Mansueto High School

About – Rafa Duarte

Rafa serves the Mansueto High School community as a Pre-College Seminar teacher and College & Career Counselor. He was born in El Salvador and emigrated with his family to Hammond, Indiana at the age of eight. Growing up in a working class, immigrant family gave him the experiences that would instill in him a deep skepticism about the way things are and a thirst for changing them. After earning a B.A. in Communications from Purdue University Northwest, he decided that working in the private sector was not for him, so he completed a transition to teaching program and held various roles in his home district. He taught ESL and college access classes for three years before moving to Chicago and pursuing work in a Noble school. At Mansueto, he strives to deepen his practice as an emancipatory teacher and grow his leadership experience in D.E.I. as a member of the school’s Steering Committee.