Stories

My professors taught me all the fundamentals about business, as much as you can from a book. But then they talked how about how to learn, how to work hard. That carried me.

I don’t feel like a hero. I took an oath to take care of people and that’s all that I’m trying to do.

All of us are being asked to do things differently, so none of us feels alone. I think the way teachers work is going to change.

Our Black community is in danger. This isn’t breaking news, but it should be breaking hearts.

Our goal is to hear voices we don’t always hear. Our students are so smart, and so connected, we want to hear all the solutions they have.

What I’ve tried to do in the program is to help students self-advocate and to help them understand how academic settings work.

We want to empower students to be the authors of their own stories. It’s really about rethinking what this center can do to amplify voices that are most silenced in this society.

I know very few people I grew up with who are doing what they thought they would be doing at 16 or 17 years old. I tell young people, ‘Go to a state school, figure out what you really want to do.’ We’re so fortunate in Massachusetts to have the public higher education system we have. We’re a leader in the country.

The same level of detail (in a classroom assignment) goes into writing a bill. You have to think about, ‘How does that line connect to this line, and then to that line.’ It’s the same process.

I jumped at the opportunity to welcome students from Fitchburg State to my department. I’m glad these young adults could put themselves in a police cruiser and see if this is something they want to do full-time.