I've written more than once about my friend Emmie. There was the time she told me about how she was eating once a week until we started providing snacks (The Bowl). And more recently when we shared about how inspiration from Emmie keeps us going and about her newly published poem (find article here). And while Emmie is just one of the students we serve, and I know there are many more with equally large obstacles to success, I think it is important for leaders to have direct connection to student stories so we remember why we do what we do. At least I know it is true for me. So, this week I want to try something different. Emmie was nice enough to share some of her story on video this week. I took a very amateur effort at editing it, and I will let her tell her own story today. It's about 8 minutes of video and I think it's worth watching.
"So this has been a long time dream..." That's what I said to Emmie at the end of that segment. Poverty Informed practice requires us to remember that all of our students come to us with dreams, both big and small. They wouldn't have the courage to enter our doors if they didn't have a dream. It provokes anxiety for me when I think about it that way. It is such an act of trust and courage to bring us those dreams and to be open to dreams you may not even know you have yet. We are so privileged to be trusted with that responsibility and that privilege requires us to make every effort to reduce the barriers that could end those dreams. Reducing barriers and believing in dreams... sounds poverty informed to me.
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