"To educate a girl and is to educate an entire community"

My co-teacher Ann, took this picture of my fifth graders.

I feel like it captures my mission and values while I'm here. I keep finding myself tied back to education in some realm or position. Being an African immigrant to the US, I learned to value education at a young age. Very quickly, it became very real to me the sacrifices that I made and were made on my behalf in order to get to this place. For a while, I imagined myself working in international education policy world and working to decrease the opportunity gap in education. During my first year at university, I interned at an international education NGO and found myself at the fore front of these issues. Two years later, with considerable experience, I still find myself tied to this content area. I'm interested in how education can be used as a tool of poverty alleviation and an increase of access. I look forward to the remainder of this experience.