At one time when I strolled through a store in Yuma with my mother, I heard it:
“Mrs. Perry! You were the toughest teacher I ever had—but what you taught me changed my life.”
My mom, a math educator for more than two decades, always smiled when former students said that. She believed learning should stretch you just enough to reveal your own potential—and she was willing to stay after hours, sponsor clubs, or dig into spare-change budgets to make it happen. Education, in her eyes, wasn’t a day job; it was a calling to shape futures one equation (and one encouraging nudge) at a time.
She passed away in 2023, yet her spirit found an unexpected canvas a year later when my team partnered with Yuma Union High School District (YUHSD). They asked us to reinvent a set of mandatory—but notoriously overlooked—documents: the student handbook and the course catalog. A project about rules and requirements might sound dry, but to me it felt personal. Here was a chance to wrap my mom’s “tough-but-caring” philosophy in fresh ink and pixels—turning informational booklets into tools students would actually want to keep.
The main handbook for students and parents had ballooned into a 60-plus-page Word file few teenagers read beyond orientation. We asked:What would Mom do? Probably make the material clear, practical, and—yes—fun. So we injected district colors and bold photo spreads, replaced wall-of-text policies with infographics, sprinkled in QR codes that jump to short videos, and wove real student quotes through the pages. Two slimmer versions—one for coaches and one for employees—delivered the essentials each group needed without burying them in details meant for someone else. Now, when the schools issue the handbooks each fall, students actually flip through them; parents keep them on the kitchen counter instead of tossing them; and staff report fewer “I didn’t know” infractions because the rules are easier to find—and remember.
Success with the handbook led YUHSD to the next challenge: converting their plain-text course catalog into a 130-plus-page digital magazine that would spark curiosity about everything from calculus to culinary arts. We raided teen magazines, dissected layouts popular with Gen Z, and blended those findings into an interactive publication that spotlights Career & Technical Education alongside college-prep paths, features mini-profiles of band directors and robotics mentors, and lets readers leap from Engineering to Esports in two taps. When the district previewed it, a counselor’s comment echoed my mom’s ethos: “This finally shows students the future that’s possible, not just the classes they have to take.”
My family sees education as the long game: more engaged students, fewer dropouts, stronger local workforce, lower poverty. YUHSD shares that vision. Over the coming years we’ll track shifts in CTE enrollment, graduation rates, post-secondary placement, and student feedback. If those numbers climb, I’ll know we carried forward Mom’s legacy—opening doors, not just handing out documents.