OSU’s Anita Rivera has a passion for teaching kids

Looking after three younger sisters might be a handful for some, but it sparked a career decision for Anita Rivera.

Rivera, a senior guard on the Oregon State women’s basketball team, is on the brink of finishing a degree in human development and family sciences with an option in early childhood education.

She wants to teach kindergarten or first grade after graduation.

Opening a daycare is a possibility down the road.

She’s done some student teaching and worked with kids at basketball camps, which reinforced her decision.

But it was the time she spent with her siblings that started her passion for youngsters.

The oldest, Rivera was a built-in babysitter for Danielle (now 19), Melissa (17) and Nicole (16) while the family lived in Santa Barbara, Calif.

“They followed me,” Rivera said. “I took them under my wing when my parents were working.”

When the girls were out of school, Rivera would take on a teaching role.

Melissa said her oldest sister would help with subjects such as math and spelling.

“She had really fun ways to teach us,” Melissa Rivera said. “She would have games and different activities. We would have a lot of fun with her teaching us.”

The sisters also worked together on homework and when it was time to get dinner ready.

Danielle did the cooking and also had some drawing skills, so she helped with art homework. Melissa was good at science.

“So it wasn’t like I knew everything,” Rivera said. “I actually listened to them if they were strong in that (area). We had a good communication.”

Melissa said Rivera taught them how to play basketball, and they stuck with the sport.

All of them had a competitive streak that sometimes seeped into other areas.

“We all wanted to beat each other at something,” Rivera said. “Now that we’re older, it’s more like support. They supported me when we were younger, but it was more like, ‘Oh, I can do it better than you’ type of thing, but now me and my sisters are closer than I could have imagined.”

The Rivera sisters, along with their parents, make a point of getting to as many OSU women’s basketball games as possible, particularly this season.

Danielle has graduated from high school and has made the time to come to Corvallis to hang out with Rivera and root for her during home games.

Melissa, a high school senior, is constantly on the internet looking for the latest on Rivera and the Beavers. Nicole, a sophomore, is the most like Rivera, who calls her “mini-me.” Nicole also keeps up and listens to OSU game broadcasts.

“They support everything I do,” Rivera said. “Especially being my last year, they really don’t want to miss anything.”

The fact that her then-12-year-old sister had the ability to hold the younger girls’ interest and teach them is not lost on Melissa today.

She is convinced Rivera is on the right track.

“I think it’s great because if she can help kids the way she helped us, then she will make an awesome teacher.”

Each Rivera sister is different. Living with them through the years has made Rivera ready for a classroom full of varied personalities.

“It’s taught me how to treat people with respect (and realize) how they learn different and the different personalities,” she said. “There’s so many different personalities out there that I’ll have to learn as a teacher.”

Rivera said she struggled with school when she was little. There was no older sister to help and encourage her.

She got to the point where she didn’t like school and had a tough time changing her outlook.

Now she wants to help kids realize the importance of an education.

“I think if teachers start to getting kids to understand that school’s important and to have fun with school because it’s going to take you to places in the world that you’d never imagine if you don’t get the higher education and just build on that,” she said.

Rivera will spend the spring interning five days a week, four hours a day. She will be working with the kids in OSU’s Child Development Center in Bates Hall, helping in the preschool classes and developing and implementing lesson plans.

She got her first taste of the classroom last spring when she served as a teacher’s assistant.

“They just look up to you,” she said. “They’re just looking for direction, and I’m glad that I was able to help them.”

The teacher told her about one boy in the class who had a tendency toward outbursts and cautioned Rivera about interacting with him.

The first time he approached her, Rivera admitted to being scared.

“I was a little nervous because I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “He just latched on to me and I worked with him one-on-one. He didn’t have any outbursts. The best feeling was when his mom came up and said to me, ‘I don’t know what you’ve done to my son, but he loves you, and he looks up to you.’ That was the best feeling ever.”