03/30/2016
"Being raised by immigrant parents in the country of the 'free' and 'equal' was far from easy and being the youngest of seven siblings didn’t help. Imagine the bathroom being the closest thing to a sanctuary in a place you call home. No matter how dismal things were, my mother pushed one thing: 'Education is the key.' All my life I was taught that education is the big equalizer to the American Dream. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized that this was just a facade. I began feeling anger and frustration when I learned about the structural schemes of neighborhoods and how that correlates to education and schooling; feeling helpless when I realized how environment led to inequalities. Before understanding how social class and countless other factors effect education, I would have simply said, 'You got to know how to play the cards you are given.' But what do you do when your cards are all duds? How do you turn that around? It’s like it’s a set up to fail. I guess ignorance is bliss, because now I feel outraged and authorized to help. I feel like I need to become an agent that promotes change." - , M.Ed. Doctoral Candidate Student in Mathematics Education