Name: Colette Leong

Social Justice Group: Race and Education

Date of Fieldwork: December 5, 2018

Name of Organization: The Achievement Network

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Teimosa Martin

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We interviewed Teimosa Martin of the The Achievement Network, an organization which helps fund under resourced kids and improves their quality of education.

What I learned:

We learned that your status and where you lived determined the quality of education you have. Teimosa also shared her story with us about her experience abroad in Ghana, Africa. After spending time in Ghana, she noticed it was too expensive to pay for good teachers, therefore, the education isn’t as good as the kids deserve. Teimosa stated that the dropout rate in Ghana was astronomical, more than half of the students in sixth grade drop out. To provide quality education for kids in under funded communities, Teimosa now works for the Achievement Network to give teachers tools in order to help students and themselves, help teachers do their job more efficiently, and help manage public schools so they are well-off. Teimosa observed that after teaching kids and soon becoming the school leader were that there was a lack of understanding that teachers weren’t aware of with their students. Teimosa says Educational Equity is the foundation of what drives her to do what she does.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that taking action is crucial for people who want to change inequity in our society. People like Teimosa gave up their jobs to work for organizations who take action and help improve major problems in our society.