My mom is the most thoughtful person I know. Even when we lived in the same city, she sent me cards for every holiday, as she still does now that I live across the country. She and my father invested in my education from an early age, working hard to make sure my brother and I had every door open to us in life. She inspires me to always be the kindest, forward-thinking version of myself and I could not be more grateful to be her daughter.

Why I love my job:

I love using my professional skills to make a positive impact on the community, especially the lives of young people.

My connection to public schools:

Through my experience at a nonprofit working directly with public schools to provide extracurricular creative and STE(A)M engagement to students from low-income neighborhoods, it has become clear to me that many schools are doing their best to foster tomorrow's leaders on shoestring budgets with minimal support. I want to be part of working to change that so every student has the opportunities and resources needed to reach their full potential.

What I’m bad at:

Letting little mistakes go.

The image that represents why I work at 50CAN:

During the start of the pandemic, I worked at a nonprofit offering extracurricular youth programming. When schools closed, we opened our space to a small group of students so they could do their online school work together and participate in clubs. The photo below is of a group student art piece–a dream catcher with pom poms–that hung in our window in the fall of 2020. The accompanying quote says, “We can work together, even when apart.”

Seeing how deeply affected students and families were by school closures–and having my eyes opened to some of the ways our schools had already been failing them–completely shifted my understanding of education in our country, and our collective need to do better by our students.