We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Priscilla Rivas, Kinder HSPVA’s new principal! When Dr. Scott Allen announced his retirement in April 2021, HISD immediately launched their search for the school’s next great leader.
HISD’s interview committee represented the Kinder HSPVA community: Faculty members Courtney Jones (Dance ’99), Jennifer Chase (a two-time HSPVA parent), Oscar Perez, and Rodolfo Morales (Instrumental ’94), Magnet Coordinator Jonathan Klein, PTO President Chiara Stratton (Instrumental ’93), and HSPVA Friends Executive Director Alene Coggin (Theatre ’05). They were immediately impressed by Dr. Rivas’ obvious passion for and deep understanding of arts education.
Dr. Rivas grew up in the Houston area and joined HISD in 2005 as a teacher at Herrera and then Memorial Elementary Schools. She then served as an assistant principal at Browning Elementary and principal at Crockett Elementary, which is located just outside of downtown and offers a robust performing and visual arts program. Rivas is also a performing artist, artistic director, and teacher of dance and visual arts.
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The HSPVA Friends summer intern, Alexa Halim (Dance ’21), recently sat down to chat with Dr. Rivas about her background in both arts and education, as well as her hopes and dreams for Kinder HSPVA. Join us in getting to know Kinder HSPVA’s sixth principal with these highlights from their conversation (edited for length).
Alexa Halim:
Dr. Rivas, can you tell us about your background in the arts?
Dr. Priscilla Rivas:
I have a pretty extensive background in the arts. I started in high school with dance. I always loved arts as a kid — drawing, dancing — but it wasn’t until I got to high school that I really started pursuing something more in-depth, with training. Through my high school, I joined the dance team and even though it was competitive, and related to football games and halftime shows, it was a really intensive full-force training that maybe you would get over many years in a private training program. So that’s where it started, that’s where my love of performing came in. I was a very shy child and I never liked to be in front of people or talking to new people, so when I started dancing in high school that really helped me to shed [my] shyness.
My senior year I heard about a dance company in Houston called the Colombian Folkloric Ballet. I’m Colombian, and both of my parents are Colombian, and I grew up with Colombian music and dancing and culture. I thought it would be a really fun group to explore, just to learn more about my heritage and my culture. So I auditioned for that group and I got it in. I think I was 17 years old (it was my senior year) and that helped launch my post-high school dance career. I am still a part of the Colombian Folkloric Ballet, these many years later, but now I am the Artistic Director. That organization was great because we did a lot of ballet training. We would bring in artists from Columbia who were classically trained ballet dancers, and then they would do intensive summer workshops and clinics. We would work on technique, and then we would take that technique and apply it to a very raw form of dance. It’s a really interesting transition from typical folkloric dance, taking it to the stage and looking at that theatrical side, of the costuming and choreography. I think that was the biggest, most influential part of my dance training.
“When I started dancing in high school, that really helped me to shed my shyness.”
In addition to that, I got connected with a group called Gypsy Theatre, which is a company that focuses on improvisational dance and improvisational live music from all parts of the world: Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Afro-Cuban, and Afro-Colombian rhythms. I joined that group as well in 2000 or so. And again, I’m still a part of it, though that is purely a performance company. We do a lot of educational series and perform at the Renaissance Festival. It’s really eclectic and fun and very diverse.
And then, because I’ve always loved teaching – and I am a certified elementary school teacher and elementary school principal — I’ve always also understood the importance of education and the arts together. I started working with other groups like Hope Stone, which does educational outreaches for working with kids in the arts, and doing other kinds of educational series in Houston like at the Children’s Museum, or the Houston Public Library. Every summer I would work with the Bates Dance Festival as well, and I would run the youth portion of it for students ages 5 through 17 years old.
AH:
I think I also read you were interested in visual arts.
Dr. Rivas:
Yeah, so I’m at the Bate’s Dance Festival, and in that program, I’m not only the Young Arts Program director but I also teach the visual arts class. I’m always interested in visual arts, in charcoal drawing, and pencil drawing, and painting. And then also the cultural artwork, the cultural handiwork of our country: different types of crochet, and woodwork and things like that that are particular to my country.
AH:
When did you decide you wanted to work in education, and why?
Dr. Rivas:
I decided at a very young age that I wanted to be an educator. As a kid, I remember playing school and teacher, and that was my consistent way of playing. As soon as I was in college, that was my area of study: Elementary Education. I loved it because my experience as a child growing up in Houston, and being the daughter of an immigrant family, it was really crucial and beautiful work that my elementary school teachers did with me. I mean, they were really just great teachers! I am very grateful that I had such a great public school experience as a child. But it was really, really helpful for my early years and so I understood the impact that could have on children. In a city like Houston, where it’s so diverse, we need teachers to be advocates for our students. So I knew that I wanted to be a part of that.
AH:
What led you to work in HISD?
Dr. Rivas:
I was a student at the University of Houston, and because of my background, and my interest in so many different cultures, my biggest thing was I wanted to be a part of diversity. I love it! I love being in a city like Houston, that’s so diverse. You can turn any corner and see so many different nationalities represented, races represented. I love that! I did my student teaching in HISD, and I loved the diversity aspect of it. I think that that was my favorite thing about HISD at the time.
“In a city like Houston, where it’s so diverse, we need teachers to be advocates for our students. So I knew that I wanted to be a part of that.”
AH:
Tell us your favorite part about being the Principal of Crockett Elementary.
Dr. Rivas:
There are so many things! My four years at Crockett were pure joy. I think one of my favorite things was seeing the students perform. Crockett is a very unique school in how robust the fine arts programming is. Seeing such young students playing the violin, playing the marimba, playing with such high quality, was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen. Seeing students perform at such high levels was my favorite thing.
I loved the performances for the students. I would emcee every single performance! We had a million performances during our performance season, but I was at pretty much every single one, cheering the kids on and just witnessing all of the work that they’ve done for the whole semester. It was really fun at the very beginning of the year, walking through the hallway and you could hear the music or the dance music. And you could see the beginning point is a little rough – they were so young! — but then, the day of the performance, they’re so professional and so proud of the work they’ve done and that is awesome. Seeing that growth in them too, was really fun.
AH:
You recently received a doctorate at U of H for Curriculum and Instruction, with a focus in Learning Design and Technology. Could you talk a little more about your research and how you might implement it at Kinder HSPVA?
Dr. Rivas:
I selected that focus because I’ve always been interested in how technology, for good or bad, can impact student learning, specifically in an urban education setting. I’ve always been curious because, obviously, when I was a child, technology was very different. Students nowadays have technology that I had never been exposed to as a child, but a lot of this technology is consumer-driven. Students are passively using a lot of technology, even educational technology. There’s a lot of wonderful programs for kids to help them improve their reading, improve their math skills, but they’re still logging in and playing a game, or answering questions, or reading text. In essence, they’re still consuming technology. I was specifically interested in how children who have been born into technology so by the time they’re one – and I can say that, because I have a one year old — they know how touchscreens work, and how iPads work. It’s natural, it’s innate for them. How can we shift from being a passive consumer of technology to using technology and creating new things with it?
My research was about current technology that exists, at the undergraduate level, high school level, middle school and elementary. What I was seeing was at the elementary level, there was not a whole lot of creative technology being used. It was passive. Even at the high school level, it’s still very passive. I met someone who had a very similar interest, a gentleman by the name of Andrew Karnavas, who had created this program called Just Add Beats. It was this wonderful program he was working with in high school, and it’s actually in HISD. Students create these entrepreneurial agencies, and they have to come up with a name for their agency and then they are tasked with different activities they needed to do with different types of events. So their agency would have to come up with a jingle for this new program, or for this new product. The students would have to use their computer and the MIDI controller or microphone, and keyboard, and anything else they had. They could download sounds, they could create new sounds, they could record, but essentially they were tasked with coming up with new ideas. At the high school level it was looking really cool. Students were rapping, students were creating poetry. Each class they had, they had a different task to complete. He and I talked about what that could possibly look like at the elementary level. And I’ll be honest with you: teachers at the elementary level are really hesitant to use advanced technology. They don’t want the kids to break it. They wonder if the kids will know how to use it, does the teacher themselves know the technology well enough to even help support it? So we did a pilot at my elementary campus, and the kids did an amazing job and were super creative. Then the following semester, [Karnavas] went to a different elementary school and that’s where I did the case study on: what does that look like when we’re asking students to use technology in creative ways? So it’s essentially project-based learning, but using technology. That’s what my study was. It was so interesting to see. Such an interesting start to do that early, creating things with technology — imagine when they get to high school, how much ahead of the game they can be. How they learn to collaborate and then use all these cool technologies.
“I never wanted to leave Crockett Elementary because I loved it, but… one time I said, ‘You don’t leave Crockett ever, unless it’s for HSPVA.'”
AH:
What made you want to come to HSPVA?
Dr. Rivas:
I’ve been a fan girl of HSPVA since I was in high school. Like I mentioned, I started dance in high school, which might be a little bit later than your average dancer. But when I heard about HSPVA — and I was not a product of HISD; I grew up in Katy ISD. I had a few friends that were coming to HSPVA and I thought it sounded unreal. It sounded like a place that was made up. Like these people can’t truly be experiencing art at this level. So since then, it was one of those things I thought, “oh, that’s the mecca of all art for high school students.” When I joined the Colombian Folkloric Ballet and then took on a Director’s role in recruiting students or young dancers for the Ballet, I often recruited from HSPVA, so a lot of the dancers that have come through the Ballet were either current students or alumni. I was in college myself at the time, but after school, I would drive to PVA on Stanford and pick up three or four dancers and then we would all go to rehearsal. So I feel like my life has always revolved around the artists and the students that come from HSPVA.
When I got the job at Crockett Elementary, which was a performing arts school as well, I was in heaven. That was the perfect school for me. I never wanted to leave Crockett because I loved it, but it was one of those things — I think as a joke one time I said, “you don’t leave Crockett ever, unless it’s for HSPVA.” But I just said it as a joke because I never dreamed that I could be sitting here. And I think all of us just naturally we have — we second guess ourselves. We question our ability. But when the opportunity came up, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was definitely obsessing over the thought of it. And then I thought I owed it to myself to give it a shot. I had to think: I have the experience as a principal, I have the experience with the fine arts, I have the educational background to support new and innovative ideas at a place like HSPVA, with the technology and just the curiosity of how things can progress and be relevant for students. I think that’s one of the most beautiful things about HSPVA: the students at PVA truly, truly care about being relevant in the world. And to be relevant, progress has to be made. And so that might take some shifting and maybe new programs, new ideas, looking at things that currently exist but maybe from a different perspective, or a different approach. And I thought, I do have something to offer, I do have some things to say that could help PVA students reach that love and that goal of being relevant in the world.
“Having an arts background made me, I think, a better human for my kids.”
AH:
How does your work in the arts influence your work in education?
Dr. Rivas:
It’s huge. I think what the arts provides us, even if [we] don’t follow a professional artistic path, there is something about the humanity the arts teaches you about being a human and your relationship with the world, with others, with yourself, that no other thing I have personally experienced does. Having an arts background made me, I think, a better human for my kids. The other thing is that arts, and the art world — these are not black and white. And so when you’re dancing, or when you’re drawing, there’s no right or wrong answer to it. There’s a million different ways to do it. There’s always a new way to try. Having that kind of approach to problems, or that approach to situations, it made me a much more creative teacher, and maybe a much more creative leader, because it doesn’t put you in a box. I can be a very logical and reasonable thinker, but I can also think in ways that maybe other people might not have thought of. I think having that flexibility in your thinking comes from being an artist for a long time.
AH:
What are you looking forward to during your first year at PVA?
Dr. Rivas:
I am thrilled and excited to see the performances! I cannot wait to see them, and sit and watch students perform. I cannot wait. The year cannot start fast enough for me. But I’m also eager to see the work in action because the arts is not just about the product, it’s about the process. I’m also eager to see what that process looks like in each one of the departments. I have a lot of experience in dance, I have some experience in visual arts. At the elementary school level, I got to see the process at that age level for instruments. I’m super excited to see it at a high school level with students who come in that come in with so much talent and hard work under their belts. I’m eager to see the process of how all of this unfolds, to reach the point of a performance.
AH:
So considering this school year is the fiftieth anniversary, is there anything you want to say to the student community, including alumni, and supporters from the greater Houston area, about what you envision for the next fifty years for PVA?
Dr. Rivas:
Wow – that’s such a beautiful question! I think that my focus is to learn. I’ll do a lot of learning. But also, I want to be truly protecting and continuing the things that PVA has always valued, but then also shifting our sights to progress and relevance. I think that just those two things, progress and relevance, will help shape each year and each decade that moves forward for the next fifty years. Being able to look back at the fifty years PVA has existed and, and the work that it’s done and the students that have come from it, and keeping that beautiful lineage throughout the next fifty years — but keeping it fresh.
“I want to be truly protecting and continuing the things that PVA has always valued, but then also shifting our sights to progress and relevance.”
AH:
Is there anything else you’d like us to know about you? Maybe tell us about your snakes?
Dr. Rivas:
That’s been such a funny thing! There’s been so much interest around the snakes! I am a huge animal lover. I have spent a lot of time rescuing dogs and cats, and even birds. I do have a love of reptiles because I think they’re so cool and strange and weird. I also found that it’s always been a really great conversation starter. I find that students are incredibly receptive to it and they think it’s super cool so it’s been a really nice thing, even at Crockett Elementary. I had my snakes there and the kids loved it, so that was always really fun.
And then hopefully, maybe if I’m lucky, there will be some little cameo performances for myself.
AH:
Definitely. We made Dr. Allen do lots of crazy things! I think you’ll have that.
Dr. Rivas:
He did tell me about that and I loved those stories. I have to say that my transition to the school has been so incredibly smooth and wonderful. Dr. Allen has spent a lot of time with me. I call it the Dr. Allen experience because he toured me, my first tour here, and I got to hear all of the background stories of why things are built the way they were built and it was such an amazing experience. He was so gracious and kind and loving, so it only made me that much more excited about stepping into this role. I’ll even tell you he left me a presidential letter on my desk so when I walked in for my first time in this office, he left me this gorgeous letter about how much he loved HSPVA and how this was the handoff of his baby — I was so just incredibly grateful for that love and support from him as well.
