Anahi Vazquez is a first-year P.E. teacher at La Quinta High School. It’s her first teaching position. 

Vazquez was inspired to work here because it fits the qualities she wanted in a job.  

“I knew I liked working with people, and I wanted to stay in sports. So I chose to [teach] P.E. because it was the closest thing to being a coach full time, but being paid a little more decently than a coach. And I like teaching kids the importance of physical activity,” Vazquez said.  

She knew she wanted to work at LQHS when she graduated from the school in 2015.

“I wanted to work here because I knew what this school could do for us. I think I knew from the moment I wanted to be a teacher, I wanted to work here. That was the ultimate goal, the one thing I wanted to do,” Vazquez said.

She is passionate about running, cooking, and loves baking.

“Baking is my specialty,” Vazquez said. She has been making cheesecake often. “Over [Thanksgiving] break, I made pumpkin cheesecake, but my favorite is churro cheesecake,” she said. 

Another one of her passions is instilling work ethic into kids.

Vazquez has little difficulty with her students. 

“There are some periods that have a little difficulty — just because kids interacting with other kids sometimes don’t mix well. But overall, this year, I’ve had pretty good students. It’s been a good year so far,” she said.

She has thought about possibly teaching elementary school.  

“I think they have a lot more fun when it comes to P.E.,” Vazquez said.

Students enjoy playing games a lot more, she said, so there is a possibility she may become an elementary school teacher in the future, but she will stick with high school for now. 

One of the biggest struggles she faces as a teacher is the social aspects of coming back from a pandemic. 

“Getting people to socialize and not just staying in their cliques and getting them to talk to other people [is the biggest challenge],” Vazquez said. 

After graduating high school, Vazquez attended Cal State Stanislaus. She ran track and cross country in both high school and college.

Vazquez loves kids and loves working with them. She hopes to have some of her own “hopefully in the near future,” she said.

She has a fiancé and is going to get married this month. 

Students seem to have positive opinions about Vazquez.

“She’s really sweet,” Izel Villareal ‘25 said. 

And, said Alexia Rodriguez ’25, “she’s a good teacher.”