Carmen Alicia Rodríguez Echevarría is unflappable. As the principal of Inmaculada Concepcion School in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, which serves children pre-K through eighth grade, her job demands a certain amount of unflappability.
But doing it through an earthquake? And then a pandemic? And then another hurricane, in an area still recovering from Hurricane Maria? And then raising enrollment by nearly 300 percent as the school remains in ruins? For Rodriguez, this is personal.
She graduated from the school in 1998. She is a homegrown talent. In 2005 she completed her bachelor’s degree in education under an athletic scholarship, specializing in secondary mathematics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico. In 2008 she received a master’s degree in educational supervision and administration. She is now going for her doctoral degree while giving children an excellent education.
For 14 years she worked as a math teacher at Cristo Rey Academy in Ponce, where she developed as an educator, mentor and academic leader.
She and her husband developed a sports and family project in Guayanilla, which gives low-income children and young people an outlet to have fun and develop team-building skills. Sports were key to Rodriguez’s development, and now she is giving those same formative opportunities to the young people from her hometown.
Finding solutions amid disasters
But nothing could prepare Rodriguez for the trifecta of troubles to come that would test all of her skill, faith and resolve.
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the island on January 7, 2020. It devastated Inmaculada Concepcion, the parish and the town. The church walls collapsed on part of the school, leaving over half of the school’s building useless. Many families pulled their kids out of the school and fled their disaster-stricken town.
Around that time, Rodriguez received the phone call from Father Melvin Diaz, the parish’s equally unflappable pastor. He trusted her in helping to keep students learning. She accepted the challenge to lead her alma mater.
Then the pandemic struck in March. All the schools in Puerto Rico were closed, but the unflappable Rodriguez improvised and trained staff to provide online instruction. The virtual teaching system was so successful that enrollment rose from 90 to 229 students.
In September 2022 Hurricane Fiona roared in and took what remained of the church roof and deposited it next to the white tent the parish uses for the Eucharist and the school uses for a lunchroom.
In spite of this, enrollment at the school grew again this past year and is expected to go up to 250 students in the coming academic year. The staff has cleared out attics, storage rooms and pantries to use all the physical space they have to accommodate the students.
Catholic Extension Society is supporting them by funding air conditioning units on an upper floor, so they can add desks for students.
The creative solutions under Rodriguez’s leadership are nothing short of a miracle. This is especially true considering that most school families are working class, and the parish—which serves a town where more than 50 percent live below the poverty line—does not have the means to subsidize tuition for its schoolchildren. Families, no doubt, believe that sending their kids to the thriving Inmaculada Concepcion is an investment in their future.
Persevering through faith
Parents don’t send their kids to schools with great missions. Parents send their kids to schools whose leaders personify a great mission. Rodriguez is Inmaculada Concepcion’s great mission. She shows that we are all sustained by the grace of God. She says Psalm 92:14–15 guides her everyday:
Where the Lord plants you, you will flourish and bear fruit, because it is the grace of God who sustains you.”
In her “spare” time, she is completing her doctoral degree in education back at the university. She wrote her thesis on the impact of remote learning during the pandemic, as a way to understand how she can put all her students in a position to succeed academically.
All the eyes of Rodriguez’s students, parish and community are fixed on her. They see a role model and reason for hope that not even a hurricane, an earthquake or a pandemic can stop.
Catholic Extension Society is honored to share the story of Carmen Alicia Rodríguez Echevarría, a finalist for our Lumen Christi Award. This award is Catholic Extension Society’s highest honor given to people who radiate and reveal the light of Christ present in the communities where they serve. Visit this page to read the other inspiring stories from this year’s finalists.
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