{"id":30261,"date":"2024-01-19T10:27:31","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T18:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/?p=30261"},"modified":"2024-01-19T16:11:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T00:11:00","slug":"a-winding-path-to-racial-and-educational-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2024\/01\/19\/a-winding-path-to-racial-and-educational-justice","title":{"rendered":"A winding path to racial and educational justice\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Ayva Thomas always excelled when it came to school work. Despite this, and despite growing up in a family of educators in Mukilteo, Washington, she never saw herself pursuing a career in education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coming up through the west side of the Mukilteo School District, Thomas was often one of the only Black students in her classes, and it affected the way she viewed academics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t love my personal experience as a student,\u201d said Thomas, a University of Washington Bothell alumna who received her bachelor\u2019s in Community Psychology in 2017 and her master\u2019s in Cultural Studies in 2019. \u201cAlthough I had several wonderful teachers along the way, it rarely felt like my identities were reflected in class. I was \u2018good\u2019 at school but found myself experiencing more stress than joy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn\u2019t until she was working toward her bachelor\u2019s degree that she began to think differently. Today, as interim executive director of racial and educational justice for the Northshore School District, she celebrates and is humbled by the opportunity to contribute to advancing transformative change in education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A shift in thinking<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Attracted to the small campus feel and small class sizes, Thomas began studying Community Psychology at UW Bothell thinking she might like to become a sport psychologist. She wasn\u2019t sure what she wanted to do, but her mother had taught her college was the perfect place to explore the possibilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She began taking classes with strong themes of diversity and social justice, Thomas recalled, and noticed a shift in her thinking around both education and her career goals. \u201cI learned more about justice in various forms and then applied that to my own experience,\u201d she said. \u201cAs I acquired the tools to be an agent for change, I went from solely thinking about education for what it currently was to dreaming about what it could be and how to get there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
During a project for a course centered around social change called \u201cApproaches to Social Research,\u201d\u202fThomas got the idea for a program focused on talking to students about college not only in high school but also in middle school \u2014 in particular, for students who would be first-generation college students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After doing research for the class, Thomas also wanted to put her idea into practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy mom just so happens to be a seventh-grade teacher, and she had a significant population of students who would be the first in their family to go to college,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cI felt like that was the perfect opportunity to combine education with family and community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her idea soon became a reality as she and other students from UW Bothell visited Voyager Middle School in Everett, Washington, to talk about their college experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Supported by community<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
After receiving a request for T-shirts to send to middle school students who wrote letters to then-chancellor Wolf Yeigh as part of the Voyager outreach program, Lisa Youngblood Hall, director of media relations and communication for UW Bothell at the time, wanted to help. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAyva Thomas, in her graduation cap and gown, with her grandmother and her mother. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a first-generation college student, I thought, \u2018We can do better than that,\u2019\u201d Youngblood Hall said. \u201cWe had an opportunity to have a real impact on the students\u2019 future, and I didn\u2019t want to leave it up to a delivery of T-shirts in the mail.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She proposed that the chancellor visit the students in person so he could share his educational journey and career path \u2014 and, yes, bring some T-shirts along, too. 足彩app哪个是正规的 chancellor continued to visit the school for a number of years, and the North Star Mentorship Program also expanded to bring the students to campus for a day of mock classes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI felt truly supported by that work,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cEverything about the development and implementation of North Star was such a beautiful thing to see come together. It reminded me of the critical importance of valuing and building community within our own communities.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the highlights of her experiences, Thomas said, was when she was graduated with her bachelor\u2019s degree and the University provided her mother\u2019s students with tickets to the Commencement ceremony. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost of them had never been to a college graduation, and they got to experience it firsthand,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was amazing to be able to look into the crowd and see all of them cheering and holding signs. It felt like a full circle moment for me \u2014 and it truly felt impactful for them in that quite a few ended up having a deep interest in going to UW Bothell as well.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
足彩app哪个是正规的 aha moment<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
After graduation, Thomas found herself again unsure of what she wanted to do next when her mother sent her a job description for a director of diversity and equity position in the Edmonds School District. That\u2019s when something clicked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had never heard of that career option before,\u201d she said. \u201cI read through it and thought, this is exactly a role that I want to pursue.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not required for such a position, yet a master\u2019s degree seemed like the next logical step toward achieving her new career goal, so Thomas began the Cultural Studies program at UW Bothell that fall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI felt like I had a great starting place during my undergraduate studies,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to be able to deepen that knowledge from an academic perspective but to also extend a practice-based perspective as well.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While working on her graduate degree, Thomas began emergency substitute teaching in Mukilteo and was then hired as an equity and diversity assistant at the Northshore School District in March 2018 after being connected to the position by a familiar face \u2014 Lisa Youngblood Hall, who was then the district\u2019s director of communications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later that year, Thomas helped establish the foundation for what is now the district\u2019s Racial and Educational Justice Department. \u201cI was able to apply the concepts that I was learning in my master\u2019s program directly to the work that I was doing in Northshore and have it be a reciprocal relationship between school and career, between theory and practice,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n
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