Our Stories

My path to college wasn’t easy. I got expelled from high school and spent my junior and part of my senior year at an alternative school. When I finally graduated, I had no idea what I wanted to do. So, I took out a federal loan and enrolled in a private two-year college, where I […]

Advocacy and teaching go hand-in-hand for me. My teaching career has taken me around the world, from Morocco to Chicago, but my commitment to education advocacy has remained with me on my global travels. One thing that has stuck with me during my time in the Stand for Children Illinois Policy Fellowship is the breadth […]

It seems obvious to me that the best place to learn about a job is, you know, at that job. I was never hired to a new job and then sent somewhere else to learn about what I would be doing. I jumped in and did the work at the office, getting required training there […]

You probably wouldn’t know it, but I’ve been in a movie. My non-existent IMDb page will be no use for you, and I never appeared in a Hollywood blockbuster. What I did star in was Stand’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) recipe video that we released last fall. See if you can spot me in my starring […]

As a mentor and education advocate, I can say that a year ago, much of the content that’s in Stand’s “Stop Illinois Brain Drain” report was over my head. I didn’t really understand much of it, but I was interested in learning more and finding ways to fix the educational problems in our state. The 2017-2018 Policy […]

I don’t know about you, but when I was a junior in high school, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do for a career. I was focused on my classes and graduating – not really focused on what I would do for a living. Growing up in southern Illinois, a lot of my […]