Hey Class of '83 and other AHS Friends,
Did you attend O.Henry Middle School (formerly known as O.Henry Junior High!) before you matriculated to SF Austin High? If so, you will want to check out this very special "Then & Now"! Many of you will remember Ms. Yolanda (Uribe) Rangel, a beloved English teacher at O.Henry, as well as a sponsor for the pep squad, cheerleaders, and student council. We are thrilled to announce that Ms. (Uribe) Rangel will be at our Saturday night festivities at Santa Rita Cantina, on 11/04, for our 40th Reunion!
Ms. Rangel sent these photos and a short piece of writing about her life's trajectory since you knew her at O.Henry. Check out her pictures, which show her husband, Jose, and her children, Carlos and Cristina (as children and adults!), her mother, other family members, and her travels around the world, including time spent in Honduras, working with teachers and students at Instituto Esperanza.
Want to catch up with Ms. Rangel? She is not on this Facebook feed, so you will need to come to the reunion to see her! Classmates from AHS '83 and surrounding classes are all welcome.
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In Ms. Uribe Rangel's words:
I have the fondest memories of the 11 wonderful years spent at O. Henry Junior High. In 1975, when I was about to graduate from Southwest Texas State University, I applied for a teaching position both in Austin and in San Antonio; I planned to teach for a year or two and then return to graduate school since my career goal was to be a sociologist. As it turned out, I spent over 40 years in education, and I will forever be indebted to Rodger T. Wiley for hiring me, sight-unseen, to teach English at O.J.H. My life would have taken a totally different trajectory had Rodger T. not offered me that teaching position because two weeks after I signed the contract, I was offered a job in San Antonio.
I didn’t think I had the patience to be a teacher, but I loved my high school English classes and most especially, my junior and senior English teacher, Mrs. Mary Jane Lane. She is the reason I chose to get a minor in English/Education. Mrs. Lane instilled in me the love of writing and an appreciation of literature. The universe works in mysterious ways, for I instantly caught the “teaching bug” at O.J.H., and my thoughts of pursuing a career in sociology soon dissipated. The energy my students brought to my classroom was infectious, and I thoroughly enjoyed sponsoring the pep squad, cheerleaders, and student council. There were several new teachers who started their careers the same year as I did, so we had a fun social group outside of the workday. I was also most fortunate to have a lovely and most gracious mentor in Mrs. Sue Ann Mansfield. Mr. Wiley left after my first year at O. Henry, but James Hudnall stepped up to the plate, and he was like a second father to me. The kids all loved him too.
I met my husband Jose (Joey) in 1978, shortly before he graduated from UT Law School, and we married in August of 1979. Our son, Carlos, was born in 1982 and two years later, I went back to SWTSU and began working on a master’s degree. I continued to teach at O. Henry and in the evenings and summers, drove to San Marcos. My days were long and exhausting but worth the sacrifice because I loved my professors, and I immediately realized that counseling was the perfect match for me, professionally. In 1986 I graduated with a master’s degree in counseling, with minors in psychology and sociology.
Shortly after I graduated in the summer of 1987, I was offered a counseling job at Fulmore Middle School, so I left my beloved O. Henry to begin a new adventure in education. Being a “baby counselor” was a challenge; I was also pregnant that year, but I was lucky to have two amazing mentors who took me under their wings: Wanda Kaatz and Nancy Lewis. I spent the next 12 years at Fulmore, and my experiences were enriching both professionally and personally. Cristina, was born in 1987. Our family continued its ties to Austin High School as both our kids attended the AHS Child Development Center: I have a picture of three-year-old Cristina wearing her “Mr. Maroon” t-shirt and holding her tiny maroon and white pom poms: she would get so excited on pep-rally days.
In 1999 a new school dedicated to serving older students in the AISD attendance area opened its doors to juniors and seniors from the district. I am proud to have had a part in designing the individualized curriculum and the solution-based counseling program which was most innovative and quite uncommon for a high school setting. I loved working with older students and with a most creative group of professionals who worked tirelessly to provide instruction catered to the individual needs of each student. I served as department head for the 14 years that I worked at Garza I.H.S. and could not have asked for better teammates than Linda Roberts and Paul Licce.
After my retirement from AISD in 2012, I continued to work for the district in various professional capacities until 2021. Every single one of my assignments was rewarding and expanded my knowledge of the world of education. During my semi-retirement, I volunteered at the Christi Center providing grief counseling to elementary school children for about three years, until the Covid pandemic forced us to stop providing services. Presently, I serve on the advisory board for the Austin Theatre Alliance and am active on the Paramount education committee which oversees the literacy programs and other educational and art and cultural enrichment opportunities offered to area school children. I’m an active member of Lambda Iota Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, an international honor society for key women educators, and am also involved with our local chapter of the Texas Retired Teachers’ Association. Both of those groups are instrumental in raising funds for scholarships awarded to both high school and college graduates who aspire to be teachers. I have also been doing mission work in Honduras since 2005, providing professional development to kindergarten teachers and interpreting for the doctors on my team. This January I will be taking my 17th trip to the beautiful Olancho Velley in Honduras. Although retired from AISD, I continue to work from home, analyzing and evaluating high school transcripts from other states and countries. Our agency is comprised of women educators, mostly former counselors and administrators. The work is often challenging because I must keep up with not only the graduation standards in Texas, but also the standards and requirements in the other ten states that we serve. It’s a great mental work-out, and at my age, I need the exercise.
My husband and I still live in the Brykerwoods neighborhood where our children grew up. Our son, Carlos, after working for several advertising agencies in Chicago and San Francisco, finally returned to Austin during the pandemic. He and his wife, Irina, and my grand dog, Bear, live close by in the Rosedale neighborhood. Carlos is the creative director at YETI and Irina manages Rag and Bone on South Congress. Cristina is a speech and language pathologist and has been working for the past six years on a research project/grant at UT Dallas, focusing on therapeutic strategies specific to early childhood autism. My husband, Joey, is with the law firm of Cantilo & Bennett.
I consider every one of the students whom I taught, sponsored in a club, or counseled, to be “my kids” and am forever grateful for the many ways in which each of them touched my life and inspired me to grow as a human. Ever since Alison and Laura contacted me and invited me to join the celebration of the Class of ‘83 at Santa Rita, I have been thinking about my students and the many memories I hold near and dear to my heart. I feel extremely honored to be included in the festivities and cannot wait to see everyone and reminisce about those early days in my professional life.
