As a relentless child advocate and education leader, my work thus far has been fueled by a deep and personal passion to level the playing field for low income and at-risk youth and families. My advocacy comes from a place of personal experience. As a minority who grew up in and aged out of the foster care system, I have a firsthand understanding of the importance of creating equitable learning environments, safeguarding childhood experiences, and promoting family resilience in the community. Ten years ago, in 2010, I was away at college finishing my undergraduate degree in psychology and set to age out of foster care upon graduation. I had the brains and brawn to become a psychologist, but after hitting many social and systematic barriers while attaining my master’s degree, I chose to move back home to Connecticut and pivot into teaching.
Fast forward ten years and now I am a teacher in my hometown of New Haven, CT. Although I have enjoyed bringing my child psychology and human development background into the classroom, I have come to realize that teaching is a profession that gets no professional respect outside of performative praise. As a scientist and researcher at heart, I cringe at the idea of teachers across the country being assigned a specific teaching method or curriculum, while seldom being given the time or space to research, revise, and apply quality academic and social emotional interventions in their classroom and surrounding community. This uneasiness with the teaching profession as it stands, has forced me to look for a solution that does not involve me completely abandoning my life’s work thus far.
This brings me to why I would like to be a software engineer. I would love to work in the education technology field and eventually even create my own education tech startup. I am invested in combining evidence-based pedagogy, child development research, and technology to create a more equitable learning experience and bridge gaps created by social and systematic barriers. I value the flexibility that working in technology offers and that the field of software engineering inherently values life-long learning and innovation.