a friend encouraged her to enroll at a community college, she listened and became the first person in her family to pursue higher education. And when asked what she wanted to do, she had an answer—even if she wasn’t sure how to get there.
“I said ‘I want to be a teacher, but I don’t know how. I don’t know what to do.’”
She earned some college credits, but life soon took her in another direction.
After getting married and starting a family, Gonzalez became a mother. When one of her sons needed physical therapy and significant care, she made the decision to leave work and school to care for him.
Her education would have to wait.
One barrier after another
Over the years, Gonzalez continued finding ways to work with children. After moving to Las Vegas, a neighbor eventually encouraged her to apply to the Clark County School District, pointing out that her background in education and her experience as a mother made working in schools a natural fit.
She joined the district in 2013, first as a floater before becoming a permanent employee later that year. Since then, she has worked in a variety of programs including general education pre-K, resource and co-teaching settings, before moving into a primary autism classroom.
But even after returning to the school environment, earning a degree remained difficult.
When opportunities became available for support staff to pursue higher education, Gonzalez was ready to try again.
Then she was diagnosed with cancer. And once again, school had to wait.
“I had, again, another barrier for me to not continue my education,” Gonzalez said. “I had to take care of my health.”
Eventually, as her children grew older,and began college themselves, and her circumstances changed, Gonzalez was ready to try again.
Even then, the path wasn’t straightforward. She initially missed a deadline to complete her application to the Nevada Forward™ program and thought she had lost her opportunity. When another application cycle came up later that year, she wasn’t going to let fear ,or another obstacle, stop her.
With help from a UNLV staff member, her application was ultimately submitted and Gonzalez was accepted into the program.
“It felt like a second chance.”
A program built for the life she has
One of the biggest barriers to college for Gonzalez had always been the practical reality of being a working parent. She couldn’t simply quit her job to attend classes during the day, and she couldn’t afford to choose between earning an income and pursuing an education. Even when she and her husband were working, paying for college was difficult.
Nevada Forward™ changed that equation.
The program’s flexibility, including primarily online coursework, allowed her to remain employed while completing her education.
“If I had class during the day, would I quit my job to go to school? No, it would have been really hard for me and my family to survive.”
For Gonzalez, the financial support has been just as important. Not having to worry about paying for classes, books, materials, and other course expenses has removed a source of anxiety that previously made college feel out of reach.
The teacher she already is
Nevada Forward™ also recognizes something Gonzalez already brings to the classroom: years of experience.
She has spent more than a decade working alongside licensed teachers, and she says those colleagues have consistently treated her as a teacher. That experience has helped develop skills that she knows she will carry into her own classroom, from creating lesson plans and schedules to managing transitions, working with small and whole groups, and supporting students’ behavior.
“When I finish the program, I’m not starting as a new employee to CCSD,” Gonzalez said. “The years and experience that I have will carry with me.”
Today, Gonzalez works at Bruner Elementary in North Las Vegas, where she supports students in a primary autism classroom.
She hopes to stay at Bruner after completing the program. The school has been part of her life for more than two decades, not only as an employee, but as a parent and member of the community. She has watched children grow up there, she has seen former students return to the school as adults, and she has even watched students she once knew as children begin pursuing their own careers in education.
A dream come true
Gonzalez has already begun imagining what her own classroom will look like. She would love to teach pre-K or an early elementary grade because she knows she belongs with the “little ones,” as she puts it. Her years of experience have given her a clear sense of where she feels most at home.
After finishing up her general education credits this fall semester, Gonzalez expects to have about 60 credits left to earn her bachelor’s degree—all of which she can finish in about four semesters with the Nevada Forward™ model. And she is already looking toward the finish line.
“This will truly be a dream come true,” she said.
It is a dream she has carried since graduating high school in 1994—a dream interrupted by motherhood, family responsibilities, financial barriers, and health challenges, but never abandoned.
And now, she wants her children to see what persistence looks like.
“No matter how long it takes, I want them to understand that giving up on a dream is never an option.”
For years, Gonzalez was the person that everyone else could count on. She cared for children, supported her parents, and showed up for students in her classroom. Learning to put herself first has been one of the hardest parts of returning to school, but this time, she isn’t putting her dream away.
This time, she is pursuing it. And after years of waiting, Ester Gonzalez knows exactly where she’s going. It is her time.
