IRT Fall 2018 Newsletter

A Phillips Academy Outreach Program Institute for Recruitment of Teachers

Fall 2018 Photo by Jill Clerkin

NEWS

New IRT Executive Director LaShawnda Brooks (center) discusses fall priorities with, from left, Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91, education programs specialist; Janelle Bonasera, coordinator of partnerships and external relations; and Kate Slater, associate director.

Phillips Academy’s Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) empowers talented underserved and underrepresented future educators to teach and serve as leaders in American education because diversity is essential to excellence.

MEET THE NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Following a national search funded by the Grayce B. Kerr Fund, LaShawnda Brooks was selected as the new executive director of the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers. She visited the summer workshop in July and joined the program full time on August 1.

Raised in Virginia, Brooks is a first-generation college graduate. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Virginia, initially envisioning herself in the world of international law and diplomacy. It was her post-college experiences—particularly those with Teach for America—that introduced Brooks to conversations about interactive pedagogy and the role of data in the classroom, which solidified her interest in education.

Brooks moved to New York City to work in the nonprofit sector. At America Needs You, she connected firstgeneration college students to pre-professional resources and later became an admissions officer at Simmons College in Boston. At City Year, as an instructional coach, she focused on ways that instruction and engagement could be used to further student achievement.

As a result of her eye-opening exchanges with a wide array of students, Brooks returned to school for postgraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. There, she examined even more closely the role of data in teaching.

She earned an MS degree in education policy in May 2018.

What attracted you to the work of the IRT? As a first-generation college student, I see the value of institutions like the IRT that provide students with the tools they need to succeed in higher education. I know that I did not get to where I am today without the help of mentors, teachers, and friends. Even then, it was never easy. The IRT is unique because it brings all the critical resources directly to the students who need them.

The IRT not only coaches students through the grad school application process, we train them to do postgraduate-level work. Our students get so much rhetoric about what they are not. Our high-touch approach shows them what they can be.

What appeals to you most about your new leadership role?

Now that I have seen IRT classrooms and the intensity of our approach, I am especially energized for the role.

Our students are passionate and engaged—unafraid to struggle and take risks. They bring a diverse variety of interests, which enrich the IRT community in the same way that they will enrich all their future communities.

As someone with a passion for the social justice possibilities of education, I am thrilled to show that social justice and education should go hand-in-hand. To bring Continued on next page

Photo by Diamond Gray

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Greetings!

I am delighted to join the IRT staff and the greater IRT community. During the past month or so, I’ve spent time connecting with staff, interns, associates, and Advisory Board members. In each conversation, it has been clear that a passion for the mission of the IRT is a bond we all share.

The IRT assists students from a plethora of institutions and focus areas in applying to master’s and doctoral degree programs. In helping to provide well-trained, highly motivated educators to K–12 systems as well as the professoriate, we have the opportunity to truly change our educational system.

I believe that the work of the IRT is a critical component in the movement to dismantle education inequity in our country. I look forward to working with you all as together we determine priorities, next steps, and future pathways.

Best,

LaShawnda Brooks

Interns from the IRT’s summer workshop gathered on the Phillips Academy campus for an interactive lesson about artwork, connections that can be made among its themes, and how those ideas might be applied in the classroom.

Continued from page 1

a justice mindset to education work does not require that one sacrifice an appreciation for the learning process.

What are your short-term goals?

My passion for history compels me to spend my first months with the IRT learning about the program’s past. I want to understand the context in which the IRT first began and how it has remained useful to aspiring teachers ever since. I envision using history as a guide to inform the new processes for the IRT. Additionally, I will use the next few months to think critically about how the IRT can engage its alumni population for the benefit of current students. The wisdom of past IRT participants is out there, and I am excited to examine the best ways to access and magnify the IRT alumni experience.

What skills and experiences do you look forward to sharing?

My past experiences, including with Teach for America and in graduate school, have explored the role of data in the classroom. In the 21st century, where data is ubiquitous

and its impact on policy enormous, teachers must understand how data can be useful. I am eager to bring my previous experience with data to the IRT and working with stakeholders to engage in this conversation and increase our shared understanding.

Moreover, my background in history has pushed me to consider how systems impact particular communities.

Sadly, many of the barriers that currently block people of color from teaching positions are the same barriers that have existed for generations. Because I have studied these systems, I am eager to work with the IRT in the movement to eliminate educational inequity.

The IRT is an opportunity catalyst for students.

I anticipate tapping my background in education policy to assist with the development of the program.

Having participated in various sectors of the education landscape, I hope to continue the integration of the IRT into the national narrative of excellence, equity, and inclusion.

—Interview by John Gorton, PA ’15

IRT Alumni Shine at the 2018 Summer Intern Workshop Stay Connected with the IRT! Announce good news. Share memories.

Post opportunities. Please join these official IRT alumni social media groups.

Twitter: @IRTAndover LinkedIn: IRT Andover Facebook: IRT Andover 2

Filled with energy, insights, enthusiasm, and ideas, the IRT’s four-week Summer Intern Workshop is a valued opportunity to bring together varied members of the extended IRT family, including students, consortium representatives, outside partners, and alumni. Eight alumni volunteers participated in this year’s workshop events, sharing with students the skills and knowledge gained from their own IRT experiences.

Jessica Samuel and Walter Eduardo Suarez Becerra, both IRT ’15, and Sadiki Lewis, IRT ’16, sat on our Graduate Student Panel, designed to give current interns an opportunity to speak with alumni who have recently matriculated to or graduated from their respective graduate

programs. Samuel and Becerra are both enrolled in the American & New England Studies Program at Boston University; Lewis graduated from Boston University with an MAT degree in mathematics education in May. Our Career Panel included alumni who have already earned graduate degrees and have been working in their fields for several years: Karina Fernandez, IRT ’06, from Hampshire College; Dudney Sylla, IRT ’09, from MENTOR: The National Mentoring Program; and Ryan Sermon, IRT ’10, from Pima Community College.

During Recruiters’ Weekend, Dr. Reginald A. Wilburn, IRT ’91, returned to campus to lead an important talk

ALUMNUS PROFILE

ACCOLADES

Alex Serna, IRT ’10

Dr. Tiffany Gill, IRT ’95, and Dr. Keisha-Khan Perry, IRT ’98, are featured among the leading women in the academy making a difference in the article “Top 25 Women in Higher Education” in the March issue of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Gill is an associate professor in the history department and Black American studies at the University of Delaware. Perry is an associate professor of Africana studies at Brown University.

A Father of Four Finds His Footing The ivory white dice bounced off the classroom wall.

“Snake eyes!” I exclaimed as I won another quarter.

It was third period geometry and my friend and I were enveloped in a game of dice while our teacher was talking about theorems in the background. I graduated high school with a 2.1 GPA. I never took the SAT. I never thought I’d ever attend college. Frankly, I didn’t care.

While both my parents, who emigrated from Mexico, had high aspirations for my future, I thought college was a waste of time, partly because I thought I wasn’t capable of graduating.

Six months after finishing high school I met my now wife, and eight months later we found out we were going to be parents. We were both 17. Thirteen years later, Shalee and I have four daughters, and I’m now the executive director for a college access education nonprofit tasked with helping students from under­ represented backgrounds become the first in their families to graduate college—an ironic outcome for someone whose college aspirations at one time were absent.

During those intervening years I underwent a defining transformation, and my summer at Phillips Academy as an IRT intern dramatically shaped my—and my family’s—future.

The cool Bay Area breeze combed my hair as I walked to check the mailbox. We’d been in Berkeley for eight months while I finished my junior year at UC Berkeley.

The prospects of post-graduation loomed in my mind.

During my undergraduate studies, I came to realize that I wanted to dedicate my life to education. More specifically, I aspired to support other students like

David Sterling Brown, IRT ’08, joined the faculty at SUNY Binghamton this fall as an assistant professor of English. myself who struggled in school. Shalee and I were 21, now a family of five with 1-year-old twins, a 3-year-old toddler, and no idea what the next few years would entail. We were the first in our families to attend college.

Getting into a four-year university was challenging in itself, so graduate school was an even more elusive and unknown next step.

I turned the mailbox key and discarded the ads, and one envelope caught my attention. I could feel my stomach sink, warmth fill my face, and my hands tremble holding a letter from Phillips Academy. The moment I realized I was accepted to the IRT Summer Intern Workshop was the moment that I knew my eventual journey as an educator was solidified.

I recall sitting on the grass near the Academy’s Samuel Phillips Hall, humid summer air all around, preparing for an IRT seminar the next day. The readings looking back at me like Mt. Everest ready to be climbed, an overwhelming feeling that I was chosen by mistake and would be discovered soon or that this experience was all a dream, and the dread I felt thinking it wasn’t possible that I could get through the program. But I did. My summer as an IRT intern dragged me outside of my sense of self, forcing me to realize that I belonged in graduate school, I was capable of being a graduate student. I belonged in spaces of edification, I was capable of critical inquiry.

I belonged, and I was capable.

Alex Serna (alserna001@gmail.com) is executive director of Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano, an education nonprofit with the mission to support students as they become the first in their families to graduate college. He earned a BA degree from UC Berkeley and an MEd from UCLA. He currently serves as a senior fellow on the Millennial Commission on Education, and his thoughts on college access have appeared in many publications, including the Washington Post, The Hill, and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

Connecticut. On Wellness Day, Dr. Stephanie Bramlett, IRT ’04—Phillips Exeter Academy’s new director of equity and inclusion—delivered the keynote address.

Her resume reflects a noteworthy commitment to holistic, nourishing practices for educational communities with an emphasis on the recruitment, retention, and well-being of students, faculty, and staff of color. that encouraged students to challenge traditional notions of institutional prestige when considering which graduate schools to apply to. He cited his own graduate school experience at the University of

The IRT is deeply grateful for its dedicated, passionate alumni who return to campus each year and contribute to the growth and development of America’s next generation of educational leaders. New alumni participants are always welcome!

Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, IRT ’17, recently published her third book, Strut (Agape Editions). She is also the author of Dear Continuum: Letters to a Poet Crafting Liberation (Grand Concourse Press) and Karma’s Footsteps (Flipped Eye). Her work has been widely published in journals and anthologies, including Listen up!, BOMB, Black Renaissance Noire, WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, The Golden Shovel, The Breakbeat Poets, and The Breakbeat Poets Volume 2: Black Girl Magic. She has performed poetry and taught in the United States, Namibia, The Netherlands, Belgium, and England.

Monica Muñoz Martinez, IRT ’05, published her first book, The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas, now available through Harvard University Press. Martinez earned a doctoral degree in American studies from Yale University and is currently an assistant professor of American studies at Brown University.

Viviana Cordero, IRT ’15, was featured in a University of Maryland online newsroom piece, which examined her educational journey that culminated in a master’s degree in higher education administration. Cordero is currently associate director of graduate support at Esperanza Academy in Lawrence, Mass.

Fernando Tormos, IRT ’09, was a recipient of support from the American Political Science Association (APSA) Fund for Latino Scholarship.

Reginald Jackson, IRT ’00, published his first book, Textures of Mourning, now available through University of Michigan Press. Jackson earned a PhD from Princeton University and is currently an assistant professor of premodern Japanese literature and performance at the University of Michigan.

Please email news items to jbonasera@andover.edu.

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Photo by Diamond Gray

THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS DONORS IRT interns explore the summer exhibitions at the Addison Gallery of American Art.

A Private School with a Public Purpose Access to quality education is a Phillips Academy core value. The school’s four educational outreach programs—Andover Bread Loaf, the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers, Mathematics & Science for Minority Students, and PALS—have served for decades as resources for students and teachers locally, nationally, and worldwide.

Visit www.andover.edu/outreach to learn more.

Excellence in teaching starts here.

Excellence in teaching startsof here.

Institute for Recruitment Teachers

Phillips Academy 180 Main Street Andover, Mass. 01810-4161 978-749-4116 irt@andover.edu irt.andover.edu

Donald B. & Elizabeth B. Abbott Nallely Aceves, IRT ’17 Jessica D. Acosta-Chavez, PA ’06, IRT ’12 Asna Afzal, PA ’99 Kelechi C. Ajunwa, IRT ’01 & Brighid M. Dwyer, IRT ’01 Chrystal Lynn Akor, PA ’00 Yasmine B., IRT ’94 & Jorge S. Allen Grace Argo, IRT ’15 Alejandro Arias, IRT ’17 Lucile F. Arnold, PA ’10 Bret D. Asbury, PA ’96, IRT ’99 & Caroline Patten Robert F. & Alice Walker Asbury P’91, ’96 Allegra B. Asplundh-Smith, PA ’04 & Evan B. McGarvey, PA ’03 Sharyn Bahn John B. Bassett, PA ’67 & Jane Thorn Bassett Kristine C. Bay, PA ’81 & Robert A. Iger Mercy L. Bell, PA ’08 Louis M. Bernieri P’96, ’10 Taylor S., PA ’79 & Willa C. Bodman Carroll R. Bogert, PA ’79 Andreas, PA ’90 & Nicole Buchanan Joseph F., PA ’82 & Carlyn Capella Sheri J. Caplan, PA ’83 & Kenneth Merkatz, MD, P’19 Nathaniel M. Cartmell III, PA ’69 & Suzanne Pettus Cartmell P’06 Scott & Alexandra Caulfield Sara Cerretani Andrew M. Chin, PA ’00 & Emily D. Griset, PA ’00 Regan E. Clarke, PA ’96 David J. Cohen, PA ’70 & Ruth Kevess-Cohen Leslie A. Condon Montserrat Cordero Jonathan Cortez, IRT ’14 Jennifer H. Cray, PA ’83 & Marc E. Igler P’18 Sandra D. & Anthony Cunningham, PA ’91, P’21 Julie Ongaro de Luxembourg, PA ’84 & Robert de Luxembourg

Esther Morgo Diskin, PA ’84 & Glenn S. Diskin Sari L. Edelstein, PA ’98 & Holly Jackson David B., PA ’69 & Anita Ensor Tyrone A. Forman, PA ’88 & Amanda Lewis Kimberly Doggett Formisano, PA ’86 & James A. Formisano P’17 Stephen H. Frank, PA ’81 & Jane Reny Frank P’09 Beth Friedman Daniel P. Fryburg Elizabeth Gil, IRT ’11 John W. Jr., PA ’71 & Susan Gillespie Jeremy L. Glover, IRT ’17 Vikas Goela, PA ’01 & Sphurthi Annapareddy Gardner S. Gould, PA ’03 James F. Grillo, PA ’66 Kimberly A. Guzowski, PA ’86 Aria Halliday, IRT ’11 Faith K. Hawkins, PA ’82 & Glenda M. Schulz Rejji P. Hayes, PA ’93 & Celeste Watkins-Hayes Rolando Herts, IRT ’94 Elaine Jacobs Rachel C. Jamison, PA ’93 Julia Lloyd Johannsen, PA ’96 & Peter Johannsen Marc A. Johnson, IRT ’97 Alan C. Johnston, PA ’64 & Kathryn Edwards Johnston Tiffany D. Joseph, PA ’00, IRT ’03 David W. Kaiser, PA ’87 & Rosemary Corbett Roger E. Kass, PA ’79 & Andrea van Beuren P’19 Victoria Kataoka, PA ’93 & James Brown Hee-Young Kim, IRT ’17 Courtney E. King, PA ’10 & Joe Rabinovitsj Morgan Kinney Brooks J. Klimley, PA ’75 & Laura Eimicke Klimley Michael J., PA ’94 & Amy Koehler

Cher Lewis, AA ’68 William M. Lewis Jr., PA ’74 & Carol Sutton Lewis Alexander C. Lippard, PA ’92 Thomas P. Lockerby & Kathleen J. McCrickerd David Zachary Lucero, IRT ’16 Benjamin I. Lumpkin, PA ’91 Lynnette V. Macomber Martha Phipps Maguire, PA ’78 & Walter L. Maguire Jr. John P. Margolis, PA ’78 Anne Marino & Scott A. Marino P’19 Clair Albright Rush Martin IV, PA ’07 & Jungmin C. Son, PA ’07 John A. Mayer Jr., PA ’58 & Barbara Phillips Mayer Timothy C., PA ’73 & Deborah S. McChristian P’03 Alasdair W. McClintic, PA ’13 Christopher L., PA ’66 & Elizabeth H. Moore P’95, ’99 Heather Moore, IRT ’09 Jane Biondi Munna, PA ’96 & Dax Munna Minor Myers III, PA ’96 & Eliza W. Myers F. Alarik Myrin III, PA ’88 & Christine G. Myrin Stanley S-H Ng, PA ’15 Cynthia A. Overton, IRT ’98 Kevin Pajaro, IRT ’15 John G. Palfrey & Catherine A. Carter P’21 Beth Parsons Maria Pettis, IRT ’17 Gabriela Poma, PA ’88 Elizabeth Parker Powell, AA ’56 & David G. Powell P’84, ’90, GP’19 Edward W. Probert, PA ’54 & Ann Linen Probert Lixin Qiao & Zhen Zhu P’19 Chera D. Reid, IRT ’00 & Brian D. Tutt Monica R. Reum Besenia Rodriguez, IRT ’99 Marieta Rojas, PA ’18 David L. Ross, PA ’70 Ashley Saephan, IRT ’16

The IRT would like to extend special thanks to the Grayce B. Kerr Fund for generously underwriting the national executive director search.

PA = Phillips Academy alumnus/a AA = Abbot Academy alumna

P = Parent of Phillips Academy student(s) GP = Grandparent of Phillips Academy student(s)

Please Support This Extraordinary Program Visit irt.andover.edu/donate to make your gift today. For further information, contact Beth Parsons at 978-749-4523 or bparsons@andover.edu.

Mariana L. Sanchez, IRT ’17 Taiyo Scanlon-Kimura Adrienne Scott, IRT ’16 Tricia Sealey Jaclyn Serchuk Richard J. Shin, PA ’90 & Hay-Won Byun Kelly L. Sinclair, PA ’03 Kevin S. Sinclair, PA ’01 & Kerry Sinclair Kathryn A. Slater & Eli Slater Thomas R. Sommerfield, PA ’73 Howard & Nancy Starnbach Mark W., PA ’69 & Annalyn S. Stevens Joshua Strayhorn, IRT ’17 Roger L. Strong, PA ’44, P’75, ’78, ’82 Walter Suarez, IRT ’15 John R. Swansburg Jr., PA ’96 & Harriet P. Menocal, PA ’98 Oscar L. Tang, PA ’56 Charles D., PA ’69 & Christine Tansey Christin Taylor, IRT ’08 Jamila Thomas, IRT ’05 Christopher C., PA ’83 & Elizabeth Thompson Xanh Tran, IRT ’17 Mario F. Trubiano Alejandro Velasco, IRT ’99 Louise M. Vital, IRT ’04 Christian Walkes, IRT ’17 Fabiola White Sekou White Bruce S. Wilson, PA ’77 & Lisa D. Westfall P’12 Adam K., PA ’83 & Ann S. Wise Jonathan K., PA ’77 & Frances Wonnell Lucius L. Xuan, PA ’15 Robert H., PA ’38 & Mary Lou Young Stefanie Scheer Young, PA ’81 & Andrew W. Young, PA ’81, P’11, ’14 Marcy Kerr Yuknat, PA ’90 & David A. Yuknat Gonzalo S. Zeballos, IRT ’92 & Lisa M. Duffy-Zeballos Brittany Zorn, IRT ’13