One of the greatest gifts you can have in life is having someone who believes in you more than you believe in yourself. When someone tells you that they see potential in you, it can change your life.
Two of these special people helped me along into diversity work.
Initially, I didn’t see myself as a leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in my school. The election of 2016 pushed me into high gear, and I knew I had so much to learn. More than ever I was all-in, as I made DEI a central part of every choice I made as a teacher. However, I didn’t myself as a DEI leader.
The other issue is that I had full plate. I had a young child at home, the job of music department chair took a lot of my time, and I also had a full teaching load. At my school being a department chair doesn’t mean you have less classes to teach. I was doing enough for my school. I had my moments that I wished all I had to worry about at school was teaching. At the same time, I enjoyed being in leadership and having the power to really help other people.
My middle school head understood all of this, which is why he was very gentle in suggested that I think about being the DEI Chair. He wondered, if because I had done a great job as music department chair in the past couple years if some of that work could be shared with others in my department and I could focus on being a leader in a different way. I was surprised when he brought this up to me. Even though I knew that he had seen a lot of the curricular work around DEI, I didn’t realize that he saw greater potential in me to serve the community in another role. I told him I’d think about it.
I found out that I would be a DEI co-chair with another teacher that I respected greatly. The idea of collaborating with him got me really excited. I don’t remember exactly how Diana reacted when I brought this idea up to her. Knowing her and how incredibly supportive she has been of me, likely she thought it was a good idea as well, but she probably worried about the time commitment.
One thing I realized is that part of doing this job was getting acknowledgment for work that I was already doing. So yes, it was more work, but it wasn’t all new. It was moving along a journey I was already on, not a turn in another direction.
I applied for this position, which consisted of writing an essay, and this led an interview with the assistant principal. She had the biggest smile when I walked into her office. As I talked about DEI, she kept saying “yes,” and nodding her head. She got more and more excited the more I talked. After not too long, she said that she knew that I would be wonderful in this position and she was so excited to have me as a DEI Co-Chair.
Every time we met from then on, she would tell me how great she thought I was doing. In those words I heard, “prove me right, because I know I’m not wrong.” Her belief in me and the encouragement of the middle school head motivated me to dive deeper, do more, and keep in the work.
As much as they believed in me, that wasn’t enough. I had a lot to learn, and fortunate for me, I got to know the broader DEI community, and that opened up my eyes to seeing the world and myself in a whole different way.
Try to be that person that sees something in someone that they don't see in themselves. It's the most motivating thing in my professional life, and I am forever grateful to those who took the time to tell me that they believed in me.
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