Page 46 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2026 - Online Magazine

Exceptional
ome people impact the
world and change it loudly.
SAdell Garcia, teacher and
administrator at Trinity Christian
School for many years, has done
it quietly with a deep desire to
make others feel good about
themselves. A bar of soap and a
specific memory of her kneeling
husband helped shape Adell into
an inspiration.
If you went to Trinity Christian
School, you don’t just remember
Mrs. Garcia’s teaching skills. You
remember how she made you feel.
She was my fourth-grade teacher,
and she is the reason I wanted to
become a teacher. When Adell talks
about her life, she quickly shrugs
off any idea of greatness. “I’m
not famous,” she says. “I haven’t
invented anything or cured any
illness.” Then she adds the part
that matters most: “I did become a
teacher.”
For Adell, everything comes back
to people. Not accomplishments.
Not recognition. Just people.
46 Lubbock Senior Link
SENIORS
World
Changer
Adell Garcia
by Sasha Rowan Bennett
“It all boils down to people and it. But Adell noticed it when she
relationships that have influenced was asked to take his tray to him
me the most,” she says. each day for lunch. Years later, as a
teacher, those different and distinct
Even after sixty years, one story memories became intentional
Adell tells still brings her to tears. choices. “I always wanted to make
As a third grader in small town sure no one ever felt less than,” she
Lamesa, Texas during the 1960s, says. “I wanted people to feel good
Adell watched her teacher, Mrs. about themselves.”
Lippard, welcome a migrant
farming student who arrived at That belief showed up in countless
school dirty each day. Without a ways at Trinity. Adell didn’t tell
lecture or announcement, Mrs.
Lippard quietly combed his hair
and washed his face and hands
with a bar of soap she kept at
school. “Mrs. Lippard never said
anything,” Adell remembers.
“That was just how the school day
started.”
That kind gesture stayed with
Adell. It became part of her
internal paradigm, reminding her
of what really matters.
At her grandparents’ home, she
wondered why a man who worked
for the family always ate alone. No
one explained it. No one justified