At the CER’s 20th Anniversary Gala and Awards Show, we heard a lot of sentences like this: “20 years ago to the day…” and “It was exactly one year ago when…”. It got me thinking about what I was doing this exact time at one important time in my life, and how it compares to what I am doing now.
It was three years ago that I arrived to the George Washington University in DC to study – exactly what I was going to study was still unknown to me. It was a new beginning with many different possible paths to go down. On a whim, I decided to get a work-study job tutoring elementary school children.
It was in October of 2010, my freshman year, at a nonprofit that provided tutoring services to minority elementary students in reading and math in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of DC. I saw how the traditional schools they attended were failing them, and quickly realized the importance of choice, accountability, and great results for our kids. Three years ago this month, I saw Waiting for Superman for the first time. Any person who has watched that documentary knows that after a half hour of watching, you just can’t take it anymore. And you know you have to do something.
The next year I was given the chance to become a supervisor of a group of afterschool tutors at a charter school, also in Columbia Heights, and was amazed at the work they were doing and the results they were achieving. I began to realize that policy, and not “dirty Washington politics”, made possible the amazing work that charters were doing in my new DC home. I wanted to do more to expand choice and charters and bring common sense to education and I felt myself as part of a larger movement.
This was all flashing before my eyes during the CER 20th Anniversary Gala, because the Gala signifies an ending, change, and new beginnings. Three years ago I saw Waiting for Superman for the first time and now I am interning at the leading organization in a field that I didn’t know existed – education reform. I am able to be a part of the solution to a problem. I have found my passion in this movement, and am lucky to have found it. I cannot believe that after three years of work and learning, my life has brought me to a grand celebration of the movement which I have had the pleasure of working in, however small my contributions.
Outgoing President Jeanne Allen said something during her speech Wednesday that has stuck with me – “The plan might change…but as long as it’s working”. My plan coming into college had nothing to do with education policy or reform. But life is change, and life is unexpected. And seeing where I have come in terms of my personal and professional growth since my freshman year to my final semester in college is astonishing. It was unexpected, and my previous plan changed. But what I’m doing now is working.
I thank CER for educating me, for giving me the chance to intern, and giving me the opportunity to help effect real change and progress in the Education Reform movement.