Step 71: Columbia Regrets to Inform You…

Several month ago I applied to a PhD program at Columbia’s Teachers College. I had found what I thought was a perfect program, Anthropology and Education, at just the right time. I carefully crafted my application, got my recommendation letters together, and took my GRE. Despite the rejection notice today, I know I put forward the strongest application I possibly could. And it’s okay that I didn’t get accepted – I guess that program is just not meant to be a part of my path right now.

I am very proud of the admissions essay I wrote and so I decided to share it below. The fact that Columbia will not immediately be a part of the journey that this essay lays out is not a terrible thing. I’ll find another way now to keep making progress toward bringing this dream to life — not only because I want to see it become a reality but more importantly because so many people in this country, in this world, need this solution:

“How did you learn to make stuff?” whispered Superior, one of my 7th grade Junior Achievement students at M.S. 223 in the South Bronx, when I described my career as a product developer.

“I made something once and it didn’t work so well so I just kept changing it until it did work well. A lot of trial and error and trial again,” I replied. “This process is called prototyping.”

He looked at me with a very serious expression. “I want to learn to make stuff, too.”

“And what kind of company do you want to work for?” I asked.

“My own. I don’t want to work for anyone else, ever,” he said.

Inspired by this conversation with Superior last year, I began to seriously consider a professional career in education. I was stunned by his interest in entrepreneurship at such a young age. I asked each student in the class what career they would like to have. 8 out of 10 wanted to have their own businesses where they made their own original products. These students were budding entrepreneurs, and I want to help them open their own businesses by providing them with a curriculum that teaches them the skills that will make them successful in their pursuits.

Our most successful lesson to date at M.S. 223 involved improvised skits to demonstrate the importance of insurance during emergency situations. The children came alive when asked to perform. I understood this feeling well because I made my career in professional theatre for 6 years. Additionally, the students quickly learned the complicated vocabulary and intrinsic value of insurance through their performances. The students were gifted storytellers. They showed me how all of my professional experiences could be brought to bear in a classroom setting. I found my home in the field of education at M.S. 223 thanks to those students.

As I headed for the subway that day last year, I felt a mix of emotions. I was tired from a long day and appreciative of what it takes to be a teacher in New York City public schools. I was happy to lend my time to a group of children who were eager to learn and in need of adult role models. I was frustrated with the holes in their curriculum and sad because I knew the dire living situations of these children.

Mostly, I felt responsible. I grew up below the poverty line so I understand the personal circumstances these children face every day. The odds of success are stacked against them just as they were stacked against me. Even though I grew up in a difficult socioeconomic situation, public education helped me to change my circumstances. I have a fervent desire to help other students the way that my family, teachers, and guidance counselors helped me to break the cycle of poverty by encouraging my natural creativity and love for learning. These children at M.S. 223, and the many other children around the world just like them, can better their own lives through hard work and commitment – I know that first hand. They can choose their better history so long as we build public education systems that provide opportunities for broad-based learning and success.

Design thinking, the discipline of using the creative problem-solving skills of a designer, is an ideal tool to re-imagine public education systems. While I have used design thinking as a product developer for almost a decade in a number of different industries, only recently have I begun to consider its application in social enterprise.

The development of education systems that tap into design is critical to our future. In corporations I meet many employees who feel downtrodden and powerless, unable to tap their personal creativity that can develop break-through innovation. They literally have to have their creativity and confidence rebuilt from the ground up because their education system and the companies where they work told them that people like accountants, computer programmers, and sales people are not the creative ones in an organization. Corporations cannot afford this kind of mindset in our new economy; to survive they need the creative engines of every employee.

Superior has more confidence in his creative abilities than most professional business people I know. We need education systems that reinforce creative confidence, not tear it down. It would be more effective to build a public education system that fosters creativity all the way through rather than trying to teach adult professionals how to be as creative as children. It is to this end that I plan to dedicate my career going forward.

Building public education systems based on design thinking will be my contribution to humanity. A doctoral degree from Columbia’s Teachers College in Anthropology and Education will be an asset for me as I pursue this dream. This program is the only doctoral program I am applying to because of its unique emphasis on a deep, disciplined understanding of culture as a critical component to building effective education systems. I am particularly enthusiastic about this program because it recognizes that educational environments can be found throughout a community and because of its history as a pioneer, a history that perfectly suits my plans to innovate in the field of education.

By conducting on-the-ground research and development in design thinking applied to public education, I can help many children across the globe to live happier, more productive lives. The concerns that our world faces are serious and many, and they demand that we muster every bit of our collective creativity to find solutions that bring about real, long-lasting change. When I consider how I can best lever up my abilities to do the most good in the world, my thoughts always return to the field of education because it is the lynchpin that makes transformative change possible. Education is our greatest hope for a better world and a brighter future.”