Education Inquiry and Justice Archives - ��̳ of Arts & Sciences

Faculty and Staff Celebrated at Spring Convocation

Hayden Frye — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000

The ��̳ of Arts & Sciences gathered in the Copley Formal Lounge to celebrate the outstanding faculty and staff who comprise its exceptional community of scholars.

Three professors received Dean’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching: , , and . Two staff members received the Distinguished Service Staff Award: Lanah Koelle and Courtney Feldman. (SFS’95) received the Condé Nast Award and received the Farr Faculty Excellence Award.

“Every year, I am delighted to take this time — just as spring is beginning — to congratulate and celebrate important contributions made by our faculty and staff,” said Rosario Ceballo, dean of the ��̳ of Arts & Sciences. “These seven awards recognize our incredible colleagues whose work in the classroom, the office, and the wider world contribute to the vitality and richness of our academic community.”

Charles McNelis

Professor Charles McNelis looks on as his citation is read in Copley Formal Lounge.

Charles McNelis, the faculty director of Graduate Liberal Studies and a professor in the , received the Dean’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching.

“I am deeply humbled by this award, and grateful to my colleagues in Classics and beyond for their support,” said McNelis. “Most of all, I am thankful to the students at Georgetown for their energetic curiosity and willingness to think about human experiences from a variety of perspectives, both ancient and modern.”

McNelis, who came to the Hilltop in 2002, is well-loved by students who consistently rave about his courses, in which he introduces budding classicists to the great poetry and literature of antiquity.

“In his more than twenty years on the Hilltop, Professor Charles McNelis has revolutionized the teaching of both Greek and Latin language and literature,” said Andrew Sobanet, vice dean for faculty affairs in the ��̳ of Arts & Sciences. “His courses explore the ancient world in ways that allow students to expand their horizons and to deepen their understanding of contemporary notions of literature, religion, sexuality and gender. Consistently highly enrolled and highly rated, Professor McNelis’ courses are rigorous, challenging, stimulating and fast paced.”

McNelis researches the connections between Greek and Latin literatures, particularly in the genre of epic poetry. He has published extensively on the 1st-century poet Statius. McNelis’ book, Statius’ Thebaid and the Poetics of Civil War, argues that aspects of modern civil war are manifest in the poet’s re-telling of the battle between the sons of Oedipus for the throne of Thebes. His soon-to-be published version of Statius’ Achilleid extensively examines and develops both ancient and modern notions about sexuality and gender.

“Professor McNelis’s work with our students represents the best of Georgetown’s ��̳ of Arts & Sciences: he consistently focuses on his students’ intellectual growth; he has been an active and generous mentor; and his classes have a long-lasting impact on his students’ lives,” said Sobanet. “We are most fortunate to count Professor Charles McNelis among our faculty.”

Donatella Melucci

Donatella Melucci in Copley Formal Lounge after receiving the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Donatella Melucci, a teaching professor in the , received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

“I am overflowing with gratitude upon receiving the 2023 Dean’s Excellence In Teaching Award,” said Melucci. “This recognition reflects the incredible support, collaboration and inspiration I have received from my colleagues, the Department of Italian Studies and the ��̳ of Arts and Sciences.”

Melucci’s in-demand course on Italian translation invites advanced students to put their skills to the test by translating Italian books into English for publication. Their coursework, once completed, is reviewed by the original authors and publishers before the printed and bound copies hit bookstore shelves with their names attached.

“In her fifteen years of teaching in Georgetown University’s ��̳ of Arts & Sciences, Professor Donatella Melucci has been an inspiration to our students,” said Sobanet. “Her courses in the Department of Italian have been wide-ranging, dynamic and rigorous. Experiential learning is a signature element of Professor Melucci’s teaching.”

Melucci has authored, co-authored and edited numerous textbooks on the teaching of Italian as a foreign language.

“Most recently, Professor Melucci has brought her passion and innovative spirit to her position as one of our inaugural co-directors of the International Business, Language, and Culture program,” said Sobanet. “Throughout the years, Professor Melucci’s attention to our students’ personal and intellectual growth and her commitment to Georgetown’s ideal of cura personalis have been nothing short of exemplary.”

“A special thanks goes to my wonderful students, who are the heartbeat of my teaching practice,” Melucci said. “Their enthusiasm, curiosity and unwavering determination inspire me every day. It is a privilege to be a part of their educational journey, and I am honored to play a role in shaping their future.”

Joseph McCartin

Professor Joseph McCartin in Copley Formal Lounge.

Joseph McCartin, a professor in the Department of History, received a Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

“I consider it the highest honor of my teaching career to be recognized by colleagues and administrators whose passionate commitments to education inspire me and by an institution that has taught me to see teaching as an act of cura personalis,” said McCartin. “I feel so lucky to teach here.”

McCartin, who has taught on the Hilltop for some 25 years, is an expert on U.S. labor, social and political history

“Professor Joseph McCartin has taught thousands of students across a wide array of courses and levels,” said Elena Silva, vice dean for faculty affairs. “His pedagogy focuses not only on sharing his deep understanding of American and global labor history but on connecting classroom learning to the development of informed and self-reflective modes of social and political engagement.”

McCartin’s research has focused on the politics of labor, organizing and the working class in America throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. His book Collision Course investigates the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) illegal strike in 1981 and its subsequent decertification by the Reagan Administration, situating the event and its handling as one of the most pivotal moments in the history of American labor.

“As the founder and director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for the Labor and Working Poor, he has supervised students in hands-on, socially engaged work that complements what they have learned in his classes and prepared them for internships with community organizations, social-justice initiatives, think tanks and labor unions,” said Silva. “Humble to his core, Professor McCartin exemplifies the ideal of social engaged pedagogy. We are delighted to recognize his commitment to advancing knowledge and fostering a dynamic learning environment for all students.”

Lanah Koelle

Lanah Koelle, who serves as the manager of academic records in the ��̳ of Arts & Sciences, received the Distinguished Service Staff Award.

“This award is such an honor! I’m grateful to collaborate with such excellent colleagues in the Dean’s Office,” said Koelle. “Though I’ve been at Georgetown for a little more than two years, I’m excited to have made an impact and to receive recognition for my work supporting CAS programs and students.”

“Ms. Koelle is widely appreciated for a calming and unflappable presence, her ability to organize and her unfailing collegiality,” said Woods. “Lanah has become expert in the many and complex database systems that produce reports relied on by deans, departments and programs across the ��̳. She is also known for anticipating problems and choke points, and for devising and implementing solutions.”

Before coming to the Hilltop, Koelle worked as a program manager and librarian at Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies. At Georgetown, Koelle balances numerous responsibilities related to the oversight and record keeping for more than 3,400 undergraduate students.

“Ms. Koelle’s many responsibilities include management of degree audits for the approximately 50 major and 50 minors pursued by students in the ��̳ of Arts and Sciences; managing behind-the-scenes work to make CAS Commencement run smoothly via accurate graduation lists used in the Commencement program book and to order diplomas; managing the production of myriad departmental reports; as well as accurate processing of all student academic forms,” said Woods. “Ms. Koelle was an essential member of the CAS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force and the Main-Med Sciences at Georgetown Task Force”

Off campus, Koelle is a jazz musician and vocalist who frequently performs in the wider Washington, DC area.

Courtney Feldman

Courtney Feldman in Copley Formal Lounge after receiving her award.

Courtney Feldman, an administrative officer in the Department of German, received a Distinguished Service Staff Award.

“I am truly touched to receive this award,” said Feldman. “I feel very fortunate to have worked with such a wonderful group of people during my time at Georgetown and their support means so much to me.”

“Ms. Courtney Feldman has served as the administrative officer for the German Department since 2015, demonstrating dedication, creativity and precision in her role,” said Mary Helen Dupree, interim chair of the Department of German. “She meticulously tends to all administrative and organizational tasks, offering equal attention not only to the department’s degree programs but to all its activities, with a sharp eye for how they combine to create a full experience.”

Prior to arriving on the Hilltop, Feldman worked as a projectionist and manager for many years for several cinemas in Detroit, Chicago and Baltimore. She holds a bachelor’s degree in German from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.

“In addition to her work for the German Department, Ms. Feldman has generously stepped in to fill in administrative gaps in other Departments, especially during and since the pandemic without seeking additional compensation,” said Dupree. “For her exceptional and tireless contributions, we are honored to recognize Ms. Courtney Feldman with the ��̳ of Arts & Sciences’ 2024 Distinguished Staff Service Award.”

Shweta Bansal

Shweta Bansal in Copley Formal Lounge.

Shweta Bansal, a professor in the Department of Biology, received the Farr Faculty Excellence Award.

The Farr Faculty Excellence Award honors excellent faculty research, effective mentoring of student research and/or innovative dissemination of scientific knowledge in the natural sciences, computer science, mathematics and statistics and psychology.

Bansal, who holds a slew of positions across campus in addition to her role as a professor, is a sought-after expert in the fields of public health and infectious disease.

“Professor Bansal is a trailblazing scholar renowned for her groundbreaking work on the interplay between social behavior and infectious disease dynamics, revolutionizing traditional approaches with innovative socio-ecological mathematical models,” said Silva. “Professor Bansal has been particularly active in disseminating scientific knowledge in an effort to combat misinformation, particularly regarding viral diseases like COVID-19 and influenza.”

On the Hilltop, Bansal serves as graduate faculty in both the Global Infectious Diseases Ph.D. Program and the Biology Ph.D. Program. She is also affiliate faculty for the Massive Data Institute, the Global Health Institute and Earth Commons.

“Professor Bansal demonstrates exceptional dedication to mentoring, guiding numerous scholars at various stages of their academic journey mentoring over 30 undergraduates with many co-authoring peer-reviewed research articles and receiving prestigious fellowships, including the Rhodes, Fulbright and Churchill scholarships,” said Silva. “Professor Bansal’s multifaceted contributions underscore her as an exemplary recipient for the Farr Faculty Excellence Award, embodying the essence of scholarly excellence and societal impact.”

Sabrina Wesley-Nero

Sabrina Wesley-Nero holds the the Condé Nast Award.

Sabrina Wesley-Nero (SFS’95), a teaching professor in the Program in Education, Inquiry, and Justice, received the Condé Nast Award.

First awarded in 1966 by the ��̳ Student Council to honor the memory of the first President of the Yard, the Condé Nast Award is awarded annually by the ��̳ of Arts & Sciences to a faculty member who has served the ��̳ with distinguished teaching, research and service or leadership.

“Through my work at Georgetown, I help undergraduate and graduate students imagine and work toward an education system that centers the needs of those furthest from opportunity, lead and develop programs in collaboration with brilliant and dedicated colleagues and partner with educators in schools and communities to move us toward a more just society through equity-oriented education,” said Wesley-Nero. “It is a privilege to do this work, and I am grateful.”

Wesley-Nero’s research focuses on the experiences of marginalized students and the factors that contribute to their success or failure in the education system.

“In her decade at Georgetown, Professor Sabrina Wesley-Nero has demonstrated both success in the classroom and dedication to the larger community,” said Dean Ceballo. “She has left an indelible mark on two Georgetown programs — the Education, Inquiry, and Justice Program and the MA in Educational Transformation.”

In addition to serving as a leader on campus in numerous roles, including as the director of the Program in Education, Inquiry and Justice, she has taken her scholarship into the wider world. Wesley-Nero received national acclaim for developing the curriculum for the 1619 Freedom School in Waterloo, Iowa, a collaboration with Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones.

Students Become Professional Translators in Donatella Melucci’s Course

In Donatella Melucci’s course on Italian Translation, students work as a team to translate a book for publication

Read Full Story

Project ELEECT advances educational justice in D.C.

Led by Douglas Reed, Sabrina Wesley-Nero (SFS’95), and Crissa Stephens, Project ELEECT uses a two-pronged approach to teacher training

Education, Inquiry, and Justice Program Packs Calendar for Spring Semester

Hayden Frye — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 16:27:52 +0000

This semester, the (EDIJ) is planning a wide array of events for students interested in the study of education. Housed in Georgetown University’s ��̳ of Arts & Sciences, EDIJ embraces an explicit focus on the nexus of education and justice through an interdisciplinary approach to academic inquiry, which is the heart of a liberal arts education.

“The Education, Inquiry, and Justice Program enables students to examine education as a critical means to promote social justice and individual well-being,” said , an associate professor in the and co-director of the EDIJ.

The EDIJ minor asks undergraduate students to think critically about how public education in the United States can both perpetuate inequity and be used as a tool for transformative justice.

“Through EDIJ, critical engagement with the history, purpose and potential of education in this country can have a profound impact on how students envision their role as Hoyas for others and operationalize their commitment to the common good,” said , a teaching professor in and co-director of the Education, Inquiry, and Justice Program.

Sabrina Wesley-Nero

Events on the Horizon

This semester, the EDIJ is hosting several events that are open to the wider Georgetown community, including a session entitled Transforming the Teaching Profession: Post-Pandemic Innovation with Andrew Pratt, a director of program at .

“EDIJ seeks to provide students with opportunities to learn about new initiatives designed to transform education such as our engagement with CityBridge. Students can engage in solutions-oriented thinking and ignite their justice imagination,” said Wesley-Nero

CityBridge is a Washington-based nonprofit that “incubates the people, ideas, and conversations needed for equity-driven innovation in DC public schools.” CityBridge works through a range of avenues, bringing together educational stakeholders in the city to deliver value for all students, regardless of race or income.

Partnerships with organizations like CityBridge are at the heart of growing the EDIJ, according to Wesley-Nero. Expanding relationships with the nonprofits working to improve public education in the district will empower students to put their studies into practice, both observing and partaking in education as action.

Through the Education and Equity Speaker Series that EDIJ co-hosts with the , Lauren Leigh Kelly, an assistant professor at Rutgers University, and Kongji Qin, an assistant professor at New York University, will share their work in a session entitled ‘Youth-Lead Research for Educational and Social Change’ on Friday, February 17.

Each year EDIJ also celebrates its graduates, many of whom pursue post-secondary opportunities in education. Some EDIJ graduates work in schools, nonprofit organizations and policy organizations. Others pursue graduation in the field of education in programs such as Georgetown’s Master of Arts in Educational Transformation. While others commit to working toward educational justices avocationally embodying Georgetown’s Jesuit principles. In May, the EDIJ is hosting a celebration of seniors and alumni currently working in education.

Nardos Ghebreab (C’12)

New Faculty, New Students

This academic year, EDIJ welcomed (C’12), Ph.D., back to campus as an assistant teaching professor to the program. Ghebreab will expand EDIJ’s course offerings and build out EDIJ’s partnership with the Capitol Applied Learning Lab downtown.

Ghebreab is a scholar of racial equity in education, who roots her research in interrogating ways education policies and practices shape racialized experiences for Black students, teachers and families. She worked in education and education policy after graduating from Georgetown before earning her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, ��̳ Park.

Instead of submitting an application, undergraduate students across the university can now declare their intention to pursue the EDIJ minor through a process similar to how students declare a major. The declaration of interest form for EDIJ will be open for freshmen and sophomores annually for the month of March on the program’s website. The minor requires 6 courses in different disciplines and is anchored in community-based learning through partnerships with local public schools and education advocacy organizations.

More information on the minor can be found . Interested students can reach out at edij@georgetown.edu.

Sabrina Wesley-Nero Creates Curriculum for Literacy Program to Counteract Education Inequities

Hayden Frye — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 21:29:03 +0000

, Ph.D., and director of the Education, Inquiry and Justice Program, oversaw and wrote the curriculum for the inaugural year of the in Waterloo, Iowa. The school’s mission is to help children develop critical literacy skills through liberating instruction centered on Black American history and will serve low-income students with the widest disparity in their reading scores.

“Marginalized communities have a long history of resisting oppression, exercising agency and pursuing educational opportunities both inside and outside of schools,” says Wesley-Nero. “Unfortunately, Black youth in Waterloo historically have been marginalized and underserved. My goal was to center their rich cultural histories and assets in high-quality literacy instruction.”

Creating a Curriculum for Equitable Education

The 1619 Freedom School is a free, community-based, after-school literacy program launched by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah Jones that will help students achieve academic success by improving their reading and literacy skills.

Waterloo, IA, is a deeply segregated and unequal small midwestern town, and the most heavily Black city in the state. In recent years, it has been named the worst city in America to be Black. The average Black student in Waterloo public schools is more than two grade levels behind the average white student and Black students .

Despite this gaping achievement gap, literacy instruction ends after the third grade. Literacy experts say that students—especially those academically behind—continue to need literacy instruction as they progress to the upper grades. The lack of this specialized literacy instruction compounds these academic disadvantages and, as a result, Black students fall further behind the older they get.

The 1619 Freedom School aims to change that with the help of the curriculum created by Wesley-Nero. This fall, the school will begin to serve fourth-graders at Walter Cunningham Elementary, Waterloo’s most segregated elementary school.

Wesley-Nero first became involved in the formation of this program after she attended a series of virtual events hosted by Waterloo community activists working to support and engage young people. Her goal was “to determine how I could help the community-led efforts.

“Through these meetings, I met Sheritta Stokes, the lead educator of the 1619 Freedom School, and others working with the project,” Wesley-Nero explains. “When the 1619 Freedom School team learned of my work emphasizing culturally and linguistically relevant pedagogy, they invited me to meet separately with Nikole Hannah Jones and the rest of the Freedom School team.”

The professor’s first priority was to “gain a sense of the community’s goals and vision for their youth” before drafting a comprehensive proposal for a program that would serve “the students as whole people, build further relationships with community resources and center the voices of youth in the creation of the program.

“Nikole and the team were committed to literacy instruction and teaching American history by focusing on the Black experience,” Wesley-Nero continues. “The curriculum integrates research-based literacy instruction with the study of American History. The goal of the program is to make the curriculum open access so that other areas can adapt it to reflect the needs, assets and history of their community.”

Activism and Academia

The work that Wesley-Nero has done with the 1619 Freedom School ties into her research at Georgetown, where she works to improve the ways schools “support the educational success of culturally and linguistically diverse students.”

Her work seeks to “extend educational equity by increasing understanding of the educational contexts and experiences of students who historically have been marginalized as a result of their racial, socio-economic, cultural, and linguistic identities as well as the educators and leaders who serve these students.”

She says that this research agenda rests upon three pillars: the intersectional identities of learners and educators, culturally and linguistically relevant pedagogy and curriculum and school and classroom culture. Wesley-Nero applied these pillars when developing the curriculum for 1619.

“It anchors high-impact literacy instruction in culturally relevant pedagogy and instruction in American history that emphasizes the African-American experience,” Wesley-Nero explains. “I hope that it empowers youth in Waterloo to achieve academically, build upon their heritage of excellence, and thrive in their community and schools.”

More About 1619 Freedom School

“Freedom School” evokes the legacy of the free, community schools launched by in order to educate Black youth on their history and empower them to fight their oppression with the goal of achieving social, political, and economic equality in the United States.

By 2022, the curriculum designed by Wesley-Nero will be made available for free to anyone in the country wishing to use it. The school is also working with the education, literacy and library programs of the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) and Hawkeye Community ��̳, whose volunteers will support the school’s certified educators in providing small-group literacy interventions for students.

“The 1619 Freedom School is built on the understanding that for a people for whom it was once illegal to learn to read and write, education is a revolutionary act,” says 1619 Freedom School founder, Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Waterloo native and Waterloo West High School graduate. “A quality education has been the key to my success and I wanted to give back to the community that raised me and to the children whose opportunities may be limited but who have potential that is limitless. Through this school, we will provide our students the type of education and support they have always deserved.”

Senior Proposes Legal Clinic for DC Youth at George Washington Law Through EDIJ Program

Lynn Delles — Thu, 20 May 2021 16:43:24 +0000

Caroline Jaipaul (C’21) is submitting a proposal to start a legal clinic at George Washington Law that will serve DC youth who are currently court-involved through oral and written advocacy and will strive to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline in Washington. Jaipaul is completing this as part of her capstone project for her Education, Inquiry and Justice (EDIJ) minor.

Producing a Program

Originally from New York City, NY, Jaipaul came to Georgetown with the plan to study psychology. After taking courses through the English department, she chose to double major.

As the daughter of a public school teacher, Jaipaul was also drawn to learning about the education system. When she discovered that EDIJ combined her main interests, she decided to pursue a minor in the program.

During her senior year, Jaipaul completed a capstone course for EDIJ where she was tasked with leading a “learning experience” for her peers. As part of this assignment, Jaipaul was able to explore the relationships between education and the justice system, specifically looking at education within juvenile detention facilities and the outcomes of youth involved in the court system.

Having recently found out that she was accepted into George Washington’s law program, Jaipaul wanted to examine the clinic programs available at the school that provide legal advocacy and assistance to individuals who cannot otherwise afford adequate representation.

“After studying the programs in-depth, I was disappointed to learn there is no youth-oriented clinic at the university,” says Jaipaul. “Since I discovered this at the same time we began brainstorming for our capstone projects, I decided I would draft what I would want a youth legal clinic to look like at George Washington Law.”

Currently, some law schools in the district offer clinics which provide oral and written advocacy for child and family clients. However, none of them focus on preventative measures, such as restorative justice methods or conflict resolution strategies, which can be implemented in schools to avoid youth police and court involvement.

Jaipaul’s clinic would supplement this gap by focusing on youth in Wards 7 and 8 as those yield the most youth arrests, the most youth detention placements, the highest youth truancy rates and the most out-of-school disciplinary actions in the city.

“Rather than providing legal representation to youth in court, the program will connect law students to DCPS students to educate them about their rights and the law, establish alternative solutions to court involvement with their schools and empower youth to complete their education without becoming system-involved,” says Jaipaul.

The proposal drafted by Jaipaul would work in tandem with programs that have been enacted in recent years by DC’s government to reduce youth court involvement and minimize the number of youth in detention facilities.

Jaipaul says that her proposal is an effective addition as it “will reduce the likelihood that youth are interacting with police or law enforcement officials by placing law students in schools who will work with students who would otherwise be disciplined with exclusionary actions.

“Instead, youth will be learning about their rights in the law and be working collaboratively with their peers and school administrators to constructively restore justice in their environments,” she explains.

The Impact of EDIJ

When drafting this proposal, Jaipaul says that her Georgetown coursework, specifically the EDIJ courses, was essential as they “constantly challenged me to consider complex problems in the context of multiple systems, or from multiple perspectives.”

“This thought process helped me in drafting my proposal, as I was always considerate of who would be involved or affected by the clinic and what factors would influence its feasibility and effectiveness,” Jaipaul says. “My experiences during community-based-learning courses also helped me to situate how this clinic would function as a service-learning course for law students.”

Jaipaul noted that she is especially grateful to Sabrina Wesley-Nero, director of the EDIJ for “her patience and willingness to support my academic journey.”

“I have learned so much from her courses, and find the lessons I learned with her to be the most memorable and translatable to other areas of my life,” Jaipaul says.

The senior says that she is looking forward to attending law school at George Washington so that she can apply her knowledge of civil rights law and public service that she gained from Georgetown to clinical and pro-bono work.

Beyond the Classroom

In addition to her course load, Jaipaul worked as a staff writer for the Hoya, served as a retreat leader and participated in Relay for Life. She is a former employee of Hoya Kids Learning Center and currently works for the Hub where she researches undermatching in higher education. Jaipaul also interned with the Children’s Defense Fund and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights Section.

Professor Discusses Importance of Equitable Education in of Wake Pandemic

Lynn Delles — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 18:57:55 +0000

COVID-19 has made apparent many inequities of our society, not the least of which being education. , Ph.D., (SFS ‘95), director of the undergraduate program in Education, Inquiry, and Justice (EDIJ) and co-creator and faculty lead of the graduate program , describes the importance of learning from this moment to create a more just society through equal educational opportunities.

“Education shapes how we view ourselves, others and the world as well as the past and present, which in turn determines how we engage in and construct the future,” Wesley-Nero says. “It is so powerful that to keep people oppressed we have to actively work to ensure that they are not educated well. Education is liberation — it is the gateway to full, equitable, and participatory democracy. Now more than ever, we must ensure that everyone has equal educational opportunities.”

Teaching Justice

A former K-12 educator and alumna of the School of Foreign Service, Wesley-Nero returned to Georgetown in 2013 to lead EDIJ. Soon after joining the university, she co-founded the MA in Educational Transformation in the graduate school, which includes the first K-12 teacher licensure program at Georgetown.

EDIJ equips undergraduate students with the skills to think critically about how public education in the United States perpetuates inequity but can also be used as a tool for social justice. Though the undergraduate program is geared towards fostering a commitment to educational justice in all students regardless of their post-baccalaureate vocational pursuits, the graduate level program focuses on preparing future policy actors and advocates in addition to educators who are anti-racist and equity-focused to tackle questions around education.

Wesley-Nero says that she centers her teaching and content in these programs around the Jesuit value of cura personalis.

“It is a philosophy of education that develops every person’s vast talents and interests while addressing their needs based on the affirmation that each of us is equally valued,” she explains. “Educating the whole child is a commitment to an intersectional, historically contextualized view of each learner. It asserts that education can nurture the unique gifts, talents, and identities that you offer to the world and ensures that you have an equitable opportunity to leverage them according to your aspirations.”

The professor says that she emphasizes this philosophy in her curricula because standard education tends to focus on mass, generalized data to assess what an individual needs, which often ignores the beauty and complexity in diversity. Through the EDIJ and EDTR programs, Wesley-Nero hopes that her students will learn that education is not a zero-sum game.

“Equitable education that values each learner, meets their needs and equips them to fully pursue their aspirations benefits us all,” she says. “I also want my students to learn that those furthest away from opportunity must be the primary focus. If we hold firmly to the end goal and teach, advocate and design policy that connects those farthest away from opportunity to that end goal, the resulting learning experiences, community coalitions, and policies will also include everyone else along the way.”

As the pandemic continues to impact in-person learning, Wesley-Nero says that these two goals are more important for educators than ever before. A parent and academic, she has seen the impact of COVID-19 on education and access first hand and has striven to make adjustments to her curriculum that are responsive and supportive while maintaining a commitment to high-quality education.

Part of her research examines the ways families pursuing multilingual education for their children in PK-12 public schools are navigating the shifting contexts, demands and limitations that the pandemic has fostered.

She hopes that one of the outcomes of the pandemic and the research surfacing from it will be a more equitable society structured around an equal-opportunity education.

“Overall, I think the pandemic has resurfaced fundamental questions about the purpose of schools in a diverse, democratic society, unearthed persistent, wide-ranging disparities and injustices and, I hope, given everyone a motivating recognition of the vital role that educators and schools play in the lives of young people and in our country,” Wesley-Nero says.

Two ��̳ Alumni Elected to Hometown School Boards Hope to Make Education More Equitable

Lynn Delles — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 16:06:45 +0000

Nicolo Orozco (C’19) and Luisa Santos (C’14) were recently elected to the school boards in their hometowns. The alumni are now working to help their communities by applying the skills they learned at Georgetown.

Contributing to Communities

Before she was accepted into the ��̳, Santos grew up in Miami-Dade, Florida where she became a proud product of the public schools there. The alumna says that as an undocumented student, she witnessed first-hand that the needs of many classmates were not being met by the school system and she knew a change was necessary.

After arriving at Georgetown, Santos decided to minor in Education, Inquiry and Justice in addition to her political economy major. She said that this experience along with her work for the undersecretary of education in Washington, DC helped her understand education at the national level to better help her local community.

Inspired by what she had learned, Santos moved back to Miami-Dade after graduation where she led entrepreneurship training and joined an advocacy group for the board of education locally before eventually running for a seat on the school board herself this year.

“Being by and from the community allows me to ensure that the policies enacted are actually to the benefit of my community,” says Santos. “Elected officials can solve problems that the people face and so the significance of serving the schools that I went to and having knowledge of what the community needs is beneficial. You can see the immediate effect on people’s lives.”

Orozco also grew up in the community where he now serves as a school board member. The alumnus has been active in the Yuba City, California school system since he served as a student worker in his high school cafeteria.

A psychology major who also minored in Education, Inquiry and Justice, Orozco worked in the DC public school system throughout the academic year and spent his summer breaks working in Yuba City schools. The differences between the two education systems motivated Orozco to pursue a career helping to improve Yuba City schools after he graduated from Georgetown.

“In DC public schools when students with disabilities were promised services, they received those services, which is not always the case in Yuba City,” he explains. “Working as a pareducator, with the distinct qualifications I had earned at Georgetown, I was able to more concretely advocate for students and explain their needs, but I still faced systemic obstacles fighting for equal access for students with disabilities in the system. I have always been passionate about serving the students I worked with and thought I could serve more effectively on the school board than I could as an employee.”

Primaries and Public Service

Though the alumni were successfully elected to their school boards, the 2020 general elections for both Orozco and Santos were highly competitive. Santos’s campaign was against an established career politician who had served on the school board for 28 years. Similarly, Orozco’s opponent, who owns a campaign business in California, referred to Orozco as “just some kid.”

“I was a 22-year-old who had never run for office before, and there was a tendency for local officials to endorse my opponent and assess my candidacy on my age rather than my qualifications,” says Orozco. “But even though I was the youngest on the ballot, I won more votes than any school board candidate before me.”

Santos says that her time at Georgetown not only prepared her to build a fellowship of students and teachers that helped her win the election as well as be a woman for others.

“Being able to be a part of EDIJ was incredibly significant in helping me to realize that education could and should be for all students,” she says. “Additionally, learning about pedagogical approaches was a gift because it is now really my job and I got to do it as a student. After being elected I will execute on my proposed vision with service mindset of men and women for others to ensure that cura personalis is truly for everyone.”

Orozco also said that EDIJ was formative in his success as an educator due to the opportunities the program presents to engage with public schools through community-based learning. He also noted that the emphasis on living out your faith through public service at The Initiative On Catholic Social Thought and Public Life led by John Carr helped motivate him to fulfill his civic duty by running for office.

Sabrina Wesley-Nero, director of the EDIJ, who worked closely with both Orozco and Santos while they were at Georgetown says that both alumni were determined to learn from the ways they had overcome past obstacles in order to use those lessons to inform the ways they pursued future opportunities.

“Both evidenced a commitment to equity in education with a focus on those who were the farthest from opportunity,” she continued.

Looking Ahead

As the representative for the 9^th district of Miami-Dade county, Santos is in charge of 80 schools and over 90,000 students. She says that her priority is collaborating with her fellow board members to increase awareness of schools’ needs.

Orozco has similar goals, the largest of which is advancing diversity within schools. After he serves his time on the school board, the alumni would like to go back to teaching in the classroom.

Both board members will be sworn into office by the end of 2020.

Education Inquiry and Justice Archives - ������̳ of Arts & Sciences

Faculty and Staff Celebrated at Spring Convocation

Charles McNelis

Donatella Melucci

Joseph McCartin

Lanah Koelle

Courtney Feldman

Shweta Bansal

Sabrina Wesley-Nero

Related News

Students Become Professional Translators in Donatella Melucci’s Course

Project ELEECT advances educational justice in D.C.

Education, Inquiry, and Justice Program Packs Calendar for Spring Semester

Events on the Horizon

New Faculty, New Students

Sabrina Wesley-Nero Creates Curriculum for Literacy Program to Counteract Education Inequities

Creating a Curriculum for Equitable Education

Activism and Academia

More About 1619 Freedom School

Senior Proposes Legal Clinic for DC Youth at George Washington Law Through EDIJ Program

Producing a Program

The Impact of EDIJ

Beyond the Classroom

Professor Discusses Importance of Equitable Education in of Wake Pandemic

Teaching Justice

Two ������̳ Alumni Elected to Hometown School Boards Hope to Make Education More Equitable

Contributing to Communities

Primaries and Public Service

Looking Ahead

Education Inquiry and Justice Archives - ��̳ of Arts & Sciences

Two ��̳ Alumni Elected to Hometown School Boards Hope to Make Education More Equitable