Meet the Team: Interview with Mindfulness Teacher & Program Coordinator Hilda Cruz Guiao

This month we’re excited to share our conversation with Hilda Cruz Guiao, one of our Mindfulness Teachers & Program Coordinators. Hilda has been with Peace in Schools since 2019 and is currently teaching our teen mindfulness course at McDaniel and Lincoln High Schools.

Hilda, when did you begin your mindfulness practice? 

In 2001 but I wasn't really trained in the way that our curriculum teaches mindfulness. So, at first it was like the point was to clear the mind for a whole hour and I kind of really struggled with it, but I still tried it out. It wasn't until I took the weekend  training with Peace in Schools about five years ago that I was really like, oh, that's what mindfulness is about! It's actually, you know, focusing our attention on the breath or another anchor and then just trying to let the thoughts pass. 

What is different about the Peace in Schools approach in the classroom?

I would definitely say the “connection over control” approach, coming from a traditional teacher background where it's definitely about power and control over the student. I feel like connection over control is really what makes us unique - that we the teachers are learning with students and that it's not that the teacher knows everything, telling the student exactly what to think, but there's a dialogue, there's a growing together in practice. 

What has teaching taught you?

To be flexible. I think it's very humbling, teaching. Because students ask really good questions where I don't feel like I fully have the answer for them, but again, we’re exploring together. I'm constantly growing  in teaching, not just in my work as a teacher, but also personally. And I think a lot of the training around interpersonal stuff offers more content to work with and to learn about myself. 

Favorite moment with a student?

Yes! One student in particular at Lincoln high school shared with me that she's been doing these mindfulness mental health workshops with a local middle school. She was really on fire with learning about mindfulness in our class and then she was excited to bring that to younger folks. So she incorporated some of the stuff that she's learned in our mindfulness class and is spreading that to younger folks and exposing them to mindfulness. So that was very, very inspiring. And she's excited to do it again this coming quarter for the middle schoolers.