Cultivating Community: How 2025 Woodring grad Silvia Avila Ramos uses advocacy and education to aid migrant farmers in Skagit County

WWU alumna and 2025 Woodring Presidential Scholar Silvia Avila Ramos is experienced in planting roots and growing community.

Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, Avila Ramos first came to the United States at the age of 9. Alongside her family, Avila Ramos worked as a migrant farmer, traveling with the seasons. Her family would spend the winters in California harvesting grapes and oranges. When the days grew longer and the temperatures rose, they would head north into Oregon. There they would spend the summer picking cherries before moving once again into Washington for the fall harvest of raspberries and cucumbers. 

Then, when Avila Ramos was 15, her mother decided to plant their roots permanently in Skagit County, where there would be plenty of farm work to support the family throughout the year. Avila Ramos worked in the fields alongside her mother and brothers, following the long rows of crops as she picked strawberries, cucumbers and blueberries by the pound. 

It was also when Avila Ramos first began advocating for farmer’s rights. She began to notice how the migrant farmers were treated unfairly by management. Working conditions were often poor, with no water access, no breaks and no bathrooms. She also noticed that the workers were often underpaid, with management undercounting the number of pounds of crops workers picked. 

“I would stand at the front, advocating for my community,” she said. “Advocating for people who worked there because I see that people sometimes take advantage of us when we don’t speak the language or when families don’t know how to read or write.”

It was the beginning of a lifetime of advocacy work. 

Avila Ramos began learning English through free evening courses through the local community college, using her strengthening language skills to further advocate for the migrant farming community. As she moved away from farm labor herself, Avila Ramos continued to offer her translation and support services, assisting those in need with employment paperwork, helping families navigate school registration and even coordinating with local utility providers to help her neighbors understand their rights as tenants and demystify the billing system. 

Once she had kids of her own, Avila Ramos moved her service into the classroom. She began volunteering in her children’s schools and soon realized there was often a language barrier between students and teachers. 

In Skagit County, nearly 17% of households speak a language other than English.

“I understand how hard it is for a child to understand other languages,” she said. 

Avila Ramos’ first language is Mixteco, an Indigenous Mesoamerican language. When her family moved from Oaxaca to Tijuana when she was a child, they had to learn Spanish to communicate with others. Then, when they moved to the U.S., Avila Ramos had to learn a third language: English. 

Avila Ramos said many students in the Mount Vernon School District, where she works, speak Spanish, but there is a significant number that speak only Mixteco, making her uniquely positioned to serve the members of her community.

‘Driven’

Avila Ramos was told by the school that in order to become employed by the school district, she would first need to gain a high school diploma or GED. The decision to go back to school was an easy one.

“I was a single mom, and I needed a job,” she said. 

While she was working toward taking her GED test, Avila Ramos met Daisy Padilla Torres, the director of Access, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Western’s Woodring College of Education, who was working for Skagit Valley College at the time. 

“Some of the first impressions I had of Silvia were that she was so kind, she was so humble and she was so driven at the same time,” Padilla Torres said. "One of the things I loved working with Silvia was that when she encountered a barrier, she examined that barrier to figure out the best solution for her and her family at that moment, and she learned how to ask for help."

Padilla Torres suggested Avila Ramos pursue a diploma instead of a GED, encouraging her to enroll in SVC’s high school completion program for adults. This would mean Avila Ramos would need to enroll in classes, rather than just passing a test, but Padilla Torres promised it would be worth the effort. 

After Avila Ramos finished the high school program, Padilla Torres encouraged her to pursue an associate’s degree to further improve her job prospects. It wasn’t until after Avila Ramos completed her two-year degree that Padilla Torres approached her with the idea of enrolling at Western. 

“I thought that only ‘smart’ people could go to Western. I never saw myself there,” Avila Ramos said. “Never.”

Padilla Torres told Avila Ramos that the courses she had already completed would apply to Western, and, if Avila Ramos finished the program, would allow her to teach her own classroom. 

Though breadcrumbing Avila Ramos to a degree in higher education wasn’t Padilla Torres’ intention, it also wasn’t entirely accidental. 

“My strategy was to take baby steps,” she said. “Let's continue to raise the bar, and every time you succeed and you meet a goal, let’s lift the bar and get to the next goal. Ultimately, it was up to Silvia to determine whether or not she wanted to continue.”

The pair made a deal that Avila Ramos would enroll for a single quarter, and if by the end of fall she felt confident in her ability, Avila Ramos would finish. 

“I was afraid to come to Western,” Avila Ramos confessed. “I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t know how the classes would be. But Daisy told me, ‘I will help you.’”

Two years later, Avila Ramos was named Woodring’s Presidential Scholar for the 2024-25 academic year and entered the classroom as a full-time educator. 

Padilla Torres made good on her promise and helped Avila Ramos navigate higher education during her tenure at Western. 

“Higher education and our systems are not built for students like Silvia,” Padilla Torres said. “Most four-year institution's focus are 'traditional' students that are between the ages of 18 and 24, and even then, there's a misconception that those students should know how to navigate higher education. And for a student like Silvia, there are no prior resources to prepare them with their transition to a four-year university; there is no background knowledge.”

Padilla Torres said Avila Ramos helped break ground on what resources were needed for students like her. 

“I was definitely learning along with her,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that she knew that a system in place should not be the reason why she did not continue. If the student is doing their part, then the institution should be doing their part.”

Some of the resources Woodring created to support students included simple tools like an education plan, which gave students a visual roadmap to their time at Western. Padilla Torres also worked to connect Avila Ramos with financial resources so that she could continue to provide for her family while pursuing education. Finally, Woodring began to focus on connecting current students with prospective employers in the region in order to bridge the gap between graduation and employment.

In addition to student resources, Avila Ramos received financial support through four Western scholarships: the WCE Maestros Student Support, Mildred M. Bain Scholarship, Raven Spirit Awards Scholarship and the Washington Education Association Promise Scholarship.

Avila Ramos promised to model Padilla Torres’ guidance in her own classroom, along with pieces of advice from the other mentors she had at Western.

From Associate Professor of Elementary Education Jessica Ferreras-Stone, Avila Ramos said she learned how to persevere and to encourage others to do the same. 

“She would always tell me, ‘Just one more Friday,’ which meant it was one week closer to achieving my goal,” Avila Ramos said.

Whenever Avila Ramos felt stuck, Ferreras-Stone helped her through while never doing the hard work for her.

And from Veronica Velez, associate dean of Academic Affairs for Woodring, Avila Ramos learned the importance of an open and welcoming classroom and to always keep a snack available.

“As a student, sometimes your life is always running and sometimes you don’t have the resources to buy anything to eat, but she always had something there to eat,” Avila Ramos said. “One day, I see myself bringing a snack for my students because sometimes we don’t know if they have anything at home or not. When you have something in your stomach, you’re ready to learn.” 

Velez said Avila Ramos’ work has never been a selfish endeavor and is always community driven. 

“Silvia consistently brought positivity and warmth into the classroom, creating an atmosphere that uplifted those around her. Despite the many challenges she carried as a single farm-working mother, she radiated a hope and light that was truly contagious,” Velez said. “What sets her apart is her unwavering commitment to the migrant and farm-working communities of the Skagit Valley — her home and heart.”

Velez first met Avila Ramos not in the classroom but in the community as a migrant parent leader who was working to ensure Latinx voices were heard in statewide educational decision making. 

“She spoke with both conviction and care, weaving her personal story with incisive analysis. Her testimony not only illuminated the challenges migrant and farm-working families face but also underscored their vital role in shaping the future of Washington’s educational landscape,” she said. “To say I have been impressed would be an understatement; she consistently reminds me of what it means to pair academic excellence with community-rooted purpose.”

Avila Ramos’ lived experience is an asset she brings to her classroom, Padilla Torres said. 

“The knowledge that she learned where she grew up and the lived knowledge that she has from working in the fields, she brought with her. Not only in the classrooms, but also in how she works with people and how she manages herself around others,” she said. “She has such a deep knowledge of the relationship between teaching and learning and learning and teaching, along with family and community relationships and how to engage families and communities. I'm just so excited for her first year as a teacher here in Skagit County.”

Avila Ramos’ time in the fields is a bittersweet memory. It wasn’t uncommon for her family to spend 16 hours working, rising before the sun at 4 a.m. and not returning until after it set in the hopes of making enough to pay for rent and groceries. But even though it was exhausting work carrying hundreds of pounds of produce in the summer sun, Avila Ramos still remembers those days fondly. 

“In that moment it was sad, but now remembering those days it’s a really good memory,” she said. “While we were working, my mom always asked me, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and I always told her ‘I want to be a teacher. I want to go to school.’ My mom didn’t have the opportunity to go to school. She never learned how to read or write, and she used to not know how much she got paid for her work. I think that everyone deserves the opportunity to go to school and the opportunity to have a better life.”

Resilient 

Now that she’s a graduate, Avila Ramos still doesn’t like to think of herself as smart. She prefers a different word: resilient.

“As a professional, we don’t think about if we are ‘smart.’ We think about: how can I support my community? How can I give back to my community?” she said.  “I think people who go to Western are people who have a dream. We just have to be resilient and say, ‘I will be able to do this,’ and work hard.”

Resiliency is something Avila Ramos has already had to bring into her own classroom. While she said under normal circumstances teaching multilanguage classrooms is not uniquely difficult, the current political climate has introduced challenges to working with vulnerable migrant communities.

Increased ICE activity has led to an atmosphere of fear in the migrant farming community, Avila Ramos said.

“I hear the children talking about the things that are going on at home. They say, ‘My mom doesn’t want to come because she’s afraid,’ or ‘I don’t want to come to class because I’m not sure if I can see my mom again,’” she said. 

The more afraid the children are, the harder it is for them to be present and learn in the classroom, Avila Ramos said. 

Children are also struggling outside the classroom.

“I can see in their face that they are afraid to go out if they need anything at home. If they need anything from the grocery store, they prefer to go to bed without eating,” Avila Ramos said. “It’s hard. It’s really hard to see the families. You want to do so much.”

Avila Ramos currently works as a fourth grade Spanish teacher at Madison Elementary in Mount Vernon but previously worked as a substitute teacher in the Mount Vernon School District, teaching in classrooms from pre-school to third grade. As a substitute teacher, she traveled to a new school each day, which means she met many different families. She has seen mothers struggle to provide for their children because they relied on husbands who were detained by ICE. Avila Ramos said some are unable to drive because their husbands were the only ones who knew how, cannot afford food and still don’t know where their loved ones are. 

Avila Ramos helps connect these families with resources, including food banks. She encouraged people to reach out to her if they were interested in helping, saying the best thing anyone can do is show up to help.

“Sit down and listen to the families. Hear their story,” she said. “We have to be strong. We have to keep standing up for and listening to them.”

Beyond the essentials like food and diapers, the families also need encouragement to continue sending their children to school, Avila Ramos said, and when they enter the classroom, she will be there to welcome them with a snack.

Dreamer

Though she no longer works in the fields herself, Avila Ramos still curates a garden as a hobby. When asked what her favorite plant is, her answer was immediate: strawberries.

“Strawberries remind me of when I was a child and how we’d work together as a big community. I was with my mom and my brothers,” she said. “I know now that we didn’t make enough money, but we made a big community and a big family. And I know it’s not only me. There’s more children working in the fields right now, but they still have a dream inside of them.”

Avila Ramos acts as an example of what is possible for those dreamers, Padilla Torres said. 

“She is such a role model to me, but also to the community, to other mothers, to our students, to her students, to the younger generations that are coming up and just wondering if it's possible,” she said. “It's definitely possible. Silvia is the example of that.”

To learn more about how to get involved with Avila Ramos’ advocacy work in Skagit County, contact her at avilaoleasilvia40@gmail.com, or if you are interested in beginning your own journey in teacher education, visit https://wce.wwu.edu/ 

Mikayla King (‘17) covers the College of Science and Engineering and Woodring College of Education for University Communications. Reach out to her with story ideas at kingm24@wwu.edu.