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Powering public schools
Xóchitl (Sochi) Gaytán had come to a crossroads. It was the late 1990s and the 21-year-old student at Metropolitan State University of Denver had recently learned she was going to be a mother. She wasn’t sure if she should continue her studies.
“I was a young, pregnant Mexicana, and I was getting a lot of looks,” she said. “Then, I saw some hate group had posted fliers around campus and I decided not to come back.”
Gaytán, now president of the Denver school board, is used to traversing roads laden with detours and discrimination — and persisting nonetheless.
Her “undocumented story” began at age 3, when she arrived with her mother from Mexico. Her father eventually made the journey as well. But housing insecurity kept them from living in one location.
Gaytán attended five elementary schools around Denver’s Northside neighborhood before relocating to the southwest part of the city and graduating from Lincoln High School. That experience, and her son’s encounter with the education system a generation later, shaped her perspective on what she described as educational injustices. Privatization and inequitable fund allocation means that some schools don’t offer the same opportunities, she said.
It’s no surprise, then, that her focus today is on building an inclusive public education infrastructure, rooted in community and anchored in an environment of care.
Gaytán’s own educational journey has come full circle. She returned to MSU Denver to finish her Business Management degree in 2014. That decision was prompted by her desire to be a stronger school board candidate. It paid dividends when she claimed a seat in 2021.
Her second stretch on campus was markedly different from the first. She lauded the “incredible diversity … not just in students of color but also in socioeconomic status, age, so many people coming back to finish what they started.”
Much to Gaytán’s delight, there will soon be another MSU Denver student finishing what he started. Her son followed in her footsteps and will graduate this year with degrees in Global Business and Political Science.
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