 Thanks to all of you for joining us. We're really excited for this conversation. My name is Autumn McDonald and I'm the head of New America, California. New America is a think and action based in Washington DC. And we are also a civic enterprise focused on issues of economic equity, community voice and agency. We host forums like this one and we are constantly keeping our eye on local innovation and disruptive solutions. I am really excited to introduce you to the guests that we have with us today. We have, our first guest is Dr. Alicia Smith Ariaga. We are joined by Alexandra Bernadotte. We are joined by Brittany Packnett Cunningham and by Ron C. Smith. Dr. Ariaga is from the Ed Trust West. Alexandra is from the founder and CEO of Beyond 12. Brittany Packnett Cunningham is an activist and an educator. And Ron C. Smith is Senior Director of Education Initiatives at Salesforce.org. Thanks again for tuning in, all of you. We really appreciate your being with us during this really challenging and difficult time. I also wanna thank all of you who have tuned in and remind you that if you wanna take this conversation online, you are welcome to do so by going on Twitter or LinkedIn or whatever is your means of sharing information. Please go ahead and tag the New America, California Twitter handle and New America at New America as well as any of the speakers that you would like to also tag as well. I wanna also thank the Silicon Valley Committee Foundation for helping make this conversation possible. And without further ado, I want to jump in by asking a few questions of Alicia. Alicia, I wanted to start by first just asking you to tell us just kind of the two minute story of you and what that looks like as it's related to how you were experiencing this moment. Sure, Adam. So thanks again for asking me to join today. I'm excited to both learn from the other panelists and hear more about some of the other things that are coming up. I'll just start by saying that I like to think of myself as a researcher by training, but an advocate by blood. I grew up in Mississippi and my parents were very much involved in the civil rights movement there. And I grew up very grounded in the fact that some of the liberties that I enjoyed were just very recently hard find one and that I wasn't just here to take up space but to be of service. And so one of the wonderful things about being at Ed Trust West is that we're able to combine both advocacy with research and policy and making sure we have a big sign in our office that says data for the people because we are all about putting data into the hands of parents, families and communities so that they can make the choices that they would seek to see in terms of policy change to really close the opportunity and achievement gaps that we saw even before COVID-19 in communities across this country. And on a personal note, I'm a mom of a son who is five years old and we are struggling with distance learning as we speak and what that looks like for kindergartners. And so this is both very personal and is both a professional topic but also very personal at this moment as well. A smiling, I also have a kindergartener and a second grader and a three year old. So I feel you, these are the times. Thank you so much for telling us a little bit about you or we're trying to make this conversation as conversational as possible despite being boxes like Brady Bunch. So I would love to learn a little bit more about the Ed Trust West and what is kind of your day to day you talked about the sign you have, data for people. Can you tell us a little bit more about what your daily work is and then what that looks like now? So if you'll think of it as what was Ed Trust West up to October 30th versus April 30th? Sure, so I think the best way to illustrate the work that we do is actually talking about last, about a year and a half ago, the Cal State University announced that they were going to add an additional requirement for entrance, another year of math that students needed to complete. And so we heard that at Trust West and we reached out to the way that we do our work as we start by reaching out to parents and students and communities and looking at data and saying, hey, what impact would adding this requirement have? I mean, what we heard from students and from families is that there was definitely a feeling that this would disproportionately impact students' chances, especially black students, Latinx students, low-income students, chances of admission and not because students aren't able to do the work but because we know on the K-12 side in California, even before COVID-19, for instance, on the California science test, less than one in five African-American Latinx and low-income students and just 3% of English learners were meeting standards and that's pre-COVID-19. And so what we did is engage in over the course of several months with more than a hundred organizations across the state, a series of advocacy actions, the first being commissioning a study to find out the disparate impact that that decision would have had. And then using that data worked with those 100 groups across the state to both provide public testimony at some of the meetings that Cal State had, students were outside the meeting, protesting. We met with individual trustees using that data and then in January, Cal State announced that they would be delaying the implementation of that decision based on the advocacy that we did. So, you know, all that was pre-COVID and now post-COVID, I would say we're concerned that, you know, we were gearing up, for instance, at the end of that effort to really think about, okay, even if this is implemented and if it is delayed, how do we make sure that K-12 schools and districts have the resources they need to make sure students are prepared? And now, you know, how we've shifted is really to think about, if we know that some of the data we're seeing, for instance, from NWEA, that show that some of the gaps in math could really be exacerbated by up to 70% or larger, how are we thinking about closing gaps in math and science? What do we know that the research shows us works and what are we hearing from communities that they're really concerned about in these areas in terms of having the resources they need to ensure students can receive high quality distance learning if that's where we are for an extended period of time? I love that you're sharing information that is rooted in data. I think that that's really important for people to be able to understand. I would also love to believe that people kind of get it, right, that they get that there's a disparity and that they get the issues that are related and rooted in systemic racial barriers. But for those who may be still kind of learning a little bit about what this really looks like, would you be willing to share a little bit more of the stats of what you're seeing or at least paint a little bit more of the pictures for those who are maybe not as well versed in issues of education? Sure, so before COVID-19, for instance, we knew that California was in per pupil spending pretty close to the bottom, right, around 39th, depending on whose data you're looking at, but that our per pupil spending was really low. Now what we've heard in the last few days and we don't know because some of the delays in terms of getting filing taxes and then that of course delays what we'll know in terms of state revenues, we know that the education budget we already had, which was as I say, one of the lowest in the country that is in danger of being cut even further. And so some of the things that we're thinking about, especially that are really high priority now are things like how do we ensure that even if there are cuts to the budget that those don't disproportionately impact low-income students, students of color. We're also thinking about how do we make sure that we know what the data says about where we were before COVID in terms of math and science, but what do we do when students come back to really take a look at where they are and provide teachers with information so that they can support students based on that information. And we know that there are a lot of tools to do that, but we're looking at what are some of the best ways to do that in ways that both care for students where they are social emotionally when they return, but also ensure that they can pick up academically as well. That makes a lot of sense. Our aim with these conversations is to think about how to get accurate information to folks who might not have it to be able to support kind of the action and the steps that those who may be tuned in who work in this space and are trying to support the kind of same communities that we're thinking about which are kids who are struggling to get a quality education. If you are thinking about what you would want like a philanthropist who's tuned in or someone in the business community or someone who's a nonprofit leader, what is it that you would hope that they would do with their reach based on something that they heard here? Is there something that you would want them to spread? Is there something you would want them to do? I would say one of the thing that we think is most important to do is to listen to communities that are most impacted first because the community folks who are closest to the problem have the solutions. And what that looks like in terms of what we've done and what we think can be useful, especially moving forward, is there are a lot of hard policy decisions that are coming and we know philanthropic dollars are small compared to government dollars and other dollars. And so being able to ensure that policymakers are making decisions based on what communities actually say they need and what they want is gonna be crucial. One of the things that we've been doing, we conducted a poll of 1,200 parents across the state of California that was representative. A few days after schools closed to learn more about what is it that parents were saying they really needed from schools. And a lot of parents in that poll surfaced concerns around academic resources, desires to be able to meet regularly with teachers. So we know that being able to put information like that in the hands of policymakers is going to be crucial, especially as states are making decisions around budget cuts this summer, because what we wouldn't want to happen is that their decisions may, they're impacting huge flows of money into states and the students, parents and families, their voices are not incorporated into those decisions because we know that when that happens, it is not both well for communities of color. Our lead to equitable results. Sure, sure. You know, the educational system has long been skewed away from properly serving students of color and I wouldn't ask you to come up with, you know, the one solution that fixes that right now, but I'm curious if you think of like, what would it take to at least move us in the right direction as it relates to trying to make up for lost ground? There's a part of me that feels kind of like there's been so much that's been going on before this and now it's kind of been taken to the end level. And so I'm curious if there's just kind of like one particular step or one specific thing that you think kind of takes advantage of this opportunity to what we built, even if we're rebuilding differently perhaps. Well, actually I think there are two things that are going to be really important. One is, and I can't stress it enough, we were in adequately funding our education system before. We cannot do COVID recovery and think that it's only about health and the economy. It has, education has to be central to that effort or we have the potential to leave a generation of students even further behind. So funding is key and then the other piece that's going to be key is to really work with schools and teachers to ensure that they have the resources they need to assess where students are and then really go from there. So in ways that, I mean we have actually an opportunity to do some really innovative things in terms of figuring out where a student is and accelerating that learning. We know that there's a lot of research that shows how we can accelerate gains when we have had learning loss and really paying attention to what we know and being able to equip teachers and schools with both the training they need to do that and the planning time that they need to do that is going to be crucial, more crucial now than ever as well. That's an amazing point. I really appreciate your sharing that and thank you all for all of the work that you're doing as well as all of the things that you've shared thus far. Come back to more discussion with you but I wanted to pivot right now to ask a few questions of Brittany. So Brittany, I'd love to start off with that same question. Just kind of the two-minute story of you if we can pretend for a moment that we're all actually at bunch with all of the participants and we're all just chatting. What is the two-minute story of you and how are you experiencing this crisis, this moment? Well, I personally cannot wait to get back to a point when we actually can sit down and have brunch, hopefully sooner rather than later because I'm already learning so much from this conversation and I'm really honored to be a part of it. The two-minute story of me is that I was raised by people who are committed to justice and they raised me to be the exact same. No matter what I am doing or what capacity I am operating in, that is always my focus with a special attention toward putting marginalized people at the center of all of our solutions. I could not agree with Dr. Alicia Moore that the people closest to the problems are closest to the solution and that goes for literally everything. So I spend a lot of time talking about not only what's wrong with our systems but what each of us can do to challenge those systems and to create new systems. Sometimes I do that on TV, sometimes I do that on a podcast, sometimes I do that in writing, but my career I started off as a third grade teacher and still keep in touch with a number of my students from right here in Washington DC. I taught in Southeast DC and if you ask anybody about our neighborhood who doesn't live in Southeast DC, they may say something like the parents don't care or the kids don't wanna learn and I try every single day to stand as a witness to the fact that those things can be further from the truth and that so often we will blame young people who are subject to the systems that have been put in front of them for their own problems when in fact we all have a collective responsibility to create systems that are equitable and just for every single person, especially the most marginalized among us. Thank you for sharing that. It's great to get a kind of window into your experiences and your upbringing and when you mentioned DC it brings me back to the years that I spent in DC at college, which I loved. I want to ask you a question related to a tweet. There's a tweet from journalist, Nikole Hannah Jones that I found to be really kind of a hunting gut punch honestly of a tweet. It is as true as it is angering in my opinion. So I'll just go ahead and read it. It reads, Julian Bond said, violence is going to school for 12 years and getting six years of education. For low income, disproportionately black and Latino kids, this COVID period is known as the last months that stole the education of kids who already weren't getting their doom. So I wanted to just put that out there and I'd love to hear just your thoughts or whatever your reaction is to that. I mean, both Julian Bond and Nikole Hannah Jones are people who know exactly what they're talking about and have the work and experience and the research to back it up. And I was so glad that she said this, I use that quote often and have for years because we need to properly contextualize what happens to black, brown and indigenous young people in this country correctly as violence, right? That violence doesn't always appear in the visceral ways that we're used to in a media landscape or an entertainment landscape or on video games, but it is indeed violent to not serve children in the ways that will lead them to live lives of full choice and abundance. And so that quote, I think is particularly powerful. And to be honest with you, this moment is reminding me of the Ferguson Uprising. So I live in D.C. I have worked in D.C. for many years, but I am a transplant for my beloved hometown of St. Louis. I grew up 10 minutes from Ferguson in another inner ring, mostly black suburb that endured a lot of the same challenges around systemic racism and oppression as Ferguson. And I felt incredibly compelled to be out on the street with our students and with young people and old people and middle-aged people from all around our region who are standing up as heroes in part because Michael Brown graduated from a school district where the nonprofit that I used to run in St. Louis placed teachers. So I felt a very clear level of complicitness in helping to create an uphold a system that did not value his life inside of a classroom or outside of a classroom in the way that it properly should have been. And a lot of people won't remember this, but if you rewind back to 2014, he was killed on August 9th, 2014, which means that it was right before the launch of the school year. And by the time it was time to start the school year and many of the surrounding school districts, it was unsafe to do so. We were essentially enduring an occupancy at that point and police were on residential streets in full military gear. They were tear gassing and pepper spraying, innocent bystanders, myself included, people who were peacefully protesting, myself included. So the school districts decided that it was not the proper time to reopen. And the organization that I led and a bunch of our alums and staff members partnered with retired educators, parents, volunteers, grad students, college students from around the area to literally build a makeshift school in the Ferguson library. And by the end of the first week we were serving over 200 students because we wanted to make sure that a couple of things were happening. One, that they knew people loved them and if they were not entering the school building every day, they may be experiencing the exact opposite of that given what was happening in our community. Two, we wanted to make sure that they were well fed. Everyone on this call knows that so many of our students only get the kind of health and wellness support that they need at school because they are taking advantage of free and reduced lunch programs and more. So we wanted to make sure that they had a central place where they could be fed. And three, I would say most importantly, we wanted to make sure that young people had a safe place to learn from people who were qualified to teach them. And I'm reminded of this moment right now because there were lots of people who said we couldn't do what we did, that there were too many things that could go wrong, that there was too much red tape rather for us to have to chew through. But the fact of the matter is unprecedented times require unprecedented imagination. And so as I'm thinking of this moment, yes, we know that young people stand to lose an incredible amount of learning and that the gap can widen even further. But that means that it's on all of us to be even more imaginative and forthright right now and not let the powers that be or traditions stand in our way. We don't really have time for that. We are in a crisis and our kids are learning, are losing that learning time every single day. So now is the time for us to be innovative. Now is the time for us to operate as a community. And now is the time for us to really be putting students first in brand new ways. Well, yeah, thank you for that. Because that's, I mean, yeah, it's all of those things. And thank you for sharing that because that was really powerful. And I think the things that you said really spoke to what is necessary and why it's so important to have imagination that goes beyond anything we may have had before. You spoke up to how you responded in that moment. And I'm thinking about the opportunities that you think might exist in this moment in terms of how, as an educator, you see opportunities for us to spotlight something that could be maybe a policy window, that there's a way for us to kind of come from this in a different way. What do you see as maybe one of the things that we might tackle if we put the policy side in terms of how- Sure, I think really this is a policy and practice window. Dr. Alicia was speaking to not only the research, but having right now to figure out learning for her own child. This should be a reminder to all folks engaged in education practice that families, parents, guardians, influencers, all need to be on the same team with the educator and the child. If that always should have been the case, but that this is a moment that reminds us that if you are not in a full conspiracy, if you will, with every single person that loves and influences the child that sits in your seat to ensure that they have the best educational experience possible, then you are only doing half the work. There's a level of expertise, a level of care, a level of attention that people outside of the school building are paying to those students that we serve inside of school buildings, and we need their insight, we need their support, we need them to parent the messages that we are sending in school. We need them to tell us when we're not doing it, right, and we need to educate their child differently because of the way that they learn. So I think from a practice standpoint, putting families, guardians, and influencers and students back at the center of the conversation instead of treating them like they're tangential is essential and that can happen at the classroom level, at the school or school board level, at the policy design level and everywhere in between. Also on the policy front, I think that there's a mindset shift that we should be taking here. And we have to be clear that equity, Trump's tradition every single time, that right now we are engaged in a system of schooling that was actually not built to serve most children and it was certainly not built to function this way, right? We are still in a space where most students are sitting in rows, where most students are sitting in a classroom inside a building at all, where most students are raising their hand in order to express a question or knowledge that they've gained, where there is one person who delivers all of the information and children are merely receivers of that information. But this is the opportunity for us again to have unprecedented imagination because all of the sudden those traditions have been taken from us. So how do we get creative and how do we institutionalize our creativity in this moment? What that means though is that we have to be creative right now. Virtual learning is certainly a powerful tool but we knew before what we are being reminded of now that not every child has access to what they need to be engaged fully as virtual learners. The broadband access gap is wide not only for people of color but also between cities and rural spaces. And yes, people of color live in rural spaces too. The technology divide in terms of hardware, there are too many of our students' homes where the only access to internet is coming from a smartphone. It's very hard to write a paper or sit on Zoom for eight hours on your mom or dad's smartphone. There's so many ways in which virtual learning already doesn't reach a lot of kids. So how are we building up creative models to support what's happening on a computer screen in the ways that ensure that all children, especially children of color, children with disabilities, children living in poor access areas are getting the support that they need. So if we prioritize equity over simply saying this is the way that it's been done so this is the way we'll keep doing it I believe we'll see the kind of policy solutions that students deserve. You talked about kind of the policy pieces and what's possible. And I'm about to, in a few moments, ask you a question that's related to what would you ask of the people who are listening. But before that, you brought up this piece of being a parent. You spoke about Lisha as a parent, you spoke about, you know, I am also a parent, I know Alex as a parent. And so I'm curious, what are the ways that I can do something outside of for my three kids? And, you know, I'll be honest, I feel a little bit of like almost a survivor's guilt, right? Like, you know, we have more than one device that kids can be on. I made sure before I jumped onto this Zoom to text my husband and make sure Olivia gets on Spanish, or Spanish Zoom. The Spanish that by the way is not part of the regular education, it's an additional enrichment that we paid for. So all of these different things, you know, you have all of these parents who are honestly living in privilege, who are able to do these things that shouldn't be the extra privileged special space to be in. And so my question to you is for those who are listening, not with their I'm a community-based organization leader, not I'm a philanthropy leader, but just I'm a parent. How do I go outside of the things that I'm trying to do for my kids to do things for kids in the community? And kids that I know, if I look around Oakland, if I look around the state, if I look around the country, what does it look like for each of us to do something for someone else outside of as our roles in our organizations? Well, the first thing to do is be patient with yourself. Teaching is an incredibly difficult job. I have done a million things in my life and teaching will forever be the hardest thing I have ever done. And I was trained to be a teacher. So if that role is difficult, when you got the training, the master's degree and all of that stuff, of course it's even more difficult when that's not the thing that you were trained to do. That's not the thing you went to school for. Those are not the professional developments you attend. So the first thing is to be patient with yourself. Because sometimes we can get in our head entirely too much and let perfect be the enemy of good. This is an opportunity for you to simply spend time and pay attention to your children. So a couple of things that you can do. One, you can recognize that learning happens best in community. Now community is very difficult to have right now because we are physically distanced from each other. But there are creative ways to extend that kind of community. If you want to create a group chat or a Google doc or a Google hangout for the kids on your block and each parent takes an hour of read aloud or an hour of an activity a day, giving one another that relief, giving you each time to plan something for your children but also giving young people the opportunity to feel like they're in community because they don't have a community of a classroom right now. That can be a really powerful thing. The second thing is to think about the things that you are already doing with your time that you can engage your children indifferently. If you are cooking meals now, I am cooking meals all the time that I used to be ordering out everywhere but now I'm measuring out ingredients. I'm figuring out how long to put something in the oven. There are young people who can continue to sharpen some of those skills if they stand alongside you in the kitchen, if they come out to the garden with you, if they're spending time with you during your work day, having conversations about some of the topics that you are facing every single day that also have a social studies lens for them, pull your children into the things that you are already doing to the best of your ability. The last thing is to identify a passion project. Nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to spend all of their day looking at a screen even if you have the screens available, right? Adults don't want to do it. We know we don't like being on Zoom calls for eight hours a day so certainly children don't want to be on Zoom calls for eight hours a day. Give them a passion project. Ask them what they are excited about. Maybe they are building a diorama of their dream, I don't know, amusement park. Maybe they want to plant something in the garden and tend to it and see how the tomatoes grow. Maybe they want to work on something around the house that's tactile with their hands. Maybe they're concerned about the way COVID-19 is affecting their classmates or a community they're concerned about and they want to design a community service project to actually get engaged with that and help that. Your young people, the children in your home have ideas about what matters to them. So turn that into an educational experience. The last thing that I will say is to continue to make sure that you are advocating for your young people as much as possible. Now I know that that in and of itself could be a full-time job. It certainly could be a full-time job before this happened. It definitely can be now since you can't just march up to the board of education or march up to the school district and make sure that your questions get answered. But again, this is something that you can do in community with other parents in your neighborhood, at your church, at your mosque, whatever group of parents that you are a part of, have those folks start to collect the themes of the things that they need from the local charter school organization or the school district that your children go to and advocate for those things together. When you can build a space of allies to say, this is where our young people need and you all are responsible to give it to us. School districts, school boards, charter organizations, they pay much more attention when they hear our voices and numbers. So leverage those community opportunities with other parents both to keep your children entertained and learning, but also to be advocating for the services that they need. Thank you. I really appreciate that. I'm sure that many of the other parents appreciate both learning, you know, other opportunities to engage the kids that are in their home and then also thinking about the kids in your community because I think a lot about beyond my own kids. And so I appreciate that. One last question and then I'm gonna ask some questions of Ron, which is the one I mentioned, which is, you know, you've got an audience of folks who I believe are interested in figuring out what they can do and what's actionable and what makes a difference. So what is it that you would recommend to philanthropists, educators, nonprofit leaders, business leaders, public sector folks? So two quick pieces of advice. The first one is to fill the gaps and the second one is to build something new. So to the first one, I think a lot of people in the education space, and I count myself among those who are in roles of leadership, we can often operate at the 50,000 foot esoteric level. This is a moment where Maslow's hierarchy of needs is central. Many young people, their parents, their guardians are not necessarily primarily concerned with where that reading level is because they have to make sure that there's food on the table tonight. They have to make sure that if they are an essential worker that they are keeping the people in their home safe. They have to make sure that the rent and utilities and mortgage that they've always been paying with a steady job that they may no longer have or may be in question can keep getting paid so that there's a roof over people's heads. And I just finished, I do some support work of Black Entertainment Television in their social impact space and they just organized a massive telethon where they raised over $16 million for six cities where Black families in particular are being most impacted by this even though we know that's nationwide, we started with six cities. And what I was doing was essentially helping them vet the organizations to make sure that the money would get to the people most in need. And what I found confirms something that I always knew, but I think this is critically important. Parents and guardians, adults in people's lives and young people themselves, they are going to the first line of support to ask for a whole lot of things. So even if you are running a nonprofit or a community-based organization that is focused on after-school care, if you are the only person who seems like they might know how to navigate a system in that family's life, they're gonna ask you questions about everything from a food bank to where they can get utility assistance, whether or not you have that expertise. The same is true for teachers. For a lot of young people, their first line of support is their teacher. So they're going and asking questions of teachers and presenting needs to teachers that teachers might not have even thought about before. So there is an opportunity for our community-based organizations to figure out, and our philanthropists, to be incredibly nimble. What a lot of people need right now is a direct electronic funds transfer. They don't need to write a 20-page grant application. They don't need somebody to say, here's a gift card to the place I chose for you. They need funds in their hand to be able to put in the places that their family most needs right now. There are so many folks who are just trying to get those basic needs met, and there is nothing wrong. In fact, it is the right thing to make sure that people's basic needs are met as you continue to move toward those spaces of higher-order thinking and more complex problems, which brings me to the second point is to build the model. So if we're in a time of unprecedented imagination, this is the time to get some things off the ground that everybody told you previously was impossible. I'm currently doing a lot of work with people that they said, we never thought we could do this, but here is that window of opportunity. We don't start there. We start with making sure people's needs are met, but simultaneous to that in the background, we start to build the models of the things that we've always wanted to try, that we know research shows us will serve students well, will lead to more equity in the education space, and actually build those things such that when this pandemic is over, there's more opportunity for us to institutionalize the things that work instead of have those things be once again threatened by tradition. That's fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing that. I think that there are a lot of nuggets that both you and Alicia have shared that I'm sure people are gonna wanna come back to. So really appreciate that. And I want to move now to asking Juan a few questions. So Juan, if you will, we are back at bunch. And so start off just getting a sense of the two minute story of you and how you're experiencing this moment as well. First off, so excited to be here. And Alicia and Brittany, I mean, I felt like running through a wall listening to you already. You guys just bring the energy up. I'm like breaking a switch. It's hearing all the passion. So I appreciate that. That's a great way. Always helps to go like third. That way you get everybody to get the juices flowing. So I appreciate that. I'll continue the parent's story. I have a third grader who's in Oakland. So, you know, definitely this distance learning and he has special needs. So trying to figure out how to get those other services, his speech services and making sure that he has that. And then adding music services and all those other things that are the missing factors. And it was interesting and listening. I heard just some words I was writing down and really I heard, at least you have the kindergarten student. And I really, that just as an elementary principal when I get to that in a second, that kindergarten year is so critical. Cause what do you do? Get, yes, the numbers, the learning, but you learn how to socialize with other children and to be around in an environment where you're learning how to say, thank you. Hello, I love you. Goodbye. I'm mad at you. And you do without that social interaction. I heard that a lot from Brittany. Without that connection, you then start forming ideas based upon what you see in the community or maybe on TV. And that's very challenging, especially for a five or six year old. So I felt that. And some words I heard in this and as I talk about my journey, one thing that stood out is equity in relationships. And within education, specifically for African-Americans and specifically I dialed on the boys, having two boys on my own, what are we doing to address the individual needs of each kid? Sometimes we throw out the term equity and we apply it to everyone. Equity actually needs each individual and meeting their specific needs and then building that around them to then bridge out to the bigger group. And people lose sight of that. And I think that's where the challenge is. And that's why a lot of young black men specifically are thrown into, oh, they can do this. Well, that's not what they need. Yes, they have to meet certain criteria. We all do. We understand that. But they need something else to help to get to that. And where's their support? And connected to that is the relationship. And one thing in my experience before I came to Salesforce, I was a teacher. I was a principal in my final job. I led schools and supervised schools in Oakland. I'm an Oakland resident. I live still in Oakland. I grew up in Oakland. My kids were from Oakland. My son goes to school in Oakland still. I feel like I need to get away sometimes, but I love Oakland. So I'm not gonna leave. So I'm stuck. And they're stuck with me. But the key is the relationships within everything we do. And especially with young black men, and I really focus and hone in on that with this conversation, they're so misunderstood. They're judged, they're criminalized before they walk through the door, how they walk, how they talk, how they dress. And that's because there's so much fear about building that relationship. And it's, unfortunately, it's an adult problem that gets brought down on children. And then you see different races and different colors and creeds saying, this is a stereotype that's already built. And so before a young man walks through the door, there have already stopped from moving any further in the future. And that applies to how they get through school, how they get access to these individual things that are needed right now. Brittany just talked about, can you have access? Don't give me a computer. Can I get access to food? Okay, yeah, I need the internet. Guess what? I don't need clothes because I can't go outside, but guess what? I didn't have clothes in the first place. So how do I have access to these things that helped me survive this time? And I think something that's getting missed right now, especially in the black community that we have to be mindful of because on the back end it's gonna hurt us, there was trauma before this started and it's not gonna go away with everyone stuck in the house. And if we don't figure that piece out while we're working our way through this, I don't care what tech solution we have, I don't care how much money there is, I don't care. Even if we can feed everyone, if we don't understand what's happening behind closed doors, especially since so many people are in closed doors and here in California, everyone's behind closed doors. If we don't figure that out on the back end, it's gonna cause a bigger problem. So my journey here through 20 years in education at Oakland and working in Salesforce where we have within my team and within the team I sit on, our number one value is equity. And that looks at in the communities we live and serve in is looking at the populations that have furthest from success. And you don't have to look far because we all know, you don't have to look at data. You know it's African-American and Latino folks, that's just what it is. And then you owe to women. And when you're honest with yourself, and this is the question I heard mentioned earlier, we assume that people recognize that there's a problem and we assume that they recognize that these are the population and the greatest need. And I think that is the challenge, assuming that people understand the problem, recognize the problem and I'll go one step further, care about the problem to wanna solve. Because that's an assumption that I don't feel like for specifically young black men and I know we're gonna talk more about the statistics of them going to school and graduation rates and all these inflated numbers. Well, guess what? They're already 20% behind white and Asian students just graduating from high school. So guess what? Let's not assume that they have the same access to college. Let's not assume they have the same access to workforce because they're not getting the same jobs in the tech field or in the more higher paying fields around the United States. And in California where the population is really roughly around 6%, well, if you're only 6% of the population, but then you're making up 30% of the prison population, how are you having access? So the numbers are just staggering. And as Dr. Lisa mentioned, California in some cases actually got better at being 39, 40, 41 in funding. Who are 46 or 47? Well, most of the decades that I was in education. So the numbers are staggering, but people don't care about the numbers unless it affects their children. And that's the thing, again, that assumption. We have to be very careful around assumptions. And it's just the power. It's having these conversations. It's having these forms. It's having just without fear saying, you know what? We're gonna serve in my team and I'll speak of going back to what we do. We're gonna serve a community that's underserved and it's gonna basically be African-American and Latino students that's gonna be hard to serve areas, San Francisco, Oakland, Chicago, New York, and sorry, we're not gonna serve more fluent areas. And as long as everyone understands our why, then they're gonna be fine with it. But that's kind of the, I didn't really talk about my journey as much, sorry, I just kind of jumped into it, but got here through that and I grew up with a passion for boys. Just young black men are supposed to be in prison, supposed to be dead. She looked at statistics, especially as I was growing up in the 80s, as my oldest son who's now 22 was growing up, the numbers haven't changed with people with the expectation based upon the data and rates. So how do we change that paradigm? How do we change those numbers? We have to first admit that there's a problem and then build solutions, creative solutions, I heard Brittany say, get out your box, be creative, start with something new, name the problem, tell why there's a problem and move forward. So I very much appreciate that. I mentioned that I have three kids and two of them are fantastically amazing black boys. And also living in Oakland and they're going to Oakland schools and Oakland childcare, I think a lot about the same things that you're thinking. You mentioned already your experience as a teacher, as a principal, as a leader in the district. And you connected that to the fact that we can't assume that people know what's really happening, that they care about what's really happening, that they have the information that would potentially allow folks to get involved in the issue in the way that we want them to. Would you tell us a little bit with your lens? Would you take us in for a moment to what it is to have the lens of a former principal? And then after, can you also tell us what you imagine principals and teachers are kind of going through thinking about right now? So first, let's flip to the parent hat. A lot of principals and teachers, they're parents and they're having to take care of their own family. They're trying to figure out, I have these teenage girls and they were driving me crazy when I saw them just in the afternoon. And now I'm back, or I have these boys, I used to get their energy out because we had sports and now they're not. And I'm trying to work and call my teachers and I have to figure out my family that I had a nice rhythm or a nice system and me and my significant other worked it out or I had daycare or I had family to support. I had a system. Guess what? That system's gone. So they're as parents trying to build that system while at the same time transitioning into being a leader of a school. And as a leader of a school, and I think one of the favorite parts of my job was you connect with community. If strong leaders connect with community, they connect with families, they are conduit because a school is a central hub just like a church, but it's a hub where you come for food, for clothing, for love, for shelter, and that's what it is. So as a principal, if you are not there to connect some of these families, it's almost a lost opportunity to build that relationship. So now this principal is dealing on two hats. They're trying to figure out their family and how to not lose the time and it's feeling guilty that I should be educating my own child because I'm telling people to educate their kids and I'm not educating my kid and what do I do? But at the same time, now they're building systems and they're building structures for online learning, which we never did. I tell people when I first started, we saw chalkboards, whiteboards were amazing when they came out. And so now we're in the digital age where everything is done via Zoom. What happens if you don't have a printer? What happens if you can't? Your internet is not as strong. What happens if you're in an area where your internet drops? There's so many things you have to figure out to then say, we need to provide something of quality to our kids to then say we have to figure out how to support our families. And so as a principal right now, they're going through all these different emotions. As a principal, you spend your day, you get up and you go to school and you first you say, how do I ensure my kids are safe? I wanna make sure my kids are safe. Their environment is inviting, that it's clean, that it's healthy. Then I wanna make sure my teachers are taking care of. I wanna make sure my teachers have everything they need to be, have a quality environment to have quality day. I wanna make sure my family is responding and you're basically spending your day wearing multiple hats. So the custodian isn't in today or I have a teacher absent today or I have a meeting and I can't do this or have another. So you're juggling all these things where right now you're juggling. I have only 50% of my kids who are logging on. How do I find out? I don't have access to all the phone numbers. Half of 20% of my numbers are not correct. How do I reach those kids? I would normally go to their cousin but I can't get to the cousin because the cousin's number is disconnected. I would normally make face to face contact. How do I then reach out to this family that I know is in great need because we knew this going into this day were in great need. So we know right now it's just a harsh situation. How do I support them? What do I do with my teachers? My teachers who I will always say have the hardest job the world has ever seen. How do I support them? They have social emotional needs and they're dealing with their own trauma and the things that they've done and trying to figure out their life. What can I do for them? So you're having to juggle yourself, your staff, your kids, your community. And I heard also, people come to you to ask questions. Brittany said it great. People come just to the first stop. Like I go to X and that person's going to answer every question I have from food to clothes to education to spiritual guidance to whatever it is. Because I trust that person. Guess what? They can't get to X anymore. And you're trying to figure out how to support these very needs and track it and look at the data. It's such a, you're also trying to say, I still have to figure out how to get these kids educated for next year. And there's some statistics thrown out around loss of time and where they're going to be academically. Many students are ready behind. We work with San Francisco and Oakland. We focus intentionally on math. In San Francisco, roughly 13 to 13, 14% of African-American students were on grade level based upon eighth grade proficiency test. Oakland was 9%. So when you're saying 80 plus percent of the kids are already behind, now they're losing these months. Now what happens next year? Next year's not going to change. Now here's the rub to people I think, I think everybody thinks, summer's going to come, traditional summer and click boom. You know, it's new school year. Here we go. Everybody's back in the building. Oh no, no, no, no. And that is what people have to grapple with right now. And I tell families, this is a long game because when schools do come back, and this is again what principals have to think through. When schools come back, it's not going to be the same schedule. Kids aren't going to be able to walk through the door. We have to figure out A and B schedules for kids, for adults, for families. What is PE? What is the lunch schedule? What does it mean for convenience? High schoolers, can we play sports? Can we have other kids? You have to figure all these things out because you plan now for next year. And so with all of that, how a leader can deal within themselves these times is going to be critical. And I talk to my friends and I'm like, you know, how are you doing? What can I do for you? You know, do you need me to send you lunch? How can I support you? What are the things that I can do both as a friend on the non-business side and as a leader of an organization and education side as a company? What can I do? Because I know what they're going through. And to be honest with you, my first question is, what do you need a year from now? Because guess what? It's going to be still the same thing that you can tell me today because this is a long-term problem. It's not a short-term problem. I love all of the things you shared with the lens of being an educator, being a principal, thinking about what teachers are thinking about because I think that for many folks who have not been in that space specifically, that's new information for them. To understand that I think is a key part of figuring out where we all fit into helping with what needs to happen. I know you're a philanthropist. As in you are working in philanthropy and you are leading initiatives related to education. I would love for you to put that hat on and think to yourself, what would you want folks to do specifically? So you talked about what are the things that a principal needs to be thinking about? What are the things that people in their homes are thinking about? What are the things that you would wanna use your reach with and what you know, what you've seen from working in this space to encourage others to do? Specifically if you're thinking of other leaders, what would you want them to do? I believe first in, it starts with having a conversation with the organizations, entities, school systems, whoever you work with, nonprofits that are doing the work in the trenches. And don't assume you can tell them what to do. So go to the district, go to the nonprofit, say, what do you need? Actually tell me your story, like tell me what's going on with you. Hear their story and before you say, oh, I can do this, say, what do you need? Because in the philanthropy world, unfortunately, there's a lot of, I can do this, here's the product or here's the grant or here's what it is, take it, but it has to be done this way. And that's a challenge when, guess what? What is it, two months now or seven weeks ago? That, what you can do has changed. And for you to still live in that mindset, which I'm not even agreeing with at that time, but in this time to still have that mindset, it's troubling because two months ago, the organization you were working with might not need, have needed you to just fund professional development for teachers around math. Today, they might need you to fund professional development around trauma-informed practices for teachers and how to prepare students for the online learning world. Those are two different things, but if you're not nimble and you're not listening and you're not active in understanding, it's gonna be a challenge. One of the things we've been thinking a lot about is, and again, it's three prong, what does today look like? Because guess what? It didn't look the same way two weeks ago. So what does today look like? What does it look like phase two, if you wanna call it, being about two months out, let's just say July one, because it's gonna look very different. Then with phase three, the long game, what does it look like six to 12 months from now? In asking entities when we have our conversations and I'm not a big fan of a lot of phone calls, but actually having those constant check-ins and following through and saying, you know, I saw in the news, X, can you give me a little information? I don't wanna bother you, but this, and that's really the way you can stay informed to always consider yourself help. I think we fall in love with money as the only way to help. But guess what? If you can connect into an organization that works with food or our practices they need, that is one of the most important things. They need connections, they need opportunities. And in this world, whereas I might have just had a meeting with a foundation that's really working on connectivity and they're not connected to one of my district partners, if I can say, hey, you know what? Let me connect you with the chief of staff who's really having this problem and build this bridge. And now I'm a conduit for success for that organization and for the kids that they serve. And I think as a philanthropist, you have to remember there's a world we live in and a lot of philanthropists are companies that make money and they're able to give money back and I get that. But what do you serve? And that's the question I wanna ask. If you're as a philanthropist or you're in the aspect of giving something back, are you doing it to make yourself for good? Okay, or are you trying to give back because you're really trying to help a community, a society and a group that is in greatest need? And if that's your charging point and if that's your why, then you can always fulfill and build from that place. If you're just happy because you're doing something, then you're gonna be happy no matter what. So knowing where you can get in and ask the questions and where your passions lie. And right now is when your passions should be heightened. You shouldn't be down. You should be like, I need to do more. How can I do more? And having those conversations that discourse with those groups you work with, it'll change the world. And I guess I believe on the backend, the groups that do that will have a whole new philosophy of how they wanna move their work forward. That's amazing. And I think about all of the things that you just said in terms of what's possible. And I feel encouraged. I wanted to ask you a question related to kind of a workforce piece, but I wanted to pivot to ask Alex some questions. But I wanna come back to you about this one related to a workforce after that. Stay tuned. Alex, I'd love to ask you a few questions. Hi, Autumn. Hi there, how are you? Love to answer your questions. What's your two minute story, Alex? Who are you? And how is this related to what's going on right now? Yeah, absolutely. First of all, I want everybody to promise that we are gonna have brunch for real when this is over. Cause I wanna sit around the table and have this conversation in real time, in real life. Mamosas. Not virtual, with lots of mamosas because I am the parent of an eight-year-old as well. And I am trying to navigate the how to be a full-time parent, a full-time teacher, a full-time CEO. And on a lot of days, I don't get it right. So let's just start that way. But my story, so I run an organization called Beyond 12 where a high tech, high touch digital coaching platform that connects virtual human coaches, a campus specific mobile app called MyCoach as well as a backend artificial intelligence engine to help first-generation students graduate from college. And so for me, that's an important part of the story because I come to this work because it is personal. So I was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I grew up in inner city Boston. I was raised by my parents and my beloved grandmother, Mommy Claire, who is 104 years old, y'all. She's 104 years old and we are like keeping our fingers crossed that we can celebrate 105 in June. We won't be able to give her the big party that we had hoped to give her, but I'm still hoping to show her some love. But even though my parents, my grandmother, didn't go to college, they stressed the importance of an education and a college degree in particular, right? It's key to moving me, but not just moving me to helping our family. So I grew up with this concept of it wasn't an eye journey, it was a wee journey. So much so that when we got those college acceptance letters, we were thrilled. We thought we had won the lottery because we were like, that's what this is all about. That's what the whole journey had been. And so much so that we traveled when they were moving me in and what I like to call my caravan. The caravan was 10 cars deep. So it was mom, dad, grandma, younger sister, aunts, uncles, cousins, family, friends. So they all went on the journey with me because this was an hour journey. And we assumed that the most difficult part of the journey was behind us, right? When we got there, it wasn't. I completely struggled my freshman year. I struggled academically, socially, financially, emotionally, and every other advert that you can think of. And I was in danger. In danger of dropping out, I didn't drop out because of two black women on my campus. One was a dean of students and the other one was my major professor who said, not on my watch. You were gonna do this, you were not going to become a statistic and we're gonna make sure that you earned that degree. So it was their persistence and perseverance, the fact that they tethered their lives to mine and the support of my family, the support of some amazing peers and friends that I had on that campus, that's how I was able to make it. And so for me, this work is very personal because I reflect back on my journey all the time that if it wasn't by happenstance, if it wasn't for the support that I received, I wouldn't have been able to make it. And so it's been an incredible journey for me to make sure that the challenges that almost threatened to derail my college experience don't stand in the way of other students with backgrounds and stories similar to mine. Thank you, Alex. I'm curious, you gave a TED Talk where you talked about what we really mean when we say college isn't for everyone. And I will not ask you to repeat said TED Talk here, but I'm curious if you could speak to what that means in terms of an understanding about what that's about and also connect that to the issue of general educational equity. Sure, I mean, just the Twitter version or the tweet version of it, right? Is that we often ask that question, like is college for everyone? And in my experience, that's not really the question that we're asking, right? What we're really asking is, is college for those students, right? And so for me, that's the challenge when we sit in these rooms and we're having this conversation. I think the rising cost of higher education leads to legitimate questions about the ROI. So I certainly don't mean to suggest that those aren't legitimate questions, but often when we're asking that question, it's about a specific and a particular group of students. And we talk about living in this degree agnostic society. We certainly don't. A college degree is still the credential, right? It's still the credential and validation in this country. And so I'm always struck that when we ask that question, it's in rooms full of people who have college degrees and advanced degrees and who have done a whole bunch of other things, right? And who clearly have benefited from having a degree and we're turning around and saying, well, do those kids need to have that? Do those kids need to have that degree? And so the punchline is, I think it is a very dangerous conversation for us to keep having in rooms full of people who have college degrees, with the benefit of hindsight and the privilege of choice to have that conversation without the voices of those who are living the alternative. So again, I'm offered asking the question, but it's often very, very laden with the, we're talking about those kids and those kids tend to be black and brown kids. When you talk about, quote unquote, those kids, right? We're thinking about folks who have dealt with lots of different challenges that have been in the way of getting to and through college. And so I'm curious if you could bring us into, based on your experience and the work that you do, what are some of the things that kids who have been facing those obstacles are dealing with right now? So I know many of the coaches who work for Beyond 12 are already helping kids who are thinking about financial issues and thinking about what are the other different things that are trying to kind of make it tough. What are the things that people should know are now an issue related to COVID? Yeah, so I'll answer that question by just starting with the like, what's the data foundation for the inequity that we're talking about? So going back to this, even though we're sending more and more students to college, only 9% of students from the lowest income quartile can expect to earn a bachelor's degree by their mid 20s versus 77% of their higher income peers. African-American students earn bachelor's degrees at one half and Latinx students at one third the rate of their white peers. So that's the degree divide that we're talking about. And we know that a college degree is one proven path out of poverty for many of our families. So that's the sort of foundation. And so the challenge for the students that we've been serving have been financial, they've been academic, they've been sort of social and emotional, and they've been around their networks. And so what we're seeing right now is that those challenges are just amplified. For many of the students that we are serving, their college wasn't just a place where they were going to get lectures, right? Like their campus is their primary place of security. So stable housing, stable food, access to healthcare, access to work, through work study. And so what's happened in this pandemic is campuses have closed, right? A real solution to help with the stop, spread the curve of the virus. What that means is that it displaced a lot of our students. We, like many of you have talked about, we've been surveying and talking to students. So 97,000 students across the country on our platform, we reached out to them and said, tell us what you're worried about. And so one of our students responded with, I am worried about completing my coursework, but now I am homeless. And I have to go to Starbucks to be able to have access to Wi-Fi. And so those are the real challenges that we're talking about. When Brittany was talking about basic needs and filling the gap, that's the reality that our students need access to basic needs and our students are struggling. And on top of that, we're adding the expectations that they're gonna be able to do distance learning, that they're gonna be able to continue to do their coursework, right? That they're going to be able to continue to show up in the way that we're expecting lots of students to show up, but those are the gaps. Those are the gaps that we're seeing and the gaps of our education system, the inequities are just being amplified right now, right? So I think all of us have talked about this. This is not, this is nothing new. We knew that these things existed before and it's interesting for me when we have this conversation about like these systems, these are poking and it's highlighting the broken system. I think we've all said this as well, systems achieve the outcomes that they're designed to achieve, these systems haven't been broken. They were deliberately created to prevent success for the students that we're serving. So this is an opportunity as I see it to dismantle those systems and to create something new. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. The systems are working just as intended, right? And so I think that that's a really great point that you're bringing up. I'm curious, you have shared some specifics about people who were enrolled and then some of the experiences of what it's like now to be displaced. Can you tell us a little bit on the right and the left of that which is kids who are maybe trying to figure out maybe they're high school seniors, as well as on the other end who are college seniors and are thinking about, okay, I'm looking for a job now and we are literally about to be in a place where there are no jobs for anyone. So what are both of those sides looking like? Yeah, absolutely. On the, you know, what we traditionally call the college access side, students are struggling. They don't have information, right? To be able to make a decision. It's a big financial decision for them to make and they don't have access to enough information to be able to make those decisions. We've seen the significant reduction and drop in FAFSA completion rates for March and April and FAFSA is the federal financial aid form, right? That allows us to distribute both federal dollars as well as institutional dollars. And so if students aren't completing this paperwork, I think that that's a pretty accurate reflection of what's going to happen in the fall as our students are supposed to transition from high school to college, right? So students have lots of questions. Do I go, is the campus even going to be open? This big ticket, this price that we're talking about, am I paying that for distance learning, right? And so the campus isn't going to be open. Am I signing up for this big ticket item in the age of COVID and the age of distance learning, right? So there are lots of questions and not a lot of information because colleges, yes, understandably they're struggling to answer some of these questions themselves, but our students do not have the luxury and the privilege of waiting until the last minute to make these decisions. And so they're not getting clear and accurate information. Their families aren't getting clear and accurate information about how this is going to impact the choices that they have to make and what I fear is going to happen is that students are going to delay those choices and those decisions and also trying to navigate an employment market as you talked about, right? That is going to not sustain their expectations in terms of the economic security of themselves and their families. So that's what's happening on the college access end. And then on the other side, we've seen the statistics already, right? So only 25% of the close to 1.2 million first generation low income students that are in college actually have access to either a high quality job as they're graduating or are going to graduate school. So that's a big gap. And we know that that gap is going to be exacerbated. So students are wondering, okay, do I stay in school so that I prevent going into the job market, right? Like access and entry into the job market in this time because I know that I'm not going to be able to find a job now. So what are the options available to me? I am earning this degree and I'm going to be expected to pay this degree and to start paying on those student loans without access to an opportunity that allows me to make those payments. And so the struggle on the other end is am I going to be able to translate this degree into meaningful employment that we know leads to me having a choice filled life? So that's sort of the other end of it. It's both students who are entering, but the big challenge, I think that they're all experiencing is just lack of information that they can use as the foundation to make these big life decisions. Education is indeed that one reliable way that is supposed to make it such that you can get a family-supporting wage, that you can be able to thrive, that you can be able to make it. I mean, you talked about your family feeling like they won the lottery. But then you also showed us that it doesn't necessarily end there. That's not the hardest part of the work. And so finding ourselves in a situation now where there are so many young people who are kind of partway through this process and wondering like how am I going to pay for it? Is it going to reap the rewards that I was hoping? And then also that piece of are as many young people going to kind of take the steps, the FAFSA and other things that will allow them to access that type of education before we even get to anything else. So I'm curious, Beyond 12 has a lot of different resources that you guys have newly put out. Can you tell us a little bit about what those look like and what you're hoping that they will accomplish? Yeah, and the resources for us come from a perspective that we ask students what they need. We went to students directly. So it's really sort of informed by having heard from about 1500 students or so who are current college students and asking them to tell us like what are the things that they need? And they talked about the challenge in three ways. We need access to money, like straight up cash like quickly without having to jump through hoops, without having to demonstrate that somehow we are worthy of this financial support. So we need access to cash to be able to address those unexpected and unplanned expenses that are happening right now as a result of these campus closures and that they're displaced. So that's the one thing. And can you get us access to that capital really quickly? One, the second one is that they need to access to high quality information and resources. They're getting just bombarded with messages that are coming from all over the place, not just about the impact of the pandemic physically on them, but about those questions like is federal aid available to me? And we just discovered or found out that federal aid is not available to DACA students. And so what does that mean for me in terms of accessing those resources? What about repayment? What does that look like? So it's just access to high quality information that they can trust so that they can make those decisions. And then the third is, and this is gonna be sound interesting from an organization that calls itself a high tech, high touch organization, they still need access to humans, right? And so we have these tools and everybody's talking about how to optimize Zoom and that's great, but they still need guidance. And so where as before they could have walked into the financial aid office and said, hey, my dad just got laid off. And so I have a very different financial need, right? And I had before this crisis, they can't do that nor is anyone picking up the phone, right? And some of those financial aid offices. So they still need guidance, they still need access to a human who is going to help them think about their opportunities or their choices and help them act from that place of understanding. So in response to that, we just launched three different things. So we launched an emergency student relief fund where we are dispersing micro scholarships to students to help them access or to help them address some of the unplanned financial challenges. And it really is we trust you, there's a global pandemic, right? You tell us what you need and we will do those disbursements quickly and efficiently and effectively. The second one is that we launched a student resource guide. And so it's on our website again and attempt to curate high quality information. We may not have all of the answers but we're partnering with lots of organizations and content creators and resources to be able to put those resources in one single location. And then the third is we're extending our virtual coaching model. So we've already been working virtually students have been accessing our coaches. We've launched a COVID-19 virtual coaching core so that any first generation college student across the country can call our coaches and have access and be able to connect with coaches via text, email and video chat. So we're hoping that that helps to at least alleviate some of the disruptions that students are facing as we think about what recovery is going to look like and as we think about the long-term plans. That's amazing and so critical. I'm looking at the time and I wanna make sure that there's an opportunity to have both some of the questions of those who are participating as well as any questions that you guys may have for each other or anything that you may have found that you were inspired by a statement you were inspired by and you wanna comment on. So to that end, I want to first just read one of the questions that I see here and then I would love for you to also just be thinking of the different things that you might wanna ask each other. So this question asks about teaching, the teaching as a profession. I imagine lots of parents will come out of this with a new appreciation for teaching. Is there anything being done to catalyze the movement for educators and the advancement of the profession? Locally, statewide, nationally, oh, heard of me. Where is there some sort of organization or some sort of means to catalyze the enthusiasm for the teaching profession? Or do you have ideas that might catalyze the movement? Is this, I'm sorry if I missed it, is this for a particular person? Anybody? It is not, and I should have said that. It is for anyone who has ideas about how we might use this excitement for, oh my gosh, teachers need to be paid so much more and this appreciation and move it into something that's more of a movement. I mean, I will say I am not currently aware of it and I always believe that the gaps we see are the ones we're meant to fill. So if that is on your heart and mind, then it sounds like it's time to start talking to some other parents and your children's educators and figure out how to get that off the ground because it is necessary. I would agree, I think the challenge, to address the challenge, you have to get it into the policy makers, the governors, the, you know, superintendents of education for the states and say it's unacceptable for the people that are educating future generations for them to not get paid as much as lawyers and doctors and guess what, they're training those future lawyers and doctors so to not pay them in that level and to just assume the teaching profession is something that just is and they should do their job, you have to put a face to it. Hopefully enough people are now understanding it's not as simple as you think to have a child read and learn even for 30 minutes, let alone four or five hours. So hopefully that reality check pushes some people who have influence and power to then make the change. And then for people to, and even if you don't have influence and power using your voice to say, we need to make a change because I just experienced something that showed me the reality that I wasn't aware of for all these years and now we need to make a change moving forward. Okay. Are there any questions that you have? Oh, sorry, Adam, I was trying to say something. I mean, I just, because I live in California and we know our sort of ballot issues, I'm saying if somebody wants to work on a ballot right now, measure to increase teacher salary, now's the time to do it, right? Because people are experiencing the pain points and I think people are, I've heard the memes or I've seen the memes that I've heard people talk about this. I think that there is potentially a policy and political opportunity available at least in our state right in this moment. And I would say along those lines, you know, in November, the schools and community first ballot, it first measure will be on that, will be on the November ballot and it's gonna be more important than ever actually for folks to come out and support that. Because what schools and communities first does is put a huge infusion of billions of dollars that are new, that's new money into the public education system in California and that infusion is going to be needed now more than ever. Many of you have already shared some really great resources and tools, made great suggestions of things that people should be doing. Are there any others that you didn't get a chance to share in terms of where you would point people, in terms of things that they should be looking to or ways that you want people to kind of show up? One other thing that I think is just important to know is happening that I don't know if folks are aware of is that actually next Tuesday, there is a hearing around a bill called ACA 5, which is a proposition that if put on the November ballot would, right now we have Prop 209, which makes it illegal in the state of California to use affirmative action, are to target resources to schools or colleges based on race. However, with the coronavirus, we know that black communities and Latinx communities have been disproportionately impacted, but actually we don't have legally right now the means to be able to target resources by race. So I would actually encourage folks to reach out to the folks who are committee members, who will be listening to a hearing around that on next Tuesday, and if it makes it through that committee to support that measure ACA 5 on the ballot in November, because it's another important way that to the point around equity, we have to target the resources to the folks that need it most. And that means that we will need to be able to do that as the state by supporting ACA 5 as well. Fantastic. Are there any questions that you guys have for each other? If you're still thinking, I have one that I was gonna ask you on. So one, when we were talking earlier, you mentioned this piece about kind of different ways in which different sectors can show up in this moment. And I was curious, if you think about the business sector specifically, what is it that you might hope that they are thinking about ways in which they are kind of planning as it relates to the workforce and hiring? Or what would you want them to do in terms of thinking about that? I mean, even before this started, businesses need to look at their hiring practices, specifically for African-Americans and Latinos. And then it's gonna be, so that was a problem before this started. I think now, because the influx of people who are looking for jobs is going to grow, is the perfect opportunity to say, okay, look, we should have done this, we didn't. But now let's take a look at how we're being very vigilant and not trying to fill a quota or something, but saying, look, we wanna look at applicants from a wide pool. We're not just gonna pick from Harvard and Stanford. We're gonna pick from all institutions. We're gonna look for people of quality. We're gonna take references in and we're gonna look to make sure that we're having, we're meeting the population that we serve and we're bringing in employees of value and we're not just kind of cream on the top. And I think they can use that by being intentional through that. Is the HR being intentional to say, we're gonna look at hiring practices and we're looking at diversity, we're gonna look at inclusion? And if they do that, before they, if they make that a part of like, they're planning now as they think about hiring post COVID or as COVID kind of as the new phase three, as they say out here, phase three kicks in and you look at opening businesses back and other entities. They think about it now, they can then institute those changes when they come about. Workforces in California is very different for many different ways, but they have so many challenges around hiring. So look within yourself. It's just the same thing people are doing right now with their educating kids or online learning or online meetings. Well, guess what? You can look at your practices within your business right now and make changes as you move forward in the future. And so I think that opportunity presents itself just businesses have to do it. Autumn, can I add something just very technical while for businesses? What we're hearing is a lot of folks are canceling their paid internships, you know, for students this summer. So just as something very tactical do not cancel those internships, right? I know that virtual management can be difficult but you're finding a way to do it for your regular workforce right now. A lot of our students are depending on those internships. For, you know, we've talked about the economic justice issue of already but like they are depending on those paid internships. So I would like to encourage our business partners and the business community to continue to get creative about how you can honor the commitments that you've already made to students, particularly first generation students, particularly students who are from under-resourced communities because those cancellations are having an impact. They're having a significant impact on students and their families. Thank you for that, because I think that's an important call and statement to be made. I am so grateful to all of you. I have learned so much during this conversation and I absolutely have to second this idea of all of us getting together for a bunch. I would love for you all to just take a moment to kind of say your last word. Of course it does not have to be one word but what is the kind of send-off that you would like to share as your kind of final words for this period of time? I think that for me, my final word is what I continue to repeat, not just during this conversation but literally every conversation I have. There are so many of us to Alex's point earlier about the privilege that we hold in the spaces that we occupy. There are so many people who can only focus on surviving today, whether that is trying to stay safe because they are an essential worker and are potentially coming into contact with this disease, whether it is trying to figure out how to pay all of their bills because they're suddenly finding themselves on unemployment, whether they're experiencing food insecurity, whether they are sheltering in place in a place that's actually not safe for them. There are so many people who do not have the privilege that so many of us enjoy to actually look ahead and figure out what the future can look like. There are people who are just trying to survive today. So if one of the greatest privileges there is is to be able to be forward looking in future thinking, then it's our responsibility to do that and again to have an unprecedented imagination during this time. So I'm grateful for this conversation. I'm grateful for all the things that I've learned and been provoked to think about listening to the other panelists and I would just encourage all of us to remain said fast in spending the privilege that we do have to make sure that we are not just helping people survive right now, but that we are actually building a better tomorrow for the future. Thank you, Brittany. Thank you so much for saying that Brittany and I just wanna sort of double click on that and add to that, which is that we've talked about these systems, we've known that these systems haven't worked and haven't operated as they should for black and brown students. And so let's not lose this opportunity. So many people are talking about going back to normal, right? That that's the recovery plan. I hope we use this as an opportunity to never go back to normal. We can't afford to go back to normal. And if that's the one thing we do in this moment, I know that there's a lot of suffering happen. And so I say this with a lot of humility and a lot of grace and a lot of compassion for the folks who are suffering right now who have to focus as Brittany said on the immediate. But for those of us who can, let's not go back to business as normal and use this as an opportunity to rebuild these systems so that they are deliberately and specifically designed to create equitable outcomes for all, because the current systems definitely were not. And I just cosign everything that Brittany and Alex laid out. And the only thing that I would add or really just emphasize, I guess put an exclamation point on is in redesigning and creating something new that works better, we have to be in deep partnership with students and parents and communities. And I would say the more that folks can be listening like never before, and then not just listening, but actually implementing what students are saying they need, what families are saying they need and making sure that the new change reflects that, then we'll be a powerful force together moving forward. Not much to add. I mean, I can't top any of that stuff, honestly. I'll switch the tone, just a tick here and say, and this is for everyone here who's parents and for all the people who are bringing their kids up and just for everyone, it starts with relationships and it starts with love. And I think that's the reboot of everything. And if you build that, that's your foundation. You can grow anything. And from that relationship and that love, you start with a simple question, how can I help? And that's businesses, that's to your own kids, that's to your asking for support, how can I help? And if you start with that mindset versus just, I'm gonna do whatever, how can I help? Guess what, that five-year-old's gonna tell you how you can help them, just like that CEO of a business can tell you how you can help them. So start with that question and start with love and everything else will be okay. All right, I think the only thing I would add to that is that, let us not squander a crisis, right? And it reminds me of my old gospel choir days in college, you know, the song, no, no, no, I won't go back, no, no, I won't go back. And then also that piece that Whitney said, which is this, she probably said it differently, but the radical imagination that's necessary to make sure we never go back. So thank you all for your time. Thank you all for joining us. And thank you all who are logged on. And I'll be following up with an email with some of the different points that you've heard here as well as some of the resources in those links. Thanks again, everyone.