Volunteer Spotlight

The thousands of ATPE volunteers across Texas are the backbone of this association. Their hard work and dedication allow ATPE to serve the state’s largest community of educators. In this ongoing ATPE News series, we spotlight volunteers who set a great example of service for their fellow educators.

Bertha Cantu  |  Mission ATPE

Bertha Cantu, who works as a math and reading interventionist at O’Grady Elementary in Mission CISD. She serves as the Mission ATPE president and is the winner of ATPE’s 2023-24 Campus Rep of the Year award for local units with 201–500 members.

Birth of a New ATPE Local Unit

When Cantu first joined ATPE, there was not an active local unit in Mission CISD. Her husband, Artemio Cantu, was an ATPE member in nearby La Joya ISD, and he introduced her to ATPE and volunteering. Cantu served first as a campus representative and then as a La Joya local unit officer in several different positions. After several years of volunteering, she turned her attention to her own district of Mission CISD.

“I started looking at our membership in Mission and realized that we had a really good number of members and no local unit,” Cantu says. “That’s when it hit me: It was time to reopen a local unit. So a group of us got together, and we were able to reactivate Mission ATPE.”

In the summer of 2023, Cantu helped relaunch Mission ATPE and now serves as its president. Cantu says that while this process has been challenging at times, it has also been rewarding. She is already seeing the positive impacts the new local unit has on members and in recruiting.

“I feel like there is more of a sense of ownership with our local unit,” Cantu says. “Before we would talk about how great an organization ATPE was, but now we can talk about how great ATPE is within our own district. Members feel really supported and informed because they know who to reach out to. They have that point of contact. Now we are slowly growing. Our membership has increased. The number of volunteers has increased. Little by little, we are building this community in Mission CISD. It’s been great.”

Cantu credits the support Mission ATPE received from officers in La Joya ATPE and ATPE staff with helping successfully launch the local unit this year.

“This is not the easiest thing to do,” Cantu says.  “We were very fortunate to have the right support system. We had another local unit that was willing to help us out. ATPE staff were also able to help guide us step by step with the paperwork and following the bylaws. We had a network of people we could reach out to. They weren’t going to leave us on our own. It doesn’t happen overnight, but within a few months, we were up and running.”

Visibility Key to Recruiting

As a new local unit, recruiting new members is an especially important task. Luckily, Cantu’s experience as a volunteer helped her develop skills and tactics that would ensure success. For her, it starts with being visible.

“I really wear a lot of ATPE stuff,” Cantu said. “Whether it is a formal polo shirt or just my lanyard, people will wonder what ATPE is. It is a good way to let them know about this organization.”

She also looks for opportunities to be visible at district and campus events.

“We have been able to speak to our colleagues when we have our professional development,” Cantu says. “We ask for permission from administrators to just take five minutes of their time. So at the end of the day, a couple of the other officers and I speak about ATPE. We will give just a brief speech to tell them what ATPE is all about. After a few weeks, we will usually start getting messages from people. They will ask us for more information, and we will encourage them to join ATPE.”

While educators are increasingly busy, Cantu wants them to know that volunteering for ATPE is something everyone could find time to do.

“I think that if I can do this and dedicate some time to this, then anybody can do this,” Cantu says. “My life is very hectic by choice, and I love it. I have four children who are all involved in travel sports, and that is very time consuming. However, we all have five minutes to just share some information about ATPE with our peers. I just feel that when you have something that has helped you—and I have used ATPE benefits—then dedicating a little bit of time to it isn’t too bad. I truly believe in what we do and want others to know about it.”