Soraya Verjee Email & Phone Number

I've always held the belief that every person on this earth has the capacity to grow. At any time. In any moment. This ability is innate to us as humans. It's fundamental. It's our survival. But more than capacity, I believe that every person deserves the opportunity to grow. I look at my parents and their siblings and I see this truth, being the first in their families to go to college. I look at friends from my own schooling and I see this truth. Never has it been more clear to me than looking at the scholars and adults at Collegiate Academies. Whether we are young or old, experienced or inexperienced, in or out of school, this is something we all deserve. For me, this is more a fundamental human right than a privilege or opportunity. At least, that's how I want the world to operate. The current discourse on education is so complex: policy, curriculum and instruction, certification, school culture, operational efficiency, and so on. These pursuits are vital for the improvement of education for kids across this nation. There is one constituency on which these many disciplines (and many more not mentioned) converge, and that is on our teachers. Teachers not only do the work of ensuring that every child has access to their fundamental human right to grow, but they do so while being asked to absorb what each of these varied disciplines has to offer. They are asked to do this at an incredibly rapid rate. Experts and their research have a lot to say about what an excellent education should be, but without the teachers to absorb their expertise and implement it immediate in their classrooms, their work has no impact.To find this teacher - with the right values and the right vision for their scholars, who can absorb what is offered by these disciplines - and to keep this teacher fulfilled every day, this is the work I want to do. Teachers are the people who will deliver on every child's right to grow. I can think of no better use of my time.

Listed skills include Nonprofits, Teaching, Leadership, Staff Development, and 16 others.

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  University Of California, Berkeley

  Bioengineering