5 minute read
Last Call
Julia Kilgore
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Julia Kilgore joined the staff of the Worcester Education Collaborative as deputy director at the end of October. WEC is a nonprofit, non-partisan privately funded research and policy organization dedicated to empowering every Worcester Public School graduate.
How did you end up in Worces-
ter? I am from north of Worcester and I attended undergrad at Assumption College. I studied sociology, social policy and community service learning there. Through those programs, I did a lot of volunteering around the city, got to know more about the community. I also did a lot of work with local nonprofits and cultural institutions and started to really experience the charm of Worcester and to know more about the restaurants and parks. I loved all of the different places to experience art and music and all of the enriching diversity that the city has to offer. Since then, I’ve started to consider Worcester my home, even though I’m not originally from the city itself.
What were some of the first organizations or projects you worked on that really drew you
to public service? When I was a senior at Assumption, I started volunteering with African Community Education, which is wonderful. They do youth development and educational programming with African youth across the city. They offer math classes, English classes, tutoring, and they even have an outreach department. They do a lot of really fun activities with drumming and dance. It’s a great celebration of culture in their community. When I was graduating, they actually had a job opening. I felt very fortunate to join their team. And that is what really kicked off my career in public service.
Worcester Education Collab-
orative? I worked with the ACE program for just under six years. I was program director, so I was doing a lot of different things in that role of managing some of the operations and engaging with the youth and the families. I was involved with human resources and finances. I did lots of grant writing. I was wearing many different hats in that role. Being able to experience all the different aspects of nonprofit was something I really enjoyed. But, at the same time, there were a lot of different challenges that we were facing beyond the control of our organization. Systemic issues related to funding, from the state, for instance. I decided to get my master’s in Public Administration, to deepen my skill set around some of those program management
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pieces, but also to get a better idea of policy and systems-level work. Since then, I have been working at the systems level with organizations like Boston Afterschool & Beyond, a nonprofit intermediary. They provide capacity building to nonprofit organizations and educational institutions, as well as work closely with the City and the school district to support access to resources and align programming to make sure that nonprofits and educators are equipped with the tools and resources they require to offer the highest quality programming that they can.
How did you decide to join Worcester Education Collab-
orative? WEC has a very similar mission, supporting Worcester Public Schools and ensuring excellence in terms of the opportunities that students have in the district, both during the school day and outside of the school day as well. I am really excited to be transitioning into a support role where I can help to address some of those challenges that I faced early in my career with ACE.
What is the plan for your first
100 days at WEC? First up is planning for our annual meeting, which is taking place on December 9, and we are thrilled to welcome Joseph South as our keynote. Joseph South is the Chief Learning Officer with the International Society for Technology in Education, and formerly served as the director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. South developed our national educational technology policy and worked on a cross-governmental team to bring high-speed broadband, interactive devices, professional development for educators and leaders, and high-quality affordable digital content to classrooms across the U.S. Tech access and equity is, of course, a salient issue with students learning remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it’s also the True North for the Worcester Education Equity Roundtable — which a group of passionate education and youth development professionals convened by WEC. This coalition is working to align key programs, outreach, and advocacy with an unwavering commitment to equity for historically marginalized students in the Worcester Public Schools. Out of this Roundtable came WooLabs, which is my second major focus for the first 100 days. WooLabs is a subcommittee that aims to reimagine and amplify teaching and learning in Worcester, particularly in response to the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and system racism. WooLabs hopes to align outof-school learning around projectbased, student-centered learning and create a robust community of practice for continual, shared learning and resource-sharing across our partners. My charge is to bring in funding so that we can launch our reimagination projects with this group by early 2021.
How does WEC historically partner with Worcester’s schools?
In 2018, WEC co-drafted a Strategic Plan with the Worcester Public Schools, which outlined strategic goals for the district focused on areas of culture of innovation, academic excellence, welcoming schools, investing in educators, and technology & operations. We have been running our Reading Together program with the district for seven years. This is a beloved and very successful program that focuses on family literacy for K-3rd graders at seven elementary schools. WEC distributes high-quality books to children & families, engages classrooms in a read-along with community volunteers, and shares activities for their parents and caregivers to support them as they learn to read at home. We love this program because its supporting literacy during those critical years when children are learning to read, so that when they need to be able to read to learn--they are ready. For five years now, we’ve also been running Worcester HEARS, which stands for Healthy Environments NOVEMBER 12
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and Resilience in Schools. This initiative is funded by The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts and offers training for educators on trauma-sensitive practice. In all this work, we serve as a critical friend to the district. When we see a concern, we raise that concern but we also bring solutions to the table and work hand-in-hand with the district and the community to find the solutions and implement them. Regardless of what issue we are tackling or where we are working, we always keep the students at the center. The deciding factor is always what is best for the students in Worcester Public Schools. 18, 2020 WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM – Sarah Connell Sanders 23
