With the start of the school year, many new members have joined the Arcadia Unified School District (AUSD) staff. One of these new staff members is Mrs. Crystal Mercado, the newest addition to the Arcadia High School’s (AHS) library.
Mrs. Mercado attended Diamond Bar High School before earning a bachelor’s degree in English and History from Mount Saint Mary’s University. She attended Claremont Graduate University to earn her master’s degree. Later, at San Jose State University, she earned a master’s degree in Library and Information Science.
When Mrs. Mercado first started her career in teaching, she spent ten years teaching English at Arroyo High Schools. However, she wanted to explore her opportunities and decided to become a librarian there. She was a librarian for a total of seven years. This year, Mrs. Mercado joined AHS as a librarian.
Since becoming a librarian, Mrs. Mercado has had the chance to meet more people.
“Even though I loved my classroom, I love [the library has] widened my classroom. [Now], it’s a much larger classroom that I get to help facilitate,” she said, adding that she “love[s] to talk to a lot of different people from different areas on campus, [such as] students, staff, teachers, and [the] administration. I love the big scope of it.”
Mrs. Mercado has many hobbies she enjoys.
When asked about her hobbies, Mrs. Mercado said, “I love to [do] yoga and hiking.”
Being a librarian, she also enjoys reading and listening to audiobooks.
Mrs Mercado wants students to know that she is open to suggestions for improving the space and resources of the library.
“I want them [students] to approach me if there’s something they want to see, or something that we don’t have. I want them to always ask and not to be afraid to come and approach me with questions,” said Mrs Mercado.
When Mrs. Mercado was asked about her goals, she said, “I want to get to know the school here, so that way I can see what I can do to help grow the library program here.”
She added, “The library is for everyone, and I want to make sure that what we provide in the library is reflective of all the different personalities and likes across campus.”
AHS welcomes Mrs. Mercado as the school year begins and hope that she has a fun and amazing time at AHS.
