http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/22/AR200...

Carole Lopez, 63; Teacher and Counselor

Carole Hoffman Lopez, 63, a teacher and guidance counselor at Washington-Lee
High School in Arlington County [Virginia] for 19 years, died of liver
cancer July 9 [2008] at Capital Hospice in Arlington [Virginia].

Mrs. Lopez joined Washington-Lee in 1984 and specialized in working with
students who spoke English as a second language. She helped more than 2,000
immigrant and first-generation high school graduates apply to college and
get financial aid for higher education.

She also organized workshops for parents in their native languages to ensure
they understood the opportunities available to their children.

In 2001, she told The Washington Post, "I love my job because it's so
desperately needed."

A 4-foot-11-inch explosion of energy, she founded the Welcome to
Washington-Lee Club so that new students would have a designated "buddy" as
they learned their way around the school. She also founded Ganas, an
organization that encourages Latino students to go to college and become
teachers.

She was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and raised in Muncy, Pennsylvania.
She graduated from American University and received a master's degree in
guidance and counseling from George Mason University in 1979. She did
additional graduate work at the University of Virginia [Charlottesville,
Virginia].

After college, she lived and worked as a teacher and translator in
Venezuela, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Liberia.

Mrs. Lopez and her family moved to Alexandria in 1974, then to Fairfax in
1976. She became a counselor and teacher in the Arlington schools'
Asian-Middle Eastern immigrant program, where she worked with Afghan
refugees. She then was an adult education guidance counselor.

Among her honors was a lifetime achievement award last year from the League
of United Latin American Citizens. This year, the Virginia General Assembly
issued a joint resolution recognizing her work for Arlington students.

While battling five cancers and two strokes, she became a cancer patient
advocate at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Lively, talkative and opinionated, she entertained her family and friends
with stories about changing into a swimsuit and taking a dip in the
waterfalls of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in the middle of the day
and twice talking her way into the impeachment trial of President Bill
Clinton by pretending to be a senator's wife.

Survivors include her husband of 41 years, Alfonso C. Lopez of Fairfax
[Virginia]; a son, Alfonso H. Lopez of Arlington; and a grandson.

--

Patricia Sullivan

H