When Lesliean Luna, a teacher for almost 20 years in Puerto Rico, was approached by a friend to attend an educator recruitment session for a Virginia school district, she agreed to go out of curiosity. Two weeks later, Lesliean had decided to uproot her life and accept a job teaching in the Spanish immersion program at Laurel Ridge Elementary School in Fairfax County.

Lesliean was hired in 2016 as one of the first FCPS educator recruits from Puerto Rico. She has taught in the Spanish immersion program at Laurel Ridge ever since. After marrying a man from Puerto Rico that she met while living in Virginia, she also recruited a sister-in-law to come teach in FCPS. And this year, her daughter Gabriela Muriente was hired to teach at Bailey’s Upper Elementary School via the same recruitment program!