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The World Affairs Council of Albuquerque recently named Modern Languages Department Chair Claudio Pérez the Albuquerque Area Global Educator of the Year. The Council reviewed applications from several exceptionally dedicated teachers and selected Pérez as the model educator for the 2024-2025 academic year. 

Since 2014, Pérez has taken his advanced Spanish-language students to El Paso, Texas, where they utilize their Spanish skills to interact first-hand with immigrants and advocates at the Cristo Rey Border Immersion Program.

Upon their return to Albuquerque, students illustrate a series of doors containing colorful and powerful imagery that tells the stories of the people they met and reflect on major themes of immigration at the border.

Last fall, the Albuquerque Museum hosted an exhibition of students’ border doors created between 2019 and 2024. The exhibit contemplated the symbolic door -- unlike a physical border wall or fence -- as it related to the immigrant experience. The exhibition wrapped up in May.

Pérez has taught at Prep since 2002.

The World Affairs Council of Albuquerque is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that hosts programs and discussions on critical international issues that impact the local community and the world at large.