Rizalyn Marquez Cruz is from Davao City, Philippines. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Ateneo de Davao University, a Jesuit run university in Mindanao, the southern part of the Philippines. Back in the Philippines, she was a high school teacher and part-time college instructor. She migrated to the United States in 1997. She studied at San Diego State University for her Teaching Credential and in 1999 she started teaching Filipino as an Adjunct Professor at Southwestern College. That was the beginning of her journey as a language teacher.

In 2010, she was hired as a full-time teacher of Filipino at Otay Ranch High School. Initially, she only had three classes. This jumped to five classes the following year. At Otay Ranch High School, she organized a Bayanihan Filipino Club that manages the Annual Culture Night, does community service, and promotes the Filipino Language Program on campus and in the community. She also continued a Filipino Folkdance Club called Pangkat Sayaw that was passed on to her by a former teacher. This club performs not only on school campus but also in the community events and in convalescent homes (before the pandemic). These club activities enable the diverse students of Otay Ranch High School to showcase their own culture.

Mrs. Cruz was a Teacher Trainor of SAILN few years after she received her Certificate as a Fellow of the California Foreign Language Project in 2010. In 2018, she was a Pilot Teacher of the very first after school Filipino Language Program in the Elementary Level.

Mrs. Rizalyn Cruz is currently the President of the Council for Teaching Filipino Language and Culture which meets regularly once a month. During her incumbency, she was one of the writers of Filipino 7-8 Honors Curriculum with the encouragement and the support of her School Principal. The Dalawang Baybayin (Two Shores) Intercultural Exchange Program was launched as a pilot project in collaboration with the San Diego County Office of Education. The purpose of this program is to establish international ties and collaboration between the teachers and students in the Philippines and in San Diego as well as to advance the development of multicultural and global competencies of the students. The CTFLC Rondalla was also formed last year in 2021. The goal is to be able to teach students to play a Filipino string instrument called Bandurria and to integrate music in the language classroom. Currently, Mrs. Cruz and the CTFLC Curriculum Committee members are working to finish the alignment of the Filipino Curriculum for three school districts.