11 years ago, I took a chance to move to halfway across the country to begin my educational career as a Teach for America Corps Member teaching eighth grade science in HISD. I fell in love with my students, the classroom, the community, and the educator’s mission. I wanted to improve educational outcomes for students from systemically underserved communities, because I felt the stakes were too high for me to stay away from this cause. I didn’t know what to expect, but knew I was going to give it my all for the students in my charge. I was more committed to my role as teacher than I had been to anything else in my life to that point. I remember grading papers on my way to Austin to watch UT football games, crying with frustration after days where students wouldn’t do anything I told them, and enjoying tons of laughter with students who came to my classroom during lunch for extra work. It was these two years that ignited an ember of passion within me to commit to education for the long haul.
Nine years ago, I took another chance to join an organization that seemed like it was crafted for somebody like me. I wanted to do more to help give more students the opportunities they deserved and it was clear to me that YES Prep Brays Oaks positioned me to do that and more. I was enthralled with the idea of seeing a group of students through from 8th grade through high school graduation. As soon as I got into the classroom with the Class of 2016, I was committed to staying there for at least the next five years. In that time, I learned to become a leader through my roles as a Dean of Students and Director of Student Support. Those years, in particular, were the definitely the most formative ones in my leadership development. I was consistently swamped with a heavy workload as I learned to lead staff toward positive results and hold students accountable while building relationships, but knew the work was creating value even if we couldn’t see it. That’s just it about the work done by educators – there is so much value in every action they take even if the results aren’t visible or immediate.
Three years ago, I made a different type of change when I moved to a different campus within YES Prep Public Schools to become the Principal of YES Prep Gulfton. Although I had been an administrator for five years by that point, the weight of the responsibility I felt when I stepped into the Principal role was unlike any other. Overnight, I had 1,100 students and 100 staff under my charge; I knew that every decision I made could lead to endless potential outcomes, both good and bad. Unless you’re in this role, you’d be hard pressed to understand how daunting and paralyzing it could feel, especially if you try to do it alone. This was even more apparent when Hurricane Harvey hit during our second week of school. Fortunately, I was blessed to step onto campus with such a caring and hard-working group of students and staff. I entered as a Gulfton staff member, but left having acquired over a thousand new members of a family I am now so grateful to have.
Earlier this year, I made the decision to transition out of my role as principal and education altogether. It was a difficult decision, but one that was right for me at this point in my life. From the moment I graduated from college, my life’s purpose has revolved around advancing educational opportunities from students living in systemically underserved communities. I entered my first year of teaching in 8th grade science knowing that my school hadn’t met expectations the previous year due to their scores in 8th grade science and ended it with scores that exceeded anything we needed. I stepped into my first administrative role as a High School Dean of Students knowing the weight that was on my shoulders to ensure I created the appropriate systems for a school that didn’t exist yet and have since born witness to four classes graduate from that school. I became a principal of a campus in one of the most underserved communities in the city knowing the lift it was going to take to rally 1,100 students and 100 staff in the right direction, and eventually saw year to year growth in results across the board. After all those experiences, I decided that now is the time to make the move to reach an even greater audience.
My move started to feel even more pressing at the onset of widespread school closures due to COVID-19. The struggles around learning during COVID-19 times have exposed grave deficiencies in our current educational model when it comes to providing a true equitable education to all students. I was in the midst of it all when my school had to transition to virtual learning in March and saw firsthand how ill-prepared our country is to provide all students with an equitable education. Even in a school system as forward thinking as YES Prep, the moves we needed to make to transition 100% of our staff and students into this new work environment was tantamount to a miracle. Now imagine replicating that across the span of an entire year. It’s clear that all students and those that support student learning (parents/guardians, teachers, administrators, mentors) need the right tools now, more than ever, to fight back the dreaded “COVID slide.”
For the last 11 years, I’ve dedicated my life to improving educational outcomes for all students within the school environment. This drive to do right by others, especially the underserved, will forever be core to who I am and what I do. My time as an educator gives me an invaluable perspective I can leverage to disrupt the Edtech space in favor of the communities who deserve more rapid change.
I will rely heavily on my experience as a teacher, administrator, and principal in my new role as CEO of Ember Within, PBC, an Edtech startup company in the assessment and data analytics space of virtual learning. I’m excited that I will be able to charge forward in this new space with the same mission that has driven me since I started out as a Teach for America Houston Corps Member in 2009.
