Autobiography

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” Following high school graduation, I was undecided on what career path to take. My starting place of interest however was finding solutions for people with overwhelming obstacles and limitations in navigating becoming financially secure. Not that I’d achieved this goal, but my viewpoint was now from a different perspective than the one I grew up with. I was raised by a single mother in a lower middle class predominantly black community. My K-12 experience was not from a high performing system however, what I would later come to realize is being taught predominantly by teachers of color and learning with peers of a similar background shielded me from having a false identity given to me. Instead teachers and community instilled dignity, pride, respect, hard work, and the possibility of a future where anything was possible.

In my middle twenties, I found myself college educated, married, a homeowner, and mother in a suburban community with great schools. My excitement was quickly met with challenges. Why did me and my family's presence seem foreign? I didn’t see myself or my family as exceptional, why weren’t more minorities in this space? The excitement of my children having an opportunity to attend schools with high ratings seemed like a dream fulfilled. However, I realized their experiences excluded a recognition of their culture being acknowledged as an important American experience. Instead even in elementary their identity was being reduced to having ancestors who were slaves and poor. Our children began to assimilate through hairstyles, music, and a lack of appreciation of themselves. My husband and I had prided ourselves in teaching our children to appreciate diversity, but not at the denial of theirs.This feeling built a vision in me to invest in future generations the truth of the world belonging to them. How would this message be communicated? As an urban teacher it is my goal to bridge the world to my classroom along with the affirmation that my students can achieve and excel in any space. I identified with some of my students' experiences. Although I was accepted to college, remedial classes were necessary to fill in the gaps of knowledge not gained in my urban K-12 experience.

Graduate school provided a different sense of my lack of preparation. The majority of my peers were white. It was highly intimidating participating in classes that described experiences from read texts and outlooks I could not relate to. Many nights I drove home thinking I wasn’t smart enough to be in the program. It wasn’t until later I would discover the power of validating cultural differences. It matters to me that all my students have a feeling of community and belonging and individuality is celebrated. Through my encounters, I have had the pleasure of defying a system that was not made for the success of everyone.

Ultimately, these experiences have made me more determined to keep pushing. My next level requires me to gain a better understanding and more background knowledge into the structures that promote unfairness and inequality, which breeds generations of people of color not meeting their fullest potential. This program has helped equip me with more ideas for solutions to deconstruct historical racist structures that continue to oppress marginalized communities.