The Importance of Slowing Down in Schools

After striving for years to create public after-school and summer educational opportunities, Charissa Fernández came to the realization that, no matter how effectively her programs worked, “they could not compensate for the inadequate education during the rest of the school day,” she says. Since becoming the executive director of Teach for America’s (TFA) New York chapter in 2013, Fernández has worked to establish a homegrown, more diverse TFA pipeline, as well as partnerships with local principals and other classroom educators. NationSwell spoke with Fernández, who’s quick with a laugh, at TFA’s headquarters in Lower Manhattan.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given on leadership?
Keep a long-term view. Perspective adds value to any situation. That is the notion of wisdom: the combination of experience and time. I was fortunate in my career, when I was younger, to work with older professionals who identified and nurtured talent in me, and they taught me that lesson. When you are inclined to freak out because something is happening, they told me this has happened before, it will happen again, and it will also be okay.
What’s on your nightstand?
I have a lot of things virtually stacked up on my phone, but I am excited to start reading Angela Duckworth’s new book, “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.” It’s a little nerdy, but for someone who works in education and has children, I have both a personal and professional investment in getting this right. How do I instill this in my own children, and then help teachers instill it in the children they work with?
What innovations in education are you most excited about right now?
One is the integration of mindfulness into schools and workplaces — for both students and educators. We just welcomed our 2016 corps of teachers, and the opening workshop we did with them was on emotional resilience. We bring in people who are incredibly passionate and want to do everything to help kids. They have to take care of themselves to do right by their students, because teacher stress can have a profound impact on student behavior and student performance.
What do you wish someone had told you when you first started this job?
There are two things. One is just to make time and space for processing. In the urgency of working to improve public education, we always think we have to do one more thing: I have to go to that meeting, have to write that email, have to do that proposal. There are opportunities to make connections that we miss because we’re moving so fast. It’s information overload, unless you carve out time for processing, both individually — who are the people I met this week, what were the key ideas, how do they connect to each other, do I need to go back and ask additional questions — and as a group.
The other lesson, related to that, is how much this work is all about people. I believe, as a leader, the time invested in supporting people’s growth and development is generally always time well spent. Everything comes back full circle. When I think about starting my career, the first year, I taught 9th grade English, and one of my students is now a principal in the Bronx who hires TFA corps members. I never imaged that would be the case. It all comes down to relationships. You can’t over-invest in people.

Charissa Fernandez, center, takes pride in nurturing the talent of those who work with her.

What inspires you?
We live in a world that’s really set up to support being passive, to maintaining the systems as they are: inertia, the status quo, whatever you want to call it. In that context, when people choose to act, and particularly when they choose to do so without self-interest, I find that incredibly inspiring. The vast majority of our corps members are recent college grads, but we have two incoming members who are fifty-something, African-American men, both of whom have had successful careers in the private sector. I want to get inside their heads: what leads somebody to do that?
What’s your perfect day?
I usually wake up in the morning and say I want to accomplish roughly three things. If I get through all three in a day, that is remarkable. But I have to say, it doesn’t happen that often. Everything takes longer than anticipated, and there’s a million interruptions. A good day is one where I get through all my priorities.
What’s your proudest accomplishment?
I never think of this as my accomplishment, but I would tie it to finding great people and bringing them into the organization. I think about having left places, and when I’m making my goodbye speech, I’m proud that I brought these people here. I’m leaving, but they are still here and will continue the impact of what they are doing. It’s about identifying and nurturing talent.
What’s something most people don’t know about you that they should know?
When I think about my professional career — and I don’t think this was intentional — the jobs I have have all been public-private partnerships. I had an old boss who told me the reason I did a good job at those strategic partnerships was because I came from a big, complicated family.
To learn more about the NationSwell Council, click here.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
MORE: Why It’s Important for Children to Learn Mindfulness at a Young Age

A Bold Law Aims to Eliminate the Gender Wage Gap, School Integration Finally Gets the Funding It Deserves and More

Illegal in Massachusetts: Asking Your Salary in a Job Interview, New York Times
With women only making 79 cents for every dollar earned by a man, how to close the gender wage gap is a hotly debated topic. Will bipartisan legislation in New England, which attempts to level the playing field by forbidding businesses from asking a prospect’s previous salary, be a model for other states to follow?
Is School Integration Finally Making the Grade?, New America Weekly
Dozens of studies prove that school integration leads to student success. President Obama’s new “Stronger Together” grant program encourages districts to fully integrate by income, not ethnicity — giving low-income children of all races the opportunity to receive a better education.
Meet the Mothers Who Have Been Fighting Police Brutality for Decades, BuzzFeed
Described as “ultimate activist mother,” Iris Baez founded the grassroots group Parents Against Police Brutality after her son was killed in 1994. Working alongside fellow grieving mothers, Baez already has scored several important policing reform victories, but the 70-year-old isn’t letting age slow her advocacy work.
MORE: 5 Ways to Strengthen Ties Between Cops and Citizens
 

Thriving Gardens Now Grow in a Denver Food Desert

After graduating from the University of Denver in 2007, pals Joseph Teipel and Eric Kornacki headed south, to Guatemala where they participated in a service project.
Inspired by the work they did there, the two returned home to help poor communities here in the United States. Their goal is a lofty one: They want to foster self-sufficient communities nationwide that grow their own healthy food. But for now, they’re starting small by making a difference in one city.
In 2009, Teipel and Kornacki formed  the non-profit, Re:Vision, and launched their first program, Re:Farm, to help low-income people living in a food desert in southwest Denver. Their first project included planting a school garden at Kepner Middle School, designing irrigated backyard gardens for seven families, teaching families how to grow their own food, and mentoring at-risk middle schoolers through gardening. In 2010, their work was rewarded with an $80,000 grant from the National Convergence Partnership to study how gardening can be used to prevent violence and implement programs. From there, they began hiring community promotoras to spread the word about healthy food and teach other people in their neighborhood how to garden.
Much like the gardens themselves, Re:Vision is growing. Last season, 200 families participated in the backyard garden program, producing 28,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables. A hundred families are on a waiting list for a garden, and the organization hopes to meet that demand this year, with the help of a $50,000 Slow Money Entrepreneur of the Year award and a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
They’re also launching a program called “Dig it Forward,” through which people who want to help can hire Re:Vision workers to design and plant gardens. The proceeds from these garden sales will pay for free gardens in low-income people’s yards. Taipel told Helen Hu of North Denver Tribune, “It’s a way of thinking outside the box. We have a lot of expertise, and if people want to start gardens and help others, it’s a win-win.”
Patricia Grado, an immigrant from Chihuahua, Mexico, serves as one of the promatoras, told Hu, “I’ve reaffirmed my understanding about how to grow our own food, about food sustainability, nutrition, and among other things, how to help the community with my knowledge.”
MORE: This Innovative Idea Brings Produce Directly to Low-Income Communities
 

This Former Teacher Brings Technology Directly to Low-Income Preschoolers

Give a two-year-old an iPad and chances are, she’ll know how to use it. But that probably won’t be the case with a child from a low-income family.
That’s because, in 2013, the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found that 46 percent of families with annual incomes under $30,000 lack Internet access. As a result, the kids in these families are left behind when it comes to knowledge about technology before they even start kindergarten.
So Florida native Estella Pyfrom had a bright idea. The retired teacher and guidance counselor devoted a chunk of her pension money to renovating a bus to make it a mobile technology center for low-income preschoolers. Packed with 17 computers, The Brilliant Bus makes stops throughout Palm Beach county, including a weekly visit to the low-income Head Start preschool Village Academy in Delray Beach, Florida. There, three-year-olds there are so happy to learn about math and ABCs through computer games, their principal Guarn Sims said, “They don’t want to get off.”
Pyfrom, the daughter of a migrant worker with a fourth-grade education, knows how important helping under-privileged kids can be. “Many underserved communities don’t have access to computers at home or internet,” she told Attiyya Anthony of the Sun Sentinel. “I’m excited that together we’re addressing that problem in a more aggressive way.”
Pyfrom has big plans to expand the program, offering it to four-year olds, and third and fourth graders. She’s also working on a plan to take 100 students to New Orleans this summer for education on computer programming and how to design apps as well.
MORE: This Innovative Idea Brings Produce Directly to Low-Income Communities