MPP Career in Education Policy

How a Pepperdine Master of Public Policy Degree Prepares you for a Career in Education Policy.

Video Transcription:

It was while I was in college that I had the experience that channeled my energy and my passion for the education system. We went downtown to volunteer on Skid Row and there was one resident in particular who caught my eye. It was this little girl who was about six-months old crawling on the sidewalk and I just remember looking at her and thinking, "she has no idea what she's up against." Everything sort of culminated from this idea that you know education really is the only answer if nothing else changes in your family, if your parents don't have the resources or tools, but you have a chance if you could get a good education. So I decided that I would become a teacher. I would learn about this system we call education and one day I'd open a school for kids like her. The name of our school is Crete Academy and we got the name, a Greek word, "Crete" which means to create. Our philosophy and belief is that students can come to us and take a hold of the resources and support that we provide. We serve children who are in South Los Angeles ages T-K through sixth grade which is about four years old to twelve. We provide a college prep program and also a wellness program that provides wraparound services so it's really an integrated school. We're looking at the whole family, the whole child, and focusing on their emotional well-being as well as their academics.

Pepperdine School Public Policy aligned with my core values and that was what was most important. I specifically wanted to be there because of the school's focus as a whole, and specifically the School of Public Policy's focus on really taking what, you learn in the program and applying it to improve society. I want to change this community and if we can invest in our hundred and twenty-six kids and send them off to never be in this poverty cycle again, we've done our job.

The 30-40 year goal is to work on education policy and to start at the micro-level and expand to the macro-level and the only degree that was able to do that in my opinion was a public policy degree. I looked at MPAs, I looked at MBAs, but there wasn't enough about the inner workings of society in either of those other degrees but with the public policy degree not only was I learning the analytical and the research side, I was also learning about society and how things work and how people work. I think a public policy degree is important no matter what you do. You have to understand the system that you're working within. That's when you can get at some of the major issues that we see every day. I think without that you can't really do anything and you can't really make change.

I'm grateful for Pepperdine. I'm grateful for the people that Pepperdine has afforded me the opportunity to work with and plan the school with and to prepare for the next 20 years and really tackling this issue of poverty. Eventually, I want to be old and gray writing policies for children who are low-income and homeless as it relates to education and for sure working with the kids who are in the most devastating situations to make sure that they can dream.

Read How a Master of Public Policy Degree Prepares you for a Career in Education Policy blog.