Nominee for the Community Services Award
Natalia Estefania Echeverria-Dubon was born in 1974 in Guatemala and grew up along with her four of her siblings in a region troubled by inequality, poverty and war. However Estefania's mother dedicated her life to educating her children and grooming them into compassionate and visionary citizens of the world.
Estefania as a result was endowed with a love of people and the world at an early age. Faced with the troubles of Guetamala and the limit these troubles were bestowing on her life she emigrated to Canada at the age of 18 in 1992 settling in Calgary. Estefania says that her philosophy is influenced by the spirit of Canada which she is says is an open country and welcomes people from different places of the universe and turns these people from being strangers to one community.
"All human beings need someone or something to corroborate their existence. A mother. A friend, A nation. A law. A God. It is my belief that we all need entities that would constantly reassure us that we have a purpose in life and that we belong somewhere. That we are not outcasts, but rather we are welcomed, that we fit in , and that we are in the right place."
She came to Canada in 1992 fours years before the civil war in Guetamala ended. Upon her arrival in Calgary she enrolled in Father Lacombe High School and entered an essay writing competition about "What Does It Mean to Be Canadian?' and was selected as a winner. The next year she emerged second place from a short story writing contest organized by the Latin America Association in Calgary. Since then, Estefania has used her first language (Spanish) to benefit other individuals involved in missionary work as well as students interested in learning Spanish for leisure as well as career purposes.
Currently she teaches Spanish in the non credit continuing education department at the Mount Royal University and her students have but praise for her. "She is by far the best language teacher I have known in my many years of teaching," says Catrina Loman a retired teacher with the Calgary Board of Education. "She is a shining example to other immigrants," Constance Hunt a former Law Professor at the University of Calgary says while another one says; "she stands head and shoulder above all the language teachers I have been exposed to."
In her free time Estefania volunteers her time by teaching Spanish and Latin American culture to different groups and missionaries traveling to the region. She also volunteers at Bow Valley Christian Church, Spanish Christian Fellowship and FairChild Radio 94.7.
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