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Aurum Prep

Decent Essays

Statement of Purpose
What is it that enables a trajectory-changing education? At Building Excellent Schools, the answer is rooted in sound and relentless execution on all the core fundamentals of running a school, i.e. the academic program, school culture, and operations. At Educate78, the answer is rooted in designing a school experience for students that is authentic to a particular community and also allows for deeper learning. As a lead petitioner in the process of founding a school – and a fellow of each of these organizations – I have been fortunate enough to observe and learn from both viewpoints. I have come to an understanding that both are true and not mutually exclusive. My goal is to soundly integrate the best aspects of both models …show more content…

If we can execute on the mission of Aurum Prep, we will be a proof point for schools that help students gain a deep understanding of themselves, their communities, and how to create a better society. To build the foundation for this, we have already worked intently with families and community members to understand what it is they want for their children upon graduation. After hundreds of conversations, we know that the Oakland community seeks an interdisciplinary, identity-based curriculum to help students define who they are for themselves. In response, we have crafted each year of our middle school to help our students to address fundamental questions like – who am I? Who are we (as a community)? Who am I becoming? We have developed the initial framework and scope for the projects our students would complete, including engaging in a genealogy/ancestry project and ultimately writing their own self-determined autobiographies. I believe it would be incredibly powerful to learn from High Tech High’s project-based learning approach to we continue to design these learning experiences. Engaging in the Graduate School of Education would help us to more fully flesh out critical aspects of our model like these.
The Graduate School of Education is committed to developing reflective practitioner leaders who are working with colleagues and communities to create and sustain innovative, authentic, and rigorous learning environments. I am a leader who is seeking to design a school that is committed to ensuring equity for all children in East Oakland. While I have experience in the school design process, being part of the GSE would ensure that our team is able to implement the aspects of our school design that will ensure an equitable learning for all of our

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