A Teacher’s Legacy

July 07, 2025 | By NRCF Vol­un­teer

After 33 years of teach­ing at Craw­ford High School, Cindy Page is step­ping into retire­ment, leav­ing behind a pro­found lega­cy that has touched count­less stu­dents since she began teach­ing in 1992. Through­out her career, she has taught a diverse range of sub­jects, most recent­ly focus­ing on psy­chol­o­gy and AVID—subjects that allowed her to con­nect deeply with stu­dents nav­i­gat­ing some of life’s most chal­leng­ing tran­si­tions.

Craw­ford High School serves one of San Diego County’s most under-resourced com­mu­ni­ties. As a Title 1 school, it wel­comes stu­dents who are pre­dom­i­nant­ly immi­grants or first-gen­er­a­tion Amer­i­cans, rep­re­sent­ing vibrant com­mu­ni­ties that speak more than 30 lan­guages and 50 dialects. With­in this mul­ti­cul­tur­al envi­ron­ment, Cindy direct­ly observed how cul­tur­al pres­sures could cre­ate addi­tion­al bar­ri­ers when stu­dents began explor­ing their iden­ti­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly those dis­cov­er­ing their place with­in the LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty.

“Our stu­dents are absolute­ly amaz­ing and resilient,” Cindy reflects. “Many have been serv­ing as trans­la­tors and cul­tur­al bridges for their par­ents since they were six years old. They sup­port younger sib­lings, bal­ance fam­i­ly respon­si­bil­i­ties, and still find ways to excel aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly. I’ve made it my mis­sion to ensure they under­stand how to access scholarships—because for many of our stu­dents, schol­ar­ships aren’t just help­ful; they’re the key to unlock­ing their future.”

San Diego Foun­da­tion has long been instru­men­tal in sup­port­ing the com­mu­ni­ty, but the recent addi­tion of Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund (NRCF) has opened new doors for LGBTQ+ stu­dents who often face unique chal­lenges. “Now we can offer spe­cial­ized sup­port to stu­dents who are becom­ing part of the queer com­mu­ni­ty,” Cindy explains. “I con­sid­er it a gen­uine priv­i­lege to walk along­side them as they nav­i­gate the com­plex jour­ney of shar­ing their authen­tic selves with their fam­i­lies.”

A Sto­ry That Changed Every­thing

One student’s sto­ry par­tic­u­lar­ly shaped Cindy’s under­stand­ing of the stakes involved in sup­port­ing LGBTQ+ youth. He first con­fid­ed in her as he began ques­tion­ing his iden­ti­ty. When he even­tu­al­ly found the courage to come out to his immi­grant par­ents, they strug­gled to accept this rev­e­la­tion. 

After col­lege, he moved to Los Ange­les and trans­formed his home into a sanc­tu­ary for oth­er young peo­ple fac­ing sim­i­lar rejec­tion from their families—a safe har­bor for those whose own homes had become unsafe spaces.

Trag­i­cal­ly, his life was cut short when he died of liv­er can­cer. At his funer­al, speak­er after speak­er tes­ti­fied to how this remark­able young man had cre­at­ed a cho­sen fam­i­ly and sup­port net­work for LGBTQ+ youth who had been dis­placed from their bio­log­i­cal fam­i­lies. He helped them find sta­ble hous­ing, con­nect­ed them with com­mu­ni­ty resources, and pro­vid­ed the accep­tance and love they had lost else­where.

“His sto­ry real­ly dri­ves home how absolute­ly dis­rup­tive and shat­ter­ing this inflec­tion point can be for young peo­ple,” Cindy empha­sizes. “But it also shows the incred­i­ble pow­er of cho­sen fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty sup­port.”

Faith, Accep­tance, and Unex­pect­ed Allies

Cindy’s per­spec­tive on LGBTQ+ sup­port has also been shaped by her faith. “Cal­i­for­nia Luther­an Uni­ver­si­ty is affil­i­at­ed with our church, and they live what it tru­ly means to be affirming—everyone is gen­uine­ly wel­come in our com­mu­ni­ty,” Cindy recalls. Her own church’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in Pride cel­e­bra­tions eight years ago remains a pow­er­ful mem­o­ry. “See­ing pas­tors in their cler­gy col­lars hug­ging peo­ple along the parade route, watch­ing some par­tic­i­pants cry because they were expe­ri­enc­ing such unex­pect­ed acceptance—it was incred­i­bly mov­ing. It showed the pro­found impact when reli­gious com­mu­ni­ties choose love over judg­ment.”

Build­ing Bridges as an Ally

Although Cindy doesn’t iden­ti­fy as LGBTQ+ her­self, her role as a stead­fast ally has been cen­tral to her teach­ing phi­los­o­phy. “I see how dev­as­tat­ing it can be when peo­ple don’t have fam­i­ly sup­port dur­ing this cru­cial time in their lives,” she observes. “I’m here to walk along­side them, cheer­ing and sup­port­ing, because every­one deserves to find their cho­sen fam­i­ly. Every human being has the right to live authen­ti­cal­ly and be true to them­selves.”

NRCF’s schol­ar­ship pro­gram rep­re­sents more than finan­cial assis­tance to Cindy—it’s a tan­gi­ble expres­sion of com­mu­ni­ty sup­port dur­ing a vul­ner­a­ble tran­si­tion. “This schol­ar­ship is so impor­tant because it pro­vides cru­cial sup­port when peo­ple find them­selves in the pre­car­i­ous posi­tion of hav­ing to choose between finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty and liv­ing their truth. It’s an hon­or to vol­un­teer. As a teacher and men­tor, I’ve shared infor­ma­tion about NRCF as wide­ly as pos­si­ble because I know how life-chang­ing these oppor­tu­ni­ties can be.”

A Lega­cy of Love and Accep­tance

As Cindy clos­es this chap­ter of her career, her impact extends beyond test scores or grad­u­a­tion rates. She cre­at­ed a class­room envi­ron­ment where stu­dents could explore their iden­ti­ties safe­ly, where cul­tur­al dif­fer­ences were cel­e­brat­ed rather than min­i­mized, and where every young per­son under­stood they had an advo­cate in their cor­ner.

Her retire­ment marks the end of an era, but the rip­ple effects of her com­pas­sion, advo­ca­cy, and unwa­ver­ing sup­port for LGBTQ+ stu­dents will con­tin­ue to influ­ence lives for gen­er­a­tions to come. In a world where many young peo­ple face rejec­tion for liv­ing authen­ti­cal­ly, teach­ers like Cindy Page remind us just how pow­er­ful accep­tance, under­stand­ing, and uncon­di­tion­al sup­port are. Some­times the most impor­tant edu­ca­tion hap­pens not in text­books, but in the moments when a car­ing adult choos­es to see, sup­port, and cel­e­brate the whole human being stand­ing before them.

Want to Make a Dif­fer­ence?

Here’s how you can sup­port LGBTQ+ stu­dents: