Mrs. Aguiña is a new face in the Math Department at LFHS this year. Prior to joining the LFHS community, she worked at Lakes Community High School in Lake Villa for 10 years, teaching an array of math classes ranging from Integrated Math 1 to AP Calculus AB.
Before Aguiña began teaching, she attended Lake Forest College, double-majoring in mathematics and secondary education with a minor in psychology.
The close-knit atmosphere and the community of Lake Forest College sparked her interest in working at LFHS.
“I will say the students are really polite and respectful here,” Aguiña said. “The fact that you guys all stop at the end of the day to say ‘thank you’ and ‘have a good weekend’ and things like that makes the culture here unique, which is a wonderful thing.”
Mrs. Aguiña coaches the Freshman Math Team this year alongside Sophomore Coach Mrs. Lemke, Junior Coach Mrs. Aronson, and Senior Coach Mr. Goldstein. This opportunity has given Aguiña the chance to get to know students on a new level, as well as build connections with other members of the Math Department.
“Mrs. Aguiña is super nice and always explains concepts really well,” Freshman Math Team member Karmen Lamartin said. “She also makes the meetings so fun.”
Aguiña’s commitment to teamwork and perseverance extends beyond the classroom. While at college, Aguiña continued her love for horseback riding at the collegiate level. Since there was no equestrian program when she first attended the school, in 2011, Aguiña and one of her friends decided to establish the school’s first equestrian team.
“We got to compete at the schools nearby, like Northwestern, Notre Dame, University of Madison, University of Milwaukee, Ripon College and Agustina,” Aguiña said.
Throughout her riding career, Aguiña specialized in English and hunter-jumper styles, but in college she learned to ride equitation. During this time, she was judged mainly on her individual performance rather than the horse.
There were around 15 riders on the team, only one of them being a boy. Even though this was a small team, for competitions, they would only bring five to eight riders.
Aguiña’s equestrian journey started when she was 10 years old and she continued this path up until two years ago.
Growing up, she rode her trainer’s horses and once she got to college, she had to be very adaptable because she rode a new horse at every competition. Once she graduated and earned her own money, she was able to buy her own pony.
Tragically, Aguiña’s riding career was interrupted by an accident involving her pony. The animal tripped over something, and she ended up with seven different injuries in her left shoulder.
The doctor said that she could choose to get surgery to strengthen her shoulder to the point of use with months of rehab, but her wedding was coming up, so she chose to not follow through. She decided to let her shoulder heal on its own.
The team continued for a few years after Aguiña graduated, but soon later was dismantled.
Whether in the classroom or on horseback, Aguiña’s story is one of resilience, adaptability, and leadership. Just as she adapted to riding different horses in competition, she applies the same problem-solving skills to teaching and coaching, tailoring her approach to meet the unique needs of her students.
“Mrs. Aguina has helped the team with recruiting more 9th grade students to be involved and she also took leadership on getting our team’s apparel order organized which certainly was no small task,” Sophomore Math Team Coach Mrs. Lemke said. “She has taken on learning how our competition season is structured, and explaining all that to our newest Math Team members.”
