The Surprising Reason Leaders Invest in Education

[0:00]  what do you want your legacy to be you know I think my legacy I would love for it to be these young people um continuing on with this work my hope is is that you know anywhere I've been um to be able to work with a team cuz it's not just me it's an entire Community um we can't always see the end result but that there's a lot of young people out there that are just going to keep um passing it for forward and keep working hard and keep the the journey and the social justice issues alive um so I think for me I I'm not going to I won't you won't ever see your legacy right um cuz I think it's within these young people all right guys welcome back to a brand

[1:02]  new episode of the heart and hustle podcast now I'm incredibly excited to sit across the table from this amazing leader where we're going to be talking about the importance of investing into the Next Generation building up the confidence of our youth we're going to talk about some of the challenges that we face in this space but also the importance of inspiring the Next Generation and for this conversation I have Rachel gazdick here with me today Rachel welcome to the show oh thanks so much for having me I'm really excited because today's conversation we're going to talk about not only you being the CEO of New York Edge but we're also going to be talking about addressing the mental health and building community in younger Generations we're going to talk about rethinking the role of after school programs in modern education and so much more but before we kind of dive into that and we talk about your amazing work

[1:50]  at New York Edge I want to ask the question why do you do this work why is it so important to you it's so important to me because I believe uh in our students and I believe in that they're the Next Generation I believe in their intellect their passions and I think it's our job as Educators to ignite their intellectual curiosity and bring the world to them and I think that's a really uh important uh you know it's it's just critical um for us as adults to say look we got to bring our kids particularly uh in the neighborhoods that I've been part of over the years and underserved neighborhoods is that I see the best and the brightest uh in our children and I think they deserve the

[2:37]  same opportunities to excel why is curiosity something that is so important I feel like you intentionally use that word there I do because I think to have curiosity means that you're constantly growing and learning and thinking about the world around you and I also think that when we think about careers um that were their generative right so we're creating new ideas new Innovations new ways of thinking and I think we have to prepare our kids um to to to exist in that world right and so that they can also be their own boss they can create their own business their own websites I mean I think the world is uh much more wider than it was when even when I was a kid

[3:26]  cuz you would tell somebody to be a you know doctor teacher lawyer or you know whatever the case may be but there's so much Creative Energy out there and so I really want kids to be curious uh and to think really deeply about what they want to do and how they want to do it and uh and I think we can play a great role in that at New York Edge I think about the sense of curiosity and how it has to continue to evolve and adapt one thing I know about this younger generation as they went through the pandemic and things like that is they were forced to develop the skill set of adaptability when I think about how the landscape of just professional work has completely changed influencers being able to work in spaces like AI these weren't even things that I even had on my radar when I was coming

[4:13]  up and thinking about my career path but the way in which society moves so quickly today it seems like there are so many things on the other side of the Horizon that we can't even anticipate yet so how are you thinking about the ever evolving space of the job market and how people can apply themselves to make a living for themselves yeah I think it's what's really important is for us to be on The Cutting Edge and not on the back Edge right so I think a lot of times you know we uh in our industry get Technologies later we get older machines or whatever the case may be and so I'm a very strong advocate for our kids to have the best tools uh the best resources up front and not sort of be in this space where you know our kids don't have access to the things that they need

[5:02]  to really become the next generation of innovators and Educators and um social entrepreneurs whatever it is that they think about and so I think when we do coding or we're doing you know we do that with kindergarteners right so it's like the coding language you know I've sat in rooms where kindergarteners are coding now they might be yeah they might be coding doing the language to get get their name to like move um but they can see that writing the script on the back end or writing the code on the back end how that works right and how that comes to life so that if our kids see this as second nature um you know as things evolve and uh they get older and they become more

[5:50]  Curious um you know I think all our kids also will know what coding is how all these things operate uh so on and so forth robotics uh solving problems you know in our stem programs but I it's exciting to watch these little guys do things that most adults can do yeah I know that you had a couple experiences early in your career um that kind of shaped and pushed you down this path one of which is I know that you went to Syracuse I also know that you spent some time down in Louisiana I believe it was working with some smaller communities what was that like and how did that kind of evolve into being part of your journey yeah so I was uh Teach for America core member and that was when Teach for America uh was in its third year and so I trained for the core in

[6:38]  South Central Los Angeles actually to start with in the summer and then my placement was in uh Southwest Louisiana in a small town called Lake Arthur um if you ever see the film passion fish it's an old film and that was it was filmed in Lake Arthur that must have been a big adjustment from South Central to Southwest to Louisiana you know and it was interesting at that time you know unlike today you know I think folks really uh would say oh I want to be placed in an urban community I want to be placed in New York City or I want to be placed in Washington DC right out of college and so I took the approach then I just want to be placed where the greatest need is um and so I actually didn't specify where uh to place uh where you know

[7:28]  where I wanted to be placed so South Southwest Louisiana and I think in our rural School uh communities they don't get as much attention also as uh major urban communities um and so there's still very much pressing issues and things that need to be addressed but I did live on the Bayou uh in a small town with great people um and really saw the sense of community uh within their schools and how people come together to support each other um and learned a very different way of life uh in the US uh and to this day I still have friends and folks down there um that I know and keep up with I learned how to pull craw pull crawfish traps herd cattle make sausage uh one time I went on a alligator hunt

[8:20]  um so it wasn't just the teaching it was what is life uh like in Louisiana so our our principal a good friend of ours said you Yankees aren't going to sit there and read the New York Times and eat Bagels I'm going to show you what it's like to live on the farm and and and be out here so I think that's an important context and it's an important way of thinking about you know the differences across our country and so I have had the opportunity to live in the south in the midwest you know here in New York City and lots and so it was interesting I mean the biggest adjustment Syracuse South Central Southwest Louisiana right I uh one of the biggest things that I recognized I moved from Detroit Michigan to um Conway South Carolina right

[9:08]  outside of Myrtle Beach and you said something that just made me go down a path of memory which was the word Yankee I for the first time in my life when I went to the South someone said you Yankees from the north and I was like wait are we talking about the Civil War here this is really interesting but I also love the fact that they were rooted in so much culture down in the South and especially being in those smaller communities what were some of the conversations that you were having with yourself when you go to Southwest Louisiana you're living in a completely different world basically what are some of the conversations you have with yourself about adapting to this new culture and fitting in with the way of the South that you weren't doing before well and you just sparked something for me so yeah we used to get called Yankees and too many Yankees in a room there's you know going to be a revolution or something and I'll tell you that before when I left this is just a side story I

[9:58]  walked all around New York City I was back here um before I was going back for my final two years and I searched every store in New York City for a hat that actually said Yankees and it's very difficult to find you can only find the emblem but I finally found one in Port Authority so I could hand them out as my Parting Gift uh down in Southwest Louisiana um you know I think I think when you're 22 and you really are uh in that frame I want to make a difference and I want to see things change for kids and I want to do everything I possibly can I think from my experience uh in Syracuse I was very actively involved in adult literacy and so particularly for kids to read um

[10:48]  I wanted to have a big uh impact on that at an early age because the adult Learners that I used to work with are probably some of the smartest people that I've ever known um cuz if you imagine not being able to read for most of your life you have to be highly intelligent to sort of navigate the world and and be able to figure things out in your in your own life right and so I was teaching you know folks that were in their 40s and 50s uh how to read and had just wonderful relationships and learned a lot from them and so I think in the school setting I really want to see kids not only know how to read but understand the joy of reading and the joy of thinking and and the escapism which I think is harder today with

[11:36]  social media and other things of getting uh you know people to sit and enjoy a book enjoy the story um and so I think reading is really critical uh and you know I'm living in the rural South it is a it was a big transition um from being in a college life uh to being in Southwest Louisiana and and we were also very fortunate I you know uh the core members down there that people embraced us but I do have you know I remember going into a store one time it was just this little and I didn't want gravy on my rice and the lady said it I haven't done that ever like I've worked here for 40 years and nobody and I thought oh my gosh you

[12:24]  know so uh so from that point on I got gravy on my rice or I check out and they would say your mama's not going to want to cook with those mushrooms and in my head I'm like my mom's like thousands of miles away but there's this sense of like you know this this is the culture and be a part of it but they didn't know who I was and when I came back they said oh you're that Yankee school teacher so I'm not joking when I say I got called the Yankee school teacher a lot uh but it was a term of endearment I I hope yeah I mean integrating yourself into a community like that is really interesting to me but also the element of intelligence is kind of how I want to frame this right people who often don't have educational experiences can't read

[13:10]  at the age of 4050 become incredibly smart when it comes to like emotional literacy and I feel like the more leaders who I speak to specifically in the education spaces are talking about the importance of these soft skills in navigating the world when you think about all the technology that's kind of thrust into the world especially for the younger demographic today where information is readily available to them and often thrust into their face what do you think the importance is on those soft skills the emotional intelligence as they navigate the future yeah I mean I think you know at New York Edge you know we do a lot on around social emotional learning and around different things that will build kids um uh identities you know whether it's self-awareness self-management responsible decision making their relationship skills social awareness

[13:59]  um I think that's a a really critical part of social emotional learning and really uh understanding where kids are coming from and also understanding you know I don't I I think you have to understand their worlds and how they operate in those worlds and not sort of negate it um and so I think that's really important um I think AI has an interesting future for kids um in a wide range of ways I think kids with disabilities could really benefit from the tools uh with AI so for example maybe they're not as strong in writing um but they are verbally uh you know functioning at a very high level that they can communicate in ways um and write papers and do things in ways that

[14:47]  they've never been able to do before uh I think for all kids uh and I think it's I think it's harder for adults to adjust to these tools than it is for our young people I also see in our communities and I've brought this up so often with mental health is that you know for year the 30 years I've been doing this um you know it's often that we have multiple languages spoken in our our schools you know and I when I say multiple I'm saying you know like 20 30 different languages and now with the technology and I can talk into a device and then it can you know put it in any language that you'd like so the person on the other end can understand what you're saying and vice versa we always

[15:35]  say with mental health providers we don't have enough like Spanish-speaking Mental Health Providers or we don't have enough um you know whatever language uh the children need um and so it's not enough to just stop there you know cuz that's how the conversation ends we don't have enough so I think we have to really use the utilize these tools in multiple ways in learning and in uh reaching kids and their families um you know I tried my grandmother was Slovakian so I tried you know and she used to speak Slovak with my great-grandmother and I thought you know she was still with us I typed something in and it totally wrote it out in Slovak but she used to get these letters from um you know Slovakia and have a neighbor

[16:24]  down the street translate them wow and so imagine now I could take her letters and I could put them in Ai and they would transfer translate them for her in English so uh I just think the possibilities are endless and that's where I think we have to come at these Technologies from is a lens of curiosity but also a lens of abundance right this technology today is so good speaking 30 different languages is no problem for artificial intelligence very easy but how do we integrate that into our lives to be able to create a better sense of connection you know one of the things that I often worry about very transparently Rachel is the next Generation that's coming up right now um has often been perceived as one of the least resilient generations and one of the common conversations that I often

[17:11]  talk about in the podcast is resilience often comes through exposure to our seniors in our communities who can tell us stories about things that they've overcome and when we have a disassociated we have a disconnected isolated type of community in society I worry that the oral stories of resiliency and overcoming hardship aren't being passed along and maybe artificial intelligence will help us get there but I think we need to come together more often rather than being so divisive and separated and isolated but a large part of that is due to the technology that we integrate with and interact with every single day too yeah and I also think that's where the power of uh after school comes in too because I think the kids are connected to our staff members as mentors and have that that face- tof face interaction it's a

[18:00]  very different relationship than you have with your teachers or the principal um and so we do a lot of community building and Leadership building in in that space um because typically school districts have you know their assigned curriculum and the goals that they have to achieve so I think in the out of school time space we're really allowed to uh you know dig a little deeper and work with kids because I agree with you I think this disconnect um from social you know I I've been in rooms with teenagers and they're not talking to each other they're just texting each other while they're sitting in the room and uh we actually don't uh engage in that during our after school program like they can't use their phones and they have to be disconnected unless it's of course something that we're working

[18:48]  on right that requires it and I think increasingly we're just trying and I think as adults when we put our phones away our brains operate differently too and we don't really miss it too much I don't think yeah have you ever heard of the term called Alone Together yes yeah so everybody in a social environment alone but together and that's something I truly worry about you know here's another question for you have you ever been to a show a event where you go into the auditorium into the center and they have you put your phone in a bag have you ever seen that before I have I saw Kevin Hart one time where we went into the stadium and everybody had their phone in a bag first of all people started freaking out cuz they're like wait what am I supposed to do but instantly when people sat down instead of looking on their own devices what did they do they turned to each other they

[19:35]  started having conversations with the person in front of them and behind them and it was magical and it reminded me of a Before Time and that was when I realized I started getting a little bit older was I remember when we used to go to events and nobody had a phone and people would just talk to each other that sense of community is something that I feel like we're yearning for more so today than ever but sometimes it takes a Kevlar bag to separate us from our device mandatorily which is really interesting yeah and I had that same reaction when that uh when I went to a concert and had the same experience and also I try not to video things because I'm watching it like you need to sit and enjoy the show or enjoy the comedian or whatever the case may be and I think that's important I want to talk a little bit about Nelson Mandela you were inspired by Nelson Mandela at some point in time

[20:22]  during your career can you share with the audience what that was like and what you left inspired with based on the messaging of the experience yeah you know when I was in graduate school at Harvard University uh president Mandela made his last visit uh to the US and the university uh Dressed Harvard Yard like a a special commencement and they've only done that for I believe George Washington and Winston Churchill and so uh so yeah that shows you how powerful a moment was and so the crowd filled uh Harvard Yard and president Mandela came up on the stage and you uh could have heard a pin drop within the audience it was just this absolute uh silence um you

[21:12]  know and one of the things that he said you know I'm paraphrasing is like I've grown old I'm going to rest and go up into the hills now and now it's your responsibility the next generation's responsibility to take on the challenges of the world and I think that that um you know really resonated with me I think anytime I hear an inspirational speaker or you know kamla Harris's most recent concession speech or you know the Obama's whatever whoever is speaking to remind us that it's all of our Collective responsibilities to create the change that we want to see in the world and so that was you know one of many defining moments um you know my life for people I've heard but I think

[22:01]  just the power his history um you know it was just very moving uh an experience for I I always say it was worth if I only did that that was fine for my whole tuition at the University right like that was enough a great return on the investment yeah yeah yeah I think all the you know you go to class and you do the things in school and you have these phenomenal faculty and that's true and then but also who who comes on these campuses in any place Syracuse Harvard wherever um I think is important for the younger generation and college students uh and you know to be exposed to these folks and so I think there's that you know that's what highered institutions do and I think it's phenomenal yeah was it the global impact of Nelson Mandela

[22:50]  or was it the intimacy that you got in just hearing him speak individually in that moment that was so inspiring to you I'm trying to like tap into that mindset of Rachel while you were there and why you were so yeah I mean I think it's the global impact I think it's coming out of incarceration and still um you know accepting things on behalf of South Africa that there wasn't you know I'm sure there was you know how do you psychologically in those moments continue uh the work that you're doing and what keeps you going and so I think uh you know there's times that are challenging in all of our lives when we uh do this kind of work um and so to think about how he transcended all of all of that in ways that you know talk

[23:40]  talk to a nation but talk to the entire world uh you know really resonates um because I think you have to find something or read something or find something within that keeps you going um because the issues and the challenges and things that uh that we Face are not easy on a day to to day basis do you believe in fate I do believe in fate yeah and I've had some interesting moments around that yeah I was listening to a conversation yesterday with Matthew MCC right the famous actor and he was on a podcast and he was talking about an interesting concept which really kind of impacted me and it was the way in which we live our lives we think everything is random right and only with the perspective of

[24:27]  time can we see how everything seems to be interconnected that how we show up at the coffee shop a couple minutes early and we meet somebody how we choose to go to a specific school that Nelson Mandela ends up coming and inspiring us and talking to us in a certain way that causes us to change the trajectory of what we pursue I'm really interested in thinking about the macro picture of it all and how it's all kind of connected and it seems like your experience not only at Syracuse but Boston College and now Harvard but also South Central and Southwest Louisiana is all connected to kind of bring you to the place where you're in today to be able to impact this next Generation because it's so important specifically at this point in time in society yeah and I I think you know I think the writings of Dr King I think the writings of myangelo I think you

[25:15]  know I think there's people that uh also that you read and think or go see about that when you need that that boost or that lift to keep going um I think that's just an an important part of the journey as well and so you know and in speaking about like fate I remember very clearly in Syracuse I was walking about to go up on campus I don't remember what the issue was exactly but there was a homeless man who you know I used to speak with he walked up you know I'd say hello and that would be it and then and it was a really bad day for whatever reason and he said oh don't don't you worry you're doing the right work I just was like well wait how does

[26:03]  this guy know you know like what I uh encounter and you know on a day-to-day basis so it was just so sometimes I think there are these moments that are fate too where you know you're you're holding on to something and and somebody somewhere that you don't expect uh comments and says something to you that you know that changes your whole trajectory that day yeah it's a beautiful story yeah what do you think the biggest challenge we are facing right now or roadblocks to supporting our communities specifically with after school programs is specifically in a space that you work in so like New York City what kinde of challenges are you guys facing and creating more opportunities to support more children with more types of events and more types of programs what type of fa challenges

[26:51]  are you guys facing you know I I'm not sure I I would place it as challenges as much as how do you interconnect all of the resources that are here CU what I often find is that people want to engage and they want to help but it's also how do you weave the web so that um so that they can fit in and provide support and have a lasting relationship like I you know we have a music industry program and our kids go to Republic records right it's about building those relationships and Partnerships that are out there you know there will always be things like you know resources financial resources and that kind of thing but I I tend to take these things from a community organizing lens and I like to walk around uh in our

[27:40]  neighborhoods and in our um you know in the city and so forth and really use like a strength B based approach to you know there's a lot here how do we connect it I mean and I think that goes back to us time in Louisiana like that kids didn't have a a soccer program so we literally took uh these fishermen took their Nets and made soccer goals somebody else came out to build that the moms did this whole food thing to raise money and all of a sudden you see this being built right and when you're in a city like New York City that's one is the greatest city in the world when you know it's here like you just have to interconnect it and bring it to the kids

[28:29]  and I think that's what we're seeing with like our animation program we've had uh Pixar um gentlemen from Pixar who did the short film self come and talk to the staff uh so they're doing animation and music industry we have a book publishing company that the kids uh write and produce with professional authors so I think it's about bringing people together uh we have an award uh winning podcast that is in its our second award since we last talked we won the Davy award so so we've won the anthem award and we've won the Davey award uh two weeks ago and uh and we just recently won an architecture award for how our offices decide uh designed last night and so I think that um I think these

[29:20]  things are important because I think when you're in the social service sector you know you're not often given the resources to bring all these things to light I think the pandemic uh allowed us to actually get more financial resources and now you know that's retracting so um you know so for us to continue to do all these big our educate Innovation Labs you know we continue to need need uh more resources to fund those um wasn't it wasn't as hard during the pandemic because money was being uh given to us because of the pandemic so we were able to do a lot um so now we're kind of back to the same same old same old so from a strategy perspective how do you form

[30:08]  some of these gigantic Partnerships right we're talking about Pixar we're talking about brands that people know love and experience on their own so what is your strategy for going out and building this network of community to be able to expose so many of these children to these opportunities yeah so I just kind of ask like so you know I I know people want some like rocket science things so I went to South by Southwest uh in Austin last year and I went not to the educa well I did go to the education component but I went to the the big component where there's Pixar and there's um movie production and I went up and asked people I said look I run the largest we're the largest provider of

[30:55]  school-based after school programming uh uh in the city of New York we serve well over 100 Schools 30,000 kids and in the Pixar situation that team who did self it was about an Ethiopian girl um and the two creators talked about how uh they didn't know that they could have these careers Growing Up So their story also was aligned with um our kids and uh so it was a very very easy ask for them to say look would you come because I have a distinguished would you come and talk to our staff I have a distinguished speaker series too that I bring in for the staff and all of these folks you know and I think our our our podcast uh people have

[31:43]  recommended people you know we've had Grammy Award winners we've had astronauts we've had um President Obama's ambassador to Switzerland we're about to have the under Secretary of Education and these adults want to talk to kids like it's like that's the easiest uh cell is to say look I have these middle schoolers and they want to know your journey and that's why the podcast is called formative um but they ask really you know and kids have no filter either so they ask really uh poignant questions um and when I designed that honestly Kenan it was for me to spend some time with kids to see how they were thinking um and the goal was you know cuz we kind of Co host it uh but I don't co-host anymore the goal was in my mind for them

[32:33]  to take it over and they have so I just come in and dub in now with the uh because that's what you want you want kids to drive these things but we have to set up the infrastructure uh for it to happen for them so we have uh so it's exciting it's really exciting I mean I think I mean we beat out like NBC and NPR I don't know on the anthem award like these kids you know that's what I mean we have such talent uh and we have to cultivate that early because then when you decide to go to college or do something um later in life you'd be like well you know I have an award-winning podcast that I did when I was in seventh grade I mean what's better than that you know I I think about not only the environment that you guys are

[33:21]  creating for this next Generation but often you guys are inspiring them by showing them that these things are possible possible through proximity you know there's a quote um from Napoleon I believe it is it says leaders are dealers in hope when I think about the opportunity to sit across the table if you will from an astronaut or from anybody else and they're actually In the Flesh in front of you and shown how they've done the things that they've done imagine how inspired these kids are but also the changing of trajectory of their lives it has to be amazing to be the person who's pulling all this together Rachel like do you ever get some time to reflect on your own accomplishments and inspiring the Next Generation probably not no yeah I think we do I think we do we do as a community I mean I think I just mean you specifically specifically well there's

[34:11]  one thing I think I pause for a minute because the one thing I was going to say is I think often adults when you were talking about the astronaut when they say um when a kid says I want to be an astronaut and then typically adults say well stay in school and study hard right that's that's why formative is important and why we're putting curriculum to it too is that they also learn what what's the path how do you actually become an astronaut like if I really want to become an astronaut what what was his path what did he study you know so on and so forth and so I think that's really the uh importance of this podcast is because I think the exposure to all the jobs kind of where we started out

[34:59]  here was you know you're really learning and you know all of the opportunities but you're also learning that it's not a straight path that nothing's easy right because we often see people at the end of their careers or Journeys when they've become X Y or Z but we don't know what it took to to get there and I think that's what's really important um so going back yeah I mean I think the reflection is all always about where are we what else um you know how are the kids responding uh we have a remarkable staff at New York Edge you know I have 1,700 employees here um and directors and leaders uh in the field um from you know from everybody our senior staff to everybody who runs these

[35:47]  programs on the ground and so it's about cultivating uh a culture of learning and Innovation and and so I think our reflection is okay wow I mean I think even for the adults look what we just accomplished right um you know our book publishing uh company I think we had seven news outlets in New York City come out to that and it was that you know you're lucky if you get so the Strand but that was at the Strand and the kids are giving a book talk at the Strand Bookstore and then they're signing the book but what I love is that the other kids in the audience say okay well can I do that like when when do I get to write a book because um you know I think we got to get away from worksheets and

[36:35]  things that um you know we used to call drill and kill uh is that you know while repetition on certain things is good again it's creativity it's curiosity but it's also about having fun like you got to wake up you know our Arts programs we have very large showcases where kids you know they might have a step compe ition here with a couple H you know hundreds of kids and then they're going to Washington DC to perform with a professional um Step troop or the kids right now are in flag football and there's a couple thousand kids in all the parks in New York City and then they play the finals at the jet Stadium you know so there's always a you know I have kids in tennis right so they then they

[37:25]  go over to the US Open and they play with the professional coaches at the US Open um so we want them to see themselves uh you know at Radio City musicall because we've had kids compete at Radio City musicall we've been National Chess Champions um and we also have National other National programs so I think we create that that energy in that pathway for kids so either you know and also when it comes to sports Health and Wellness you may just do it for fun like that may just be your sport or whatever the case may be or I might have the next Reena Williams in our program I don't know right so but we have to we have to make it just not an activity that

[38:12]  there's there's some connectivity um they got to go to the US Open and they did they were standing outside Arthur Ash stadium and you know and that flips something for kids to say this is this is where you can be the core memories right I often hear the stories of the athletes and the people who I look up to who have accomplished great things often go back to an early story in their life or their you know their life where they're like you know I had the opportunity to go stand outside of the US Open I had an opportunity to go to Radio musical I had a chance to go here and it changed everything what do you what do you think about your responsibility in casting a vision for the next generation of great leaders who are going to support the community now when we think about this like there there's so much competition for the

[38:59]  Youth to go into different spaces like being influencers and things like that but if they want to come work for an amazing organization like New York Edge how are you thinking about casting that Vision where they can find themselves being successful in what you guys do every single day yeah so what's great about us at New York Edge is we have a lot of actually our former students work here as well I believe in yeah and you know so if they go off to college they come back and they work for us in the summer we have people that are full-time employees um but I do think it's important to think about uh this as a field as well so we have uh an internship program with uh local high schools um that their interest is in stem um so they teach stem within our um programs to younger

[39:49]  kids as well so we always see this kind of Full Circle going on within our our community and then we also see you know we've had had a young man named um kinshuk who uh went to Harvard on a full ride um studying economics and his first semester was during the pandemic so I called him on the phone we did a zoom and he looked like he hadn't uh left his room or showered in a while cuz he was studying and I said are you going outside and getting fresh air right and at the time he was a little concerned you know the pandemic was going on I said no you can walk around um and then I said well how are you doing in school right for any freshman in their first year it's tough and he said oh miss Rachel um I got an A

[40:39]  minus and I thought he said a a c minus or something but here he got all straight A's but he was upset because he got an A minus now this is a kid uh whose English skills didn't develop probably till 9th grade um and he we would have to uh get him to leave the high school cuz he didn't have a computer in his home like he'd stay there till 11:00 at night studying and this is what I mean we have these young people you know at Syracuse University they've gone up to um summer program I want them there I I don't want them just touring campus I want them in these summer programs in 10th and 11th grade where they get college credit and they understand the rigers of college

[41:28]  so that they're ready to go cuz I don't want um them to go in but then not complete um and feel supported in that process you know particularly our first generation uh students so that you know they have the right supports in place going into the process and into school instead of waiting till it becomes stressful and it's stressful for every kid no matter who they are um so I think that's really important for us yeah Rachel what do you want your legacy to be you know I think my legacy I would love for it to be these young people um continuing on with this work and I think that my hope is is that you know anywhere I've been um to be able to work with a team because it's not just me

[42:18]  it's an entire Community um we can't always see the end result but that there's a lot of young people out there that are just going to keep um passing it forward and keep working hard and keep the the journey and the social justice issues alive um so I think for me I I'm not going to I won't you won't ever see your legacy right um because I think it's within these young people one of the traditions we have here Rachel as we kind of put the wheels down to land our episode is our previous guest want to ask you a blind question okay now our previous guest is an amazing leader um who works in a child and youth program down in Georgia and her question was what is the one thing that people

[43:06]  wouldn't know about you from your professional CV or your resume well okay so uh probably five years ago I was in a situation that was supposed to be a routine uh procedure which ended up to me almost passing away so um it became this like horrific nightmare of 10 surgeries and all kinds of things so it was in those moment that moment when I thought things were going that that would be the end um that if I was given the opportunity to keep going you know and I

[43:54]  had to really pull on my own uh resilience and my own uh you know inner strength to sort of push myself uh through that while still trying to you know run an organization which has the same kind of uh emphasis as New York Edge does so I think that's the one thing um that people would would not know but I always kind of looked at it as you know how do I how do I get my mindset so that um I can move sort of Beyond this because I didn't and and when you're in it I didn't actually realize how dire it was until I was through cuz nobody actually told me at that at that moment um so but

[44:45]  I you know that was a challenge and I think uh I think there were a lot of promises that that I made to myself at that time and I think also at the time my close friend had who's also a teacher had died of brain cancer and I kept thinking well how do you get that news and I'm in this position like what did he mentally process to keep going forward in life and so you know while I've talked about all these people that fuel me and inspire me and keep me going in the work I do um that was a very defining moment that you will not ever see on my TV yeah I think it's a good question I actually love that you do this at the end of the show it's a it's a way for us to tie these episodes

[45:33]  together because we talked to so many leaders right and often the questions are more tactical but when we can learn more about the person and not to call name to the podcast but their heart and hustle it gives us a better understanding of who the people are who are leading these amazing organizations and you definitely are the definition of heart and hustle and I can't thank you enough for coming on the show for everybody who's been tuning in watching and listening it's been amazing hear about your journey The Inspirations your time in Southwest Louisiana going into some of those stores and buying those Yankee hats as kind of your farewell gift to everybody in the south is an amazing opportunity for us to get to know you better so Rachel thank you so much for coming on the show I really appreciate it