As the Minnesota Lynx took on the Phoenix Mercury on Aug. 22 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, the Lynx honored Arielle Rocca as part of the team’s Inspiring Women Platform presented by Land O’Lakes.
Rocca is a science teacher at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis, where she teaches 10th and 11th grade students. It is her second year at the school and seventh year teaching overall, making previous stops in her hometown of Chicago and Washington D.C. before coming to Minnesota.
“The thing I love the most about teaching kids is I love when students make connections from what they are learning in the classroom and apply it to their own lives,” Rocca said in a phone interview. “That’s the most wonderful thing to me.”
Rocca uses projected based learning to engage and create meaningful connections between science, the community and the world. Her students feel safe, empowered and respected as equals while receiving the tools needed to unlock their unique potential and gifts.
“It’s great when the kids can take the contents they learn in the classroom and apply it to their own lives and their own communities,” Rocca said. “They are able to better their community in which they identify with.
“I’m just trying to be able to give kids the skills they need to be successful.”
During the second quarter of the game, Rocca was honored with a signed basketball at midcourt by Vice President of Lynx Basketball Operations Carley Knox and Lydia Bothman and Peter Janzen of Land O’Lakes.
“This means the world to me that somebody has identified me as somebody that is inspiring,” Rocca said. “I feel so inspired by everybody I interact with, including the students and our principle. It means a lot, but at the end of the day, I wish I could share this with everybody that helps me, because I couldn’t do this alone. It really is an honor.”
Congratulations, Arielle, and thank you!