Center for Urban Education
Heinz Fellowship
The Heinz Fellowship is a one-year fellowship through the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Urban Education. The fellowship is intended to develop a diverse cohort of social justice oriented and equity minded leadership in education.
​
Fellows engage in tutoring, mentoring, and in class assistance at Pittsburgh Public Schools. Through the Center for Urban Education, the fellows are completing Participatory Action Research (PAR) projects with doctoral fellows. I am placed at A. Leo Weil Elementary in the Hill District, and my teams' PAR project is looking at the implementation of Restorative Practices in public schools, and how Restorative Practices can be more culturally responsive to students in the Hill district.
For more about the Heinz Fellowship:
http://www.heinz.org/strategic-areas/learning/heinz-fellows/heinz-fellows---third-class
Community Kitchen Pittsburgh
Public Allies
As an Education and Outreach Specialist with Community Kitchen Pittsburgh, I helped to create and deliver food justice education programs to youth in schools and community based organizations. Part of my job included recruiting, training, and managing volunteers. During my time at Community Kitchen, volunteers that I recruited contributed a combined 400 hours of service. I also developed curriculum for cooking classes, and assisted in the planning of Project Lunch Tray, an annual cooking competition for students in grades 7-12.
​
A video of Project Lunch Tray 2017
Many of the activities and lessons in the Project Lunch Tray manual are examples of curriculum that I contributed to. Community Kitchen has made their manual available to share through a creative commons license and you can view it here: Community Kitchen Pittsburgh Project Lunch Tray manual
​
Hear an interview with Project Lunch Tray Participants during the Saturday Light Brigade broadcast here.
​
​
​
Social Justice Innovation Weekend
2017 & 2018
For the past two years, on President's Day Weekend, Repair the World Pittsburgh has hosted that Social Justice Innovation Weekend. SJIW is a start up competition that is focused on creating a more inclusive and equitable city. On the first night, anyone is invited to pitch an idea and persuade others to join their team. Ideas are voted to a second round, and teams spend the weekend developing their idea, creating a pitch, and working alongside mentors from many different areas of expertise.
Both years, I have pitched initial ideas and advanced to the next round, and received second place. The first year, my team's area of focus was in food access, and the second year, we developed an idea to address nightlife safety for women and people of color.
​Videos of the final pitch competitions
Youth Media Advocacy Project
Carlow University and The Saturday Light Brigade 2014
As an undergraduate with Carlow University, I served as a YMAP mentor at Barack Obama Academy of International Studies. There, I worked alongside ninth graders to identify areas of their education in which they were passionate about creating change. The students then created a media campaign to bring attention to the importance of art education. They formed the Association for Students Artists of Pittsburgh (ASAP), and filmed a video during a gallery crawl in the cultural district, where they interviewed community members about the importance of art education. To learn more about YMAP, click here.
A video made during a gallery crawl, where YMAP students interviewed the community about their experiences and thoughts on art education.