National Family Engagement Fellowship

I thought the fellowship was fascinating because I believe that family engagement is the piece of the work that people don’t pay enough attention to that could be the game changer for sustained academic growth throughout the country.

The Fellowship has had a significant impact on me. I have increased my knowledge of families in our community and family engagement practices in general. I have learned ways to think about and question race and equity in all the work I do, and grown in confidence of both my knowledge but and ability to lead in family engagement work.

Professionally, I have learned so much about what authentic family engagement truly is. I have had a paradigm shift that has allowed me to initiate significant change in practice in a large, urban district. Personally, I have found a voice to continue the work my parents started around racial equity and family engagement.

The in-person convenings have been so impactful. I enjoyed getting to know Fellows from other locations, understanding their unqiue challenges and barriers. It helped me to reflect on my own work. In particular, I appreciated the boldness in which conversations on race and equity were approached. They greatly benefit my team, as a whole and each of us as individuals. It is work that we are now taking back to Kansas City.