LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Denisse Ochoa was nominated by her colleague, Nora Galvan.

Mrs. Ochoa makes a great difference in the lives of her students, teachers, parents and community members.  She creates an atmosphere of knowledge and insight, starting with a netted tent in the library to watch the chrysalis develop into a beautiful butterfly, to building a reading garden on the school grounds. She takes learning to the top of the educational levels. 

Mrs. Ochoa takes the lead at the district, regional and state levels by volunteering to present and share insightful information with other librarians.  She encourages them to do the best job they can do. She and her fellow librarians "Rock the House," with their excellent presentations.  At the state level, she showcases up-to-date technology trends.  As a great leader, she writes grants to get items that she normally would have to pay for out of pocket.  She applies to get grants for items from Donors Choose, Laura Bush Grant, Lowe's Grants and many more.  She has received monies to make the campus Reading Garden, she's bought sofas, rugs, iPads, laptops, Ozmos and other technology oriented items; monies well spent. 

Mrs. Ochoa takes students to other places through research, stories and library promotions.  Students, parents and the community find her activities educational, inviting and meaningful.  She is up-to-date with technology and reaches out to the community and parents to involve them with information dealing with this topic.

Mrs. Ochoa is part of the PSJA ISD Library Department Curriculum Library Connection committee.  In this committee, consisting of a small group of librarians, she does research on timelines that district content area departments have, and she helps to close the gap by connecting students' library visits to what they are taught in the classroom. Mrs. Ochoa has been instrumental with this project by taking the lead with the areas needing to be covered. 

"Mrs. Ochoa has led our 25 librarians with orchestrating the Battle of the Bluebonnet Books in our district and at the regional level," said Galvan. "This task is quite an extensive feat.  She assigns captains to a group of schools and makes sure everything works out.  Her labors are vast and are the reason why she's a LifeChanger in our community."