Los Angeles teacher Alaina Pariano has an Ohio University-themed classroom designed to get kids on the college track. When students had a hard time finding the money to buy OU shirts, she made a video that led to an outpouring of alumni support.
Alaina Pariano has a whole group of Bobcats in Los Angeles. The city might be thousands of miles away from Athens, but the real surprise here — these Bobcats are ten years old.
Pariano’s homeroom students have fallen in love with her OU-themed classroom, leading them to learn the fight song and chants, raise money to purchase OU shirts and use the excess money to donate to the Union Street fire aid.
Pariano is a fifth-grade math teacher with KIPP Academy of Opportunity in southern LA, where the charter school uses college-themed homerooms to motivate students to excel onto higher education. For about four years now, she has been decking her classroom out in OU gear.
“I made a force on the West Coast to teach people that Ohio and Ohio State are not the same thing and I did not go to Ohio State,” Pariano said. “I get really passionate about that and they have corrected people. … I think from day one they see that I’m passionate about (OU) and then they become passionate about it.”
As one of her student’s mothers was from Cleveland and had an OU shirt, the whole classroom wanted to join in the fun. Some even made their own with iron-on letters. Pariano worked a deal with UniversiTees to purchase shirts for about $5.50 each. However, out all of her students, only eight out of the 28 of them could swing the money.
Pariano posted a video to Facebook that she sent her husband, Jared, a Miami University of Ohio grad, on the day of the rivalry game. The kids chanted and sang the fight song — in one take. She posted it in the Facebook group “Bobcats in LA”, an alumni network, and gained a lot of attention, and, she said, it “kind of went a little viral.”
“When I posted it, it was more like ‘look at my class, my kids are really into Ohio and if you have five bucks and would like to donate, let me know’ and people were just saying really kind words about me as a teacher and a person,” Pariano said. “It was really crazy. I always felt really connected to Ohio, but it just showed how strong the alumni network is and how people that go to Ohio are Bobcats for life and care about other people that they don’t even know.”
With support from other alumni, Pariano was able to purchase shirts for the entire class and then still had more money left over. That’s when the classroom decided to give back to the Athens community, helping with relief funds for the Union Street fire that occurred on November 16.
“We got more than enough money donated so I told them about the fire that happened on Union Street,” Pariano said. “I was hoping to lead them to the idea but one of my students was like, ‘we should just give the extra money back. They gave it to us so we should just give it back to Ohio.’ It became a really great learning experience about giving back to … a community that cares about you.”
Through all of this, Pariano said she is grateful for all of the attention she has received and that she appreciates how far the Bobcat network of support will reach. She said it also has taught her the importance of being an influence on her students lives and their future, and she wants to see them become leaders in their community.
For some students, this might mean heading to Athens.
“I would say if you asked most of my students ‘give me your top three school choices’ I would say most of them would list Ohio in their top three,” Pariano said.
Pariano said she sees so many similarities from her classroom to Bobcats, especially when they had to film the video for her husband.
“I find that my homeroom is quite like the people of Athens where they know when to study, but they are also super silly so sometimes getting them to come back all the way is a little difficult,” Pariano said. “I always joke, ‘this is just like OU’ – they’re crazy and a lot of fun and have a lot of personality, but they have to learn to harness that.”
@reb_barnes
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