Ms. Aguilera earned her bachelor of art's degree in Spanish in 1997 from California State University, Long Beach, She then continued her graduate studies in Spanish at CSULB earning a masters of art’s degree with an emphasis in Spanish linguistics and peninsular literature in 2000. She was a member of the Phi Kappa Phi honor’s society in 2000, having graduated at the top five percent of her class in the graduate program.

Ms. Aguilera started teaching as an associate at Cal State Long Beach while completing her graduate studies. For the past eight years, she has been a full-time Spanish teacher at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower. She has also been teaching at Long Beach City College for five years and recently joined the Spanish department as a part-time faculty member at Los Angeles Harbor College in Wilmington.

Ms. Aguilera is currently completing research at Cal State Long Beach, under the guidance of Spanish Linguist Dr. Maria Carreira, on Spanish Language Acquisition and Spanish Language Maintenance as a Heritage Language.

Ms. Aguilera immigrated to California shortly after her birth in Michoacan, Mexico. She lives in Paramount and is an avid traveler with a passion for learning first-hand about international cultures, cuisines, and languages in a variety of countries. She has traveled to China, Costa Rica, Mexico and Puerto Rico. She is scheduled to leave on May 2008 for Madrid Spain where she will serve as the program director for the Long Beach City College’s Spanish Language Study Abroad program.