Reflections

‘Tis the season at Achieve Atlanta! We’re busily working to close out the fall semester on a strong footing, reflecting on what we’ve learned and accomplished in 2018, and setting our intentions for the new year.
During 2018, we served more than 6,000Atlanta Public Schools students and graduates. We worked to help them get to college, pay for college and succeed in college.

College students, I urge you to use your power and your voice next Tuesday, November 6. You are in college because you have hopes and dreams for yourself, your family and your future. You are working hard, learning complex new things and advocating for yourself in order to reach your goals. Part of advocating for yourself must include exercising your right to vote.

As a parent of two APS students, an advocate for educational equity, and someone who leads an organization dedicated to ensuring APS graduates can be successful in college, I’ve researched and reflected a lot about what students need, but this question caught me off guard.  I can only list 3 things? Is it Reading? Comprehension? Writing? Analysis? Computation? Scientific Method? Time-management? Self-regulation? The list of possible choices is endless.  But when I paused to think about my own children, and what skills I’ve tried to encourage in them, the answer came into focus.

A few weeks ago, some friends and I were talking about all the jobs we held in college. Some of us worked at campus libraries, others cleaned dorm room toilets. A few worked in the cafeteria or in administrative jobs at one of the several departments on campus. Probably one of my favorite jobs was staying at school once classes ended, working as a barback at alumni reunions – where I learned that old people drink liquor straight, no mixer. According to a recent report released this week from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, working too many hours can negatively impact student GPAs and decrease the likelihood of college graduation,

Although it’s only August, school started last week for Atlanta Public Schools and I’m settling into the new routine at home and work. At home, this is a big year for us as Franky, our first-born, enters his senior year. I’m feeling lots of emotions—sadness, excitement, anxiety—about his pending graduation and the fact that he’ll be headed to college soon. We feel the ground shifting under our family unit of four and are trying to stay steady as this inevitable and ultimately desirable change happens.