 Let me start with our really moderator who's helping us think through this panel today. Michael Nakula is the chair of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the Graduate School of Education University of Pennsylvania. His teaching and research focus on the development of resilience and the promotion of possibility development among low-income children and youth. He's particularly interested in integration of counseling, mentoring, and educational processes in urban schools to create contexts that allow students to thrive in school and during their transition to higher education and career opportunities. He's the co-author of the game-changing book, Understanding Youth, Adolescent Development for Educators. And it's an interesting topic because typically we don't put those things together. So we're encouraged that he's helping us think through this. And then we've got three dynamic young people with us today. And I get excited because this is really what our work is about. At the end of the day, as Marion said yesterday, she said, put the baby in the middle. Well, they're not quite babies, but put the student in the middle. Alexia Lane is a senior at Benjamin Bannaker Academic High School in Washington, D.C. She assisted in the planning the annual one-mic hip-hop festival at the Kennedy Center through her participation on the Youth Leadership Committee. She's performed at numerous venues including Atlas, The Ark, and the Kennedy Center. So if you're from D.C., these are all kind of the cool places in town. As Alexia considers her post-secondary plan, she is torn between pursuing a degree in speech pathology versus a communications degree. David Peake is a sophomore and communications scholar at Georgetown University. He's born and raised in Inglewood, a community on the south side of Chicago, where he attended urban prep in all male charter school. He graduated valedictorian and came to Georgetown University, where he intends to major in justice and peace studies. He is interested in practicing law as a career. Austin Shaw is a senior at Greenberg Salem High School in southwest Pennsylvania. He's a four-sports athlete and participates as a student leader with the consortium for public education and development of something called EMAPS, Electronic My Action Plan for Success. Maybe he'll tell us what that is. Austin plans to attend college, pursue a degree in business and finance. So with that, I leave you to this panel. Thank you so much. Good morning. What a pleasure to be here and have an opportunity to talk with our students as opposed to about our students. So we'll be hearing a number of things from each of the panelists this morning that have to do with a few concepts that I'd like to highlight as perhaps listening guides for us and interaction guides for us. And they are engagement, motivation, and student voice. These three concepts are so critical. If you look at the optimal development literature right now in adolescence and young adulthood, you'll see some version of these three concepts in all of that work. So the engagement concept goes something like this. What are the activities or pursuits that people engage in that help foster a deeper sense of motivation to achieve and get better? So what are the types of activities people engage in that tend to be most productive for promoting achievement motivation and motivation to succeed in general? And what is achievement motivation? So perhaps the literature that you're most familiar with is that that focuses on mindset that suggests students with a mindset oriented toward effort and the belief that their efforts will allow them to succeed are more likely to succeed. There was a bit of a discussion yesterday on how murky social science research is, and I couldn't agree with that more, but one of the things we've learned in educational research and in human development research is that the mindset one holds towards success is a strong predictor of success down the road, and that mindset work generally goes as follows. If you believe that your success is more anchored in hard work versus innate ability, you're more likely to persist and ultimately succeed. So I think we're going to hear stories of that type of mindset in our discussion today. And finally, student voice. How do engagement and motivation strategies get voiced by students? How do students find their voice, what they feel committed to, enough to articulate and stand up for themselves, stand up for others, and really play a role as not just learners, but educational leaders, educational leaders in their own lives and educational leaders in their communities. So we'll hear a little bit about that today. I want to, before we jump into our panel discussion here, I want to see if we can get a word from Joe Grokmal. Joe, are you in the room? Joe, where are you? Could you stand up, Joe? Joe represents something that we're talking about today. He is a student leader on his team. The colleagues around the table draw on Joe's expertise to do some of the work they're doing with their district, and that epitomizes what we're working toward with young people, really taking a meaningful, active role as a change agent. Joe, a word before we get going with the panel. What allowed you to participate in this group? Well, I guess I was contacted by the group originally, and to be honest, when you're called into the office of a teacher or had before it, truly is a harrowing experience. And to be quite frank, a trip to Washington and to be able to go to this wonderful conference was not what I was expecting. But I'm really happy to be here, and I tell you what, it's so often today we see where students are unable to voice their concerns or their beliefs or their hopes for the future. And I believe that, fortunately, my group was able to bring me along, and I'm really happy to be here. But I assure you that even though students don't necessarily always have the opportunities to speak up, it's not for a lack of will. I can assure you that students within all of your districts, I guarantee you there's many students within your districts who would love to have a voice and to have an input into the affairs and into what the administration is working on. And as often as it's cliched that kids are bored by this sort of stuff, I'm intrigued by it. I know there's kids who love this stuff, who want a direct say into their education. And I challenge all of the different school groups here to when you go back home and when you start to present to the students and to the teachers what went on here, I ask that you look for students who are interested and engaged, and I hope you can continue to involve them in future work with your group. So thank you. For the record, Joe really is a student in his high school. He's not an actor we hired to play this role today. Thanks, Joe. Can you come up and moderate the panel now? I would like to get right into our discussion with the students. They have so much to share with us today and I would like perhaps to begin by picking up on a conversation we were having at breakfast, perhaps as a way of introducing yourself. So we'll go down the row here, beginning with Austin. I talked about engagement, motivation and voice and we were talking about that at the table. Austin, for you as you tell people who you are a little bit, what has been most engaging for you in your school experience? Well, good morning, everybody. What's been most engaging for me is through my school, I've been able to get opportunities like this. I've been really involved in presenting things such as EMAPs. And EMAPs is a program where students can basically make a profile like Facebook for their teachers to look and see what they're interested in, see what their skills are. So if a student doesn't know exactly what career they want to pursue, but they have skills such as reading and writing, for example, a teacher could say, well, why don't you look into journalism because you're good at reading, you're good at writing. So put two and two together. So through that, I've been, I've presented that to my whole entire school, all the students in it, the staff, and just that opportunity has engaged me. It's made me become more of a leader, and it's also helped me with public speaking, which I enjoy a lot. Thank you. Lexi, how about you? Good morning. I think one of the, what Austin touched on, public speaking, speaking has always been a talent slash passion slash what I'm good at. I think one of my biggest principles is teamwork, and that's really helped me get to where I am in my education, socially, just all over, really. Higher achievement really helped me. They provided me with this opportunity to be here today. So they were part, they're a really intricate part of my village that has helped me to get to where I am. So teamwork. Thank you. And David. Good morning, everybody. In terms of engagement, I definitely would say the group of mentors I had and still have to this day, they keep me engaged. You know, when I want to give up on Georgetown, because Georgetown is not the easiest school to go to. You know, they give me good advice. We were talking about at the table, you know, it's just the little things that help. Like when they send me emails, like, you know, how was your day? Like, how are you doing? How are classes? How is your family? It's just little things like that that, you know, motivate me to keep going. And when, like when I see people that, you know, care about me, I don't know, just it motivates me. It's very encouraging to have people who care and good mentors. David, you mentioned motivation and one of the questions that comes up frequently for students who go through the long process of their elementary school years, middle school years, high school years, and then move into college, there are going to be bumps in the road at certain times. And I'm curious what allowed you to, you talked about key people who helped you out. What else did your school do? We have a room full of educators and people interested in education. What did your school do, if anything, that helped deepen the motivation that you hold today to continue on with your education? My school, well of course, like you said, I had a lot of bumps in high school. At a point in time I actually was homeless. I can honestly say my teachers, like, stepping outside of that academic role, you know, doing more than just teaching me, you know, calculus, doing more than just teaching me English, you know, like actually like going more into like the social aspect. I had a couple teachers that, you know, even came to my house to visit me. I had teachers that always checked up on me, you know, teachers that were really concerned like outside of academics. So, you know, people being concerned more than, more about the academics than, you know, the social issue or having that balance, I feel like, helps out a lot. But you, Lexi? With my school, well my high school is 100% acceptance into college and 100% attendance into college. Vanneker is number one in D.C. for D.C. Cascores and college acceptance and attendance. So, we're very go to college and we have every instrument in place to make sure that we go to college. Not just, you know, like a little rinky dink, oh, you got to go to college but a real like four-year institution, you're going to go to college and then graduate from college. We have tutoring every single day after school even Fridays. We have our teachers are available well, our teachers are available when they're available because all of the students need help. We just have just tutoring. Tutoring is such a big part of my life in high school, especially I would say junior year, that Algebra 2 ooh Algebra 2 was a struggle and I was in tutoring with Miss Island my Algebra 2 teacher, I was in tutoring with a teacher that taught calculus but I needed to get a different teaching style so I went to him for academic help. Vanneker just, they're like you're going to college and they're like we're going to help you get into college so, yeah, they're very adamant on getting us into college. Now it's a little bit different, not just in my school but schools that are around us is they're not exactly pushing go to college for four years and get a degree. We have like a tech program and our administrators and principals and teachers kind of push some students in that direction to go to tech school and learn a specific skill and for example, there's a student that I was actually friends with and he went to school, I think it was for plumbing or something else and he came right out of high school and he's making $80,000 a year so, I mean, we kind of see that it's, we need both we need students that need to go to college for four years and get a degree but we also need students that need to get those skills that we need to do those other jobs. Yeah, I think it's interesting I guess I'll continue to stand so I have a mic to talk and engage with you guys but you have different pathways to where you are, you're also in different places in your education David's in his second year in college our other two students are transitioning and getting ready to go to college so they're on both both sides of an important life transition. I'd be curious to hear from you maybe starting with you David given that you have a couple years under your belt now at Georgetown what was in place for you to help you get there and what was needed once you arrived to help you stay and succeed? At Georgetown did a program called Community Scholars and it's essentially a program where you get to come for about six weeks you get two classes under your belt college courses that was pretty neat saves you money and yeah so with that program like I say you come for six weeks and you just get to learn the campus and you meet different faculty members so in being in a program like that and already having two classes under my belt and then by the time I got to campus I just felt very comfortable because I knew how the campus look I knew where the cafeteria was I didn't have to look for my dorm I knew a lot of the faculty members so that program it helped out a lot. People who talk about this process often frame it as sending supports what does the sending institution have in place to help students make that successful transition to college and then receiving supports if you have it on one end and not the other it tends not to be as effective as if you have that support on both sides of the transition either Lexie or Austin as you're thinking about the transition through high school and into college what supports are you drawing on in the school now to help you with that move? Support to get to college. Honestly we have at Bannocker we have alumni day where students are as young as the class that just graduated and students that graduated in like 19 they come back they they come back and tell us how much Bannocker prepared them for college like everybody from the class of 2014 has literally come back this week I think they're on like fall break but they've come back this week and they're telling us college is so easy like Bannocker is the highest form of education you will get because college is so easy once you get there we know how to write you know 20 page thesis papers we know how to not procrastinate procrastinating is a skill you have to learn not to acquire but but just the alumni always come back and tell us how easy the skills they learned how easy college is because of the skills we practice at Bannocker and so it's encouraging to me as a senior because right now I feel like a duck you know I'm pretty up here but feet under water kicking you know with the college applications but I think it's reassuring to know that my friends that have graduated are coming back and telling me that the schools that I'm interested are actually easy not well easy but they're just not struggling you know in terms of their transition and their freshman year in college so it's encouraging to know I assume a sense of humor will be a coping strategy Lexi will use to get through the stressors of college, Austin at my school the teachers are the ones that are really supporting myself and the other students I mean we only have two guidance counselors in my school which has about a thousand students so I mean that's kind of hard and the teachers there are always just finding ways to talk to the students and every day I get a question how's college looking have you applied yet have you got your essays done and I think that teachers whenever they drop it down to a personal level that's the most supportive way it's almost like they're being a parent to us as students so you feel like you're being reached out to as a real person not just a student transitioning to college we hear that from students all the time if they feel understood by the people in their learning environment they feel like they have more to offer and more motivated to contribute let me frame the next question this way you have all these people who you have an opportunity to deliver a message to part of what we're talking about at the conference is the role of student voice how important that is you have a voice here at this conference what are a couple of key messages you would like to deliver to this room of educators I think students excel whenever they have a choice whenever teachers produce an opportunity for a kid to show that he or she has learned something without them having a multiple choice test in front of them or writing an essay I believe that whenever a student is able to go in for example in my tenth grade English class we read a novel and my teacher said show me that you understood this novel and that's really all he said there was a girl who came back and she played a four minute song on her flute that basically told the whole story and it was insane I couldn't believe it happened how she did it there's another girl who created a poster using phone emojis with the smiley face here then it got real sad then a fire happened she got it and she showed it and it was something completely outside the box and then myself I enjoy writing and excel in writing so I just wrote an essay or a story about it and it really showed who got the novel and who didn't and it also helped students really try hard and work on the project otherwise if they said okay you need to do it this way some students would be like oh I'm not really good at that so this gave them all the opportunity to do something they were good at and show that they learned it in their own way fantastic Lexie or David do you want to chime in? Yes, piggybacking on to what Austin said about choice it's everything me personally as a student I'm like a butterfly like I need freedom I I work best through poetry I'm an artist and there for example there's a scholarship for DC DC cap and we're supposed to write an essay a wrap or a poem about why we want to go to college and my mom was like so you're getting this essay you're getting the scholarship right because if I'm allowed to write a poem about why I want to go to college I'm going to write the best poem I can because poetry is my passion college is what I want to do that's how I want to further my education so given that choice I'm going to excel I'm going to achieve so I definitely think the choice is everything when it comes to educating your students Great David I guess I would tell students one of my teachers I remember doing the college counseling process they told me David you like to do what's easy you need to do what's hard so I would tell students do what's hard because you know it's like lifting weights you don't lift your body weight you lift what's a little bit higher than you and when you lift that you get stronger if you do what's easy you're not going to get anywhere you need to do what's hard because anything in life that's worth it it's not going to be easy if you're transitioning to college I would tell them don't settle if you see an opportunity that you know you have to challenge yourself in like me going to Georgetown I know going to Georgetown I'm lifting weights every day with my brain it's hard do what's hard don't do it's easy What would you say to teachers who encounter students who don't want to do the mental weight lifting you're talking about I'm thinking about my middle school son by the way and taking notes on this how can teachers help students push through they're used the word Lexi used the word procrastination earlier something I specialize in to a degree we all have feel limited in different ways at different times how can educators help students push a little beyond that and get to where you know you folks are going I mean I think that they can help like Lexi Lexi said she's motivated through the music like poetry and stuff you have to find what that student is motivated in I also like music so if a teacher tells me do a project on music I'm going to do my best on that because that's what I love so you have to connect with them like Austin said on a personal level first and find what they really like what they're about and then after you connect on that personal level find their talents and gifts you find like some way to correlate it to the classroom to keep them excited and keep them engaged fantastic yeah how about you Austin and Lexi recommendations for how to help students push through their limits I say definitely don't give up on them and don't let them quit one thing my principal has been saying is there's parents that call in and say hey can you take my son or daughter out of this class and he strongly believes that they need to stay in that struggle and find a way to push through it because if they do go to college I mean they can quit but that will be costing them a lot of money so I mean we do believe that it's better to challenge yourself than to just give up on that challenge and when students see that teachers are interested in helping them and helping them get through it and push through it makes them actually want to get through it instead of just quitting fantastic so it's achievement is really again it's back to a team effort when you feel the teacher really understands who you are and you feel more motivated to persist yeah Lexi I had the opportunity to cover the raise up project at the Kennedy Center and basically the raise up project talks about the high rate of high school dropout and not furthering your education for different reasons and I guess one of the main themes was how to keep our students engaged how to keep them motivated and how to keep them from dropping out and from checking out and I think when a really big problem is when teachers see that their students are checking out they start to think oh let me not waste my time and they check out on the student so I really back to going on a personal level I think teaching conventionally just educating at your students is not it's out the window we need to get on the same playing field level with your students really try to it's all about perception try to see things from where they're coming from take their background into consideration I know that teachers can't be in the homes but sometimes when you understand what's going on at home what's going on outside of the classroom it definitely affects what's happening inside the classroom Fantastic Let me follow up with that one of the things that new teachers are people who are training to be teachers often say is well I understand that it's important to get to know your students and to build some sort of connection but I have anywhere from 100 to 150 students a day I can't get to know all of them can I so can educators get to know all their students is that a realistic goal for us how do you see that sort of reaction from some new teachers There's 180 days in the school year so yep I mean it's not the easiest job I mean you guys have to deal with there's the good apples and there's the bad apples but there is time to find something to connect with every single student you see them every single day you don't have to focus on one student or two students can talk to them all I mean just try to connect with them Fantastic How about you Lexi Like Austin said there are there's plenty time throughout the school day to get to know your students and we're not saying you know know everything about you know be their best friend but definitely get an idea of what interests them what their passion is what they try what they shy away from what they shy away from is what you should be pushing at them because you know clams don't just produce pearls because they don't struggle to you know to like that little piece of sand right pearls are made of sand right they don't they don't just like sit there and they're like oh I'm not gonna struggle with it they struggle with that piece of sand and then it's a pearl like yeah you should definitely know your students so be be with them in the struggle make pearls be with them David anything you want to add to that I mean you guys pretty much summed it up well yeah there is time you know I do see that as a I guess like valid reason you know there are a lot of students but I feel like with some students like you can connect with all of them but with some students you have to connect even more of course you're not gonna have to you know go outside with all of them but with some of them you do but not with all of them but you should try to connect at least like you know like a little ice breaker you know where you from like what do you like to do and I don't know maybe hold like some hours after school for them just to talk to you not just about academics you know what's going on socially because I feel like part of being a teacher is not just you know teaching is also being a mentor because you know a lot of students at least for me like coming in high school like I didn't I didn't really have mentors like I didn't even think about college but you know having teachers that went outside of their way to connect with all of us really helped and it you know when you connect with them you know some students it makes them you know come to you like after I saw my teachers you know made a point to connect with everybody I stepped outside of my bounds because they stepped outside of their bounds and you know we created good relationship that's incredible think about think about the journey of coming into high school with no thought of college feeling like you have no mentors and now being a second year student at Georgetown coming from the city of Chicago that's a big trip and takes a lot of work on the students part literally in Washington DC can be a trip in and of itself let me ask you one more thing and I would be great to get some questions from the audience for our panel but Lexi mentioned to quote a famous educator up here I need freedom right she said I need freedom I'm the kind of person who needs freedom I have to be able to choose and at the same time you said your school is so highly structured you have no choice but to go to college if I didn't go to college I'm not sure what would happen to me so how do you blend the need for structure and support in the need for freedom any ideas about any of the panelists can talk about that that's a tough one the need for structure because you've all talked about having when we talked about this yesterday at the convening there are the notion of infrastructure you have to have things in place to help you get to where you want to go and the Banneker school for example has a lot of infrastructure for getting to college so they give you a lot of guidance but at the same time students do want freedom how do you think about that relationship between the need for support and the need for freedom now I kind of understand why I couldn't answer that and I think it's because I do have the freedom at my school like we had a conference call earlier this month and we kind of talked about our classes and our school and Lexi told me that she was given her schedule and she really could only pick one class and that was just kind of like oh like really like I get to pick every single one of my classes and our school makes it work for us we say we want this this and this and they say okay you have it this time and this time and I think that's really beneficial to me because I can pick what it's almost like I'm going in the direction that I want to in high school instead of waiting until college so I can take my business classes now instead of having to take all the core classes so fantastic Lexi David like Austin said at the beginning of the school year last year we were able to test into our AP classes I tested into three and on my schedule this year I only have one and the discrepancy was that the classes were only offered at certain times and in relation to everybody else's schedule you had to pick which one was most important out of three so I picked AP literature because words are my thing and it was kind of like I had to drop AP US government and yes another class I can't it's not even on my schedule I can't remember but it was it's more like you have to pick and choose what you really want and I know in life you can't always get everything you want and you do have to make those decisions to you know wait one option over the other and I think I even though I was kind of given you know which one do you want I wish I could get all three I wish I could have gotten the two the most important two that I wanted and Banneker is structured to get you into college and they give you your classes it's because they know what you're going to excel in I wish I didn't have to compromise like Austin he gets to pick everything he wants so he knows he's interested in all the classes that he's taking and it's kind of like I was given an ultimatum so in terms of just giving students a choice you want them to choose everything yeah I mean I had eight classes and I had trouble picking all of them like I wish I had more just think about what she has to get through we'll make more for you I think the student voice comes into play a lot because I had a similar background to Lexi I went to all meals charter school in Chicago it was pretty much you know when you come in a door you know this school is going to get me into college like I'm going to college to graduate we had to have I think probably like two two or three college acceptance is we couldn't even graduate without a college acceptance into a four year university if you didn't have that if you weren't you pretty much had to transfer and I think the student voice comes into play when you let students tell you you're not doing this right and to get us into college I think we should look more into this and as students at my school we did that I was a part of the student government association and we put a lot of things together and actually like set with the principal okay I think we should have this event and then you have to realize when you do have it set up okay you're going to college you can stipulate that but you can't set boundaries within that you can't say alright you're going to college you're going to do it this way they have free will to to get that you have to let students create their own path like for me I had to create my own path for all my friends we all created our own different paths so even though like we were I guess like in bound even though like we you know they set that stipulation for us we could go about it in different ways so that's great because so many new college students get lost after the high structure in some cases of high school and the relative freedom of college because of the experience to make tough decisions that can really get lost in that process why don't we open it up you have a great panel of advisors respondents questions for the panel from the audience we have a microphone coming around first of all to all three of you all you awesome it's great to hear each one of you speak and you should be very proud of where you're at and where you're going and if any of the three of you want to further your education in Kentucky we'll find a place for you there's a stop at the University of Pennsylvania okay I want to direct this to Austin but all three students can certainly respond but Austin when you were introduced you were introduced as a four sport athlete so I'd like to hear your thoughts about extracurriculars and how that's impacted your success in school tell us what you play and what positions are and also tell us how that's impacted you as a student that's a really good question because I wrestle so and I cut a lot of weight the past couple years so I mean that's a struggle being tired all the time and having classes and all that I also I play baseball shortstop the kid who actually played in front of me last year got a full ride to Virginia Tech so I mean there's that I I played my first year of soccer this year and I was a forward and captain so I enjoyed that I mean that was fun and I also kick for the football team so I have a lot going on and I'm also one of the co-leaders of my student section so I mean I have games four nights a week and I'm going that other night I'm going to see my classmates play and still trying to balance these other classes you know so one thing that's really convenient at my school is we have an hour and a half for classes so I mean I can get my homework done in school I have the time to do everything and if I don't some teachers are very accepting and they understand how much I have on my plate at the time you know what I mean so I say to you guys as teachers to really get to know your students as I've been saying because unless you know them you don't really understand what's going on with them behind the scenes at home they could have some really bad problems going on or they could be dealing with like wrestling and losing weight all the time and not eating and playing sports and just doing everything and getting involved so I mean one more thing that I think is very important is to understand the leaders in your schools and tell them to get the students who are just sitting around who aren't going above and beyond the students that aren't going out to the football games the students that aren't joining clubs and SCA I think it's important to find those leaders and tell them to pass down their powers I guess because especially at my school this year we've been really trying to preach to these kids to get involved because it's not they're missing out I mean I'm having so much fun my senior year I love watching all my classmates play sports and I go to school every day and I have fun in my classes so really just try to make school fun for your students Austin just a follow up question to that when you as a leader in your school reaching out to the students who aren't doing as much do you find that it's effective can you be effective with them to some yes I mean we try to have meetings for our student section in specifics and we're trying to just get these younger kids who are scared to you know go out and be with these upperclassmen and we're just trying to find ways for them to be comfortable and something that we implemented last year in our school we called it advisory and that's a class where for a half hour a week we have roughly 25 percent upperclassmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors they all go into one classroom the same classroom every week with their advisor teacher and they just converse and try to build character, leadership, scholarship and service so it's a way to kind of build all of that and then also help connect your lower classmen with your upperclassmen and try to get them involved in doing more things we'll be looking for a school reform plan from you Lexi or David do you want to add to that to touch on the role of extracurriculars in your school life all of my extracurricular activities have nothing to do with school because my mom has always told me you're one person in school and then you have to be well-rounded everywhere else too. I write and model for Love Girls magazine I just came last night from hosting the Love Awards 2014 and I was honored with the editorial award what else I am in fresh females representing every side of hip hop through them I got to perform at the Atlas, at the ARC, at the Kennedy Center I studied dance for 13 years I got to perform at Martha's Vineyard what else I do poetry with words, beats and life my extracurricular my extracurriculars are everywhere at school I'm an amnesty club I was on the journalism club last year I perform at the assemblies it's all over the place I just think that extracurriculars is just a big part of who you are as a student and it plays into homework because then you got to find time to do your homework you got to find time to study and then you know still get that 3.5 so it's all that but I think also being a leader you don't know nox but Austin is a leader in his school I am a leader in my community if that makes sense I don't necessarily have a title of leadership at my school but I definitely recruit girls to write for the magazine I definitely recruit girls to come to fresh to be a part of that sisterhood to have enriching experiences outside of school inside of school encourage girls to you know perform on stage to not be scared about you know what people are going to tell you or how they're going to react to you so I think that being a leader in the community and in school is do it I'm developing an inferiority complex just being around me I got to get to work David anything you want to add I do think that extracurricular activities they definitely do help out I think extracurricular activities you know they're supposed to be outside of school like they connect the outside with the inside help you like you know become well rounded as a student like me I did track and field cross country so and I had like the same coach for both and my coach he actually played a very important role academically like for our team we had to keep at least like a 2.5 he came to me he said like yo you know you're smarter than that you got to keep a know to stay on this team what else did I do I did national honor society that was also very enriching help me out overall I got to you know tutor students in math science and you know like just connect with people also did poetry that helped me out a lot out you know like performing and stuff I like music I did the step team grew up in the church my mom was a minister was a deacon I don't know I sang in the choir so I don't know it definitely does help out like I said it connects the outside with that inside it just makes school funnier if that can happen I think that's so well said connecting the outside with the inside there were another question yeah someone asked this question about ed reform and I think I'll frame it this way you know David you're from Chicago a lot of stuff going on Chicago and public schools you know a mayor who is very contentious school closures opening charter schools I guess you had a charter school experience you know Alexa you are in elementary school probably when you had a superintendent here in Washington DC that was you know very contentious very controversial you know sort of in your face with educators you know Austin I don't know where Greenberg sale in high school is I don't know if it's near Philadelphia but Philadelphia is you know really struggling these days you know around the question of what should public education look like how does all that controversy and sort of drama you know among educators in their communities how does that affect you in your learning and how you think about schooling anybody who wants to take a shot okay I don't know if you've noticed I'm very theatrical so I take Walter drama my mom always keeps me focused always my village higher achievement my mentors outside of higher achievement have always kept me focused so whatever the school was doing if the school or the administration didn't have their act together my mom was like college my mentors are like you're going to the best college for you you know no matter what's going on up top you have to keep your focus you have to know what you want you have to set your short term goals your long term goals your ultimate goal as long as you're always working towards what you want to aspire to nothing else can faze you for the second time how about we take another question that was a great comprehensive answer yeah sorry I'll move around here so you can see me about right here okay thinking about your situation at your high schools and when you were there David as well if there were any concerns that you had did you feel like there was opportunity to express your concerns or voice your opinions and what mechanisms were there for you to be able to share that student voice for me personally we have a student voice like where there's selected students that we take in and we don't just take the leaders and we take students that we don't do much because they also want to hear their thoughts so there's student voice and a lot of the time it's just the teachers that are coming to me and asking me like what do I need help in what are you doing what are you up to so as we said anyone else want to respond to that question you make your own voice you have your own voice you have the right to exercise it you have the right to not exercise it me personally I go to my teachers door at lunch take my bag lunch and I go to my math teacher I go to my guidance counselor ask her about application fee waivers ask her did you send my transcript yet you know I'm trying to get into so I make sure that you hear me that you see me and you know my name if I saw you if I saw you coming I'd get busy all right David you want to add anything I mean like they both said the student voice does help out a lot I know at my school we had parent meetings where they talked about us and then we had student meetings where we talked about us and the principal he supervised it he took down notes and I also know that SGA the student government association we had at our school that played a big part in student voice like you know who we voted for like not just voting for our friends like voting for somebody that was actually gonna like stand up for us and make a change like we voted for one of my friends but we like actually like we're able to like voice our opinions on the school lunch because you know it's pretty yeah but we're able to change it so you know just small things like that right other questions does someone have a mic we can bring over I got the mic first I'm standing up quickly okay there you go first I want to say I've really enjoyed actually the past two conferences that I've been to there's been student panels which as a board member is really important so pay attention Superintendent Evans I want to I've actually quote I've tweeted Austin today you said something that was really important for me is that students excel when they have choice and I have a comment and then I do have a question for you all I know one thing that we're doing and I'm really talking to my superintendent on the side here because I really want a student voice at the board level I want someone to make sure that we're on point as adults making decisions about your education but you having that voice and so hearing that for me just continues to reiterate that and I will continue to take that back and say how dare we make policy and decisions about the future of education without having students at the table that's my comment my question is your junior seniors and sophomore in college if you could go back to your freshman and junior year what would you do differently and how would you do it myself personally I I probably would have focused a little bit more I mean I did struggle because I don't think I was ready for it honestly because I was playing sports and I was more focused on that and then kind of being accepted by everyone trying to be like the cool kid you know so there was all that going on and I was struggling in my classes and I don't think as a freshman I was getting as involved with my teachers as much I mean the teachers didn't know me as well and they didn't I don't think pursued to get to know me more so I think one thing I would have done more is got more in touch with my teachers because when I was struggling I don't think I really asked for help for anyone and I thought I really didn't because I didn't I didn't want to show anyone that I was struggling that's really why I didn't want to show my weaknesses and also a comment you do you have students on your school board is out you don't see our class president he's on he's ever there Zach he is he sits on our school board so he sits in on those meetings so I mean if that's an option for you guys it tends to work pretty well for us study study study study I developed my great studying habits junior and senior year self advocate you are your first best self advocate and then your mother is your best self advocate you're getting your mom so bad yes I think going back to the whole fitting in like my freshman year I was like oh I want to be a cheerleader and I'm going to be a cheerleader and I should have been you know a cheerleader and math you know like yeah just I think it's kind of like coming into yourself I think that always that happens in high school as you get you know towards your upperclassmen years and it's kind of like your first year you're struggling to fit in you're struggling to come out you know out of the eighth grade you're the top dog in eighth grade but then you're the bottom of the food chain in ninth grade so it's all of those factors into one study and another thing that my school does we have a senior mentoring program where we have some seniors that are the leaders and that sign up for this and they can go for freshman once every couple days and it just makes the freshman say like oh I can I'm close with this senior I feel comfortable with this senior I'm going to talk to the senior if I have a question that's great yeah I definitely would going back to my freshman year like they both said I will focus less on the social aspect because you know I thought a lot or paid a lot of attention to you know what my peers thought about me and didn't focus on my teachers to the extent that I should have and also on the same lines of Austin coming you know from eighth grade I always had a problem back then like asking for help I was afraid to tell my teachers like yo I'm struggling in math like can you help me so just stepping up I would have stepped up a little bit more academically getting like how we've been talking about getting you guys to know us on a personal level I also feel like it's important for us to know you guys on a personal level so you know I may be able to try to do that as well to my freshman year that's a great point the importance of teachers being known to their students as well as teachers knowing their students yep one thing that I do wish I could change about my school and I mean you might back me up on this too is I need that freedom and more time like if I just had a half hour to kind of talk to my because after school I have my sporting events and then mornings I mean I'm not there early enough which I could but teachers are busy you know teachers have stuff going on and I just wish I could have a half hour in the day like an enrichment period where I could go in and I could finish a college application I could get my teacher to fill out a letter of recommendation and if not that I wish I could just sit down and read for a half hour because I mean I fall asleep reading all the time just because it's just like a day so long so I wish I did have a little bit more time or just a free period and I forget what the second one was how could you help those students who aren't doing as well as we've been saying is to really connect with them and find ways to give them opportunities that like us are really getting I mean I'm so grateful for being able to go and be able to present things and be able to speak in front of I mean I went into school one day there was no school it was in service I went into school I don't they got me to do it and I mean I presented that emaps thing to all the teachers and it's just some kids have like do nothing anything near that and it's definitely hard to find ways for students who aren't involved to do that but it's really just you need to get them involved in something find something that they like tell them to join some sort of club tell them to get out and go to a football game or do a sporting event it's just getting them to express themselves in the way that they want to yep everything is we have assignments that are assigned Monday then do Friday but then we have a lot of assignments that are assigned Monday do Tuesday and it's like a lot in every class and we have extracurriculars and then when you get home you're like okay I need a shower I need to eat I need to do my homework and then you're up to a one and then you're like okay but then I still need to study so then on the bus or in the car you're trying to go through your flashcards kind of like 24 hours aren't enough if you really want to be the best student and the best person you can be all at the same time so I wish that we have advisories on some we have advisory schedules some days but some I do wish that we had an hour or a half hour to just knock out a whole entire homework assignment you know and I just started and then finish it at home or you know um what else oh successful honestly I've always had the mind that this is what I want to do these are the steps that I have to complete to get there not every student is wired like that not every teenager is wired like that students that cannot self motivate I guess teach them skills to self motivate so you can motivate them because everybody needs somebody in their corner it's just what it is you need somebody in your corner you also need to teach them skills how to self motivate because when you get to college you David is bussed with you know his own team of supporters and mentors but at bigger campuses say Wisconsin they have like 40,000 plus at their campus they might have some students who are independent they self motivate they self advocate they do things for themselves I think it's important to have a team my theme is teamwork but I also think that it's important to teach our students that success comes through doing it yourself you have to know what is you have to know what you want to do and you have to know how to get there by asking for it for yourself if that makes sense if I could I guess I would change the discrepancies in my school in terms of the education and in terms of I guess the funding because I did see I guess it goes a larger like political issue I did see you know the community like I came from in a community that my school was in you know the worst community in Chicago number one for gun violence we you know really didn't get that much funding in terms of you know books laptops and stuff like that but yet I noticed my friends that went to suburban schools you know they had Max and they books were new and you know that definitely does play into your experience as a student what you're giving so I would change that and then in terms of success as a student I think as a student you have to realize that you're not good at everything but you are good at something and you have to take that something that you're good at your niche and then build your weaknesses around that niche and strengthen it so would you say David kind of in connection to the question about how to help students who are struggling more not quite as successful find out what they're they might be good at and help them develop that help them find their niche they have to realize like me like I like English I could write a pretty decent essay but for another student you know he or she might not like English he or she might like math so they could you know take math okay I'm good at math and the way I do it is okay I like things like English and philosophy I apply that to life as a whole and you know I apply it to math like okay I'm not good at math I hate math but how does English and philosophy or music tie into it so you know that's what I mean by you taking that niche and like you know strengthen it strengthen your weaknesses through it I hope to hear those words come out of the mouths of my kids someday I like things like English and philosophy that's fantastic do we have time for one more question right here yep okay first of all I want to thank you for your perspective I want you to know that your voice drives our actions so we thank you so so for one last question this is a pretty big question can you tell us the good the bad and the ugly of parent involvement and how it's affected you and your schools as learners remember your parents might be in the room the good in terms of parenting it does help out if you do have a parent in your corner although having a mentor or a good group of supporters it's pretty good it's nothing like having that good role model in the home because it starts at the home first like me I didn't have my dad but I had my mom and you know it was good like her participating in my college process even though she didn't go to Georgetown quote-unquote really good school really prestigious just seeing how she still valued education so my mom being a mentor first and then my other mentor second that helped out the bad I can say that sometimes parents can get too involved in your educational experience it can make your experience bad as a whole as we've been talking about thus far that freedom so being involved as a parent but not being too involved and letting your child kind of make tough decisions not on their own at least like leading them and then allowing them to make that decision fantastic Lexie or Austin my mom is the definition of an active parent parent teacher meeting every performance everything I like to call her my momager she is you want to talk to me get through her first she came from a single parent home where my grandmother didn't speak any English and she got herself into high school and into college so she had to self advocate so she has definitely taught me the importance of self advocating and she has advocated for me so through every decision I make mom is like these are your options weigh them out and that's how we tackle everything and she also goes I have more experience than you so I know how this plays out but I'll give you a little bit of leeway and then you'll see that I was right so but your parents are definitely your parents are definitely definitely important you know and not everything can be smiles and giggles you know it's very Alexia did you complete that and it's like yeah mom I did you know but they're definitely everything they involve me in education in life and just everything so have your parents excellent Lexi's mom introduced Lexi to me today I believe she was here at the door so what's good for me I mean I got kind of lucky that both my parents they went to college four years and got well my dad went a couple more years but I had to I'm sorry so I mean that's good for me but for some students both their parents might not have gone to college and some either of their parents have gone to college so that their parents don't know and what's even worse is if they don't know to go to the guidance counselor and say hey how do I get into college then like what are they going to do because there are students that just kind of float through high school and then they're just stuck at the end they're like well I guess I'm going to go get a job at McDonald's or something which which is bad I mean they're going and putting all these effort all this effort in school and they're not using it you're trying to further their education but I mean it's just important for teachers to find out those things and to find out what if kids have the education at home from their parents if they have that push if they have that knowledge and it's important for the teachers to direct the students that don't have that knowledge in the right direction fantastic could the parents and mentors of our panelists stand up for a moment and dad I'm sure those two extra years of college did you a lot of good by them pretty much reaching the end of our time as we move to wrap up could we have one more hand for our panelists