Name: Francheska Santos

Hometown: The Bronx, New York

Program: Urban Education Policy, Class of 2019

Occupation: Assistant Director of Partnership Learning for Prepared To Teach, Bank Street College of Education

What drew you to the UEP program at Brown? 

I was working at the New York Public Library, and managing an after-school program site. Some of my students, who were in high school, were expressing challenges they were having with their teachers but also comments speaking to the education system in general. When thinking about my next steps I realized I wanted to go deeper into policy and advocacy, so I could learn more about my students and place their experiences in a larger context. When looking for a program, I really looked for a program that had an immersive, experiential learning experience because I was already working with students on the ground. I wanted to be able to connect my work experience with my academic experience. I didn’t want to learn only in a classroom because when you’re only in a classroom setting, you can’t apply all the pedagogy and theory you’re learning to the actual work. I was looking for programs with an internship component and those that could provide a holistic overarching view of policy and advocacy through qualitative and quantitative methods, which ultimately UEP provided.
 

How did your undergraduate education and any previous work experience lead or motivate you to pursue a master's in urban education policy?

I was an American Studies major at Amherst College, a small liberal arts college in western Massachusetts, so I was already trained in critical thinking across multiple perspectives. My learning experience at Amherst set up my approaches in the work I do and helped me understand the why through multiple perspectives; looking at the people involved, systems in place, history, and economics to find the trigger points for where and when change happens. Since I was already living through that lens I wanted to find a specific tie to my work with students at the time, which I ended up deciding would be education policy. I wanted to dig deeper and understand more of the work through multiple angles and be able to find the trigger points for where change within education happens and its implications for my students and students across the education spectrum.
 

What was the highlight of your experience in the UEP program?

The cohort model is beautiful for a program that is advanced and as intensive as UEP. For me, the model provided a lot of support in finding other people who were within the same age range, looking for the same things, and going through the same classes. It also provided me with a safe space, so I really did value the small community we built in our cohort. I also think there was a very underrated professional development session in our internship class of finding and choosing keywords for our elevator pitches to describe our purpose and mission within our work. The activity left us with a sense of what our three grounding words were. Mine were curiosity, integrity, and growth and I have lived by them since that day. It was a very definitive moment displaying the values I stand on and driving factors for my work and it was very impactful. Also lastly, the support from faculty and our quant TA at the time. I had my share of challenges throughout my time in the program but by the end, I was glad to be able to reflect and identify moments where I received the grace and support I needed at the time. 
 

What are you up to now after graduating from the program?

Currently, I’m the Assistant Director of Partnership Learning at Prepared to Teach, an organization that works across various states to build and support deep partnerships toward high-quality and affordable teacher residency programs. Our work is centered on identifying and removing barriers associated with pathways into teaching, especially financial barriers. I was first hired as a Research Coordinator on the Aspiring Teachers’ Financial Burdens Survey which highlighted the impact of financial burdens on teacher candidates during their clinical experience. The data from this survey also supported other existing research on how financial barriers are even a greater deterrent for programs to be able to recruit multiple candidates from underrepresented groups and backgrounds. Programs that can financially support candidates during their clinical practice, hopefully as a teacher resident, can lead to a more diverse candidate pool, stronger teachers, and see an increase in positive learning outcomes. For example, New Mexico, a state we’re working in, added a stipend for teacher residents and mentor teachers in their state legislature last year (and it was passed again this year!). I just learned from one of the partners that this stipend has led to significant differences in cohort representation, in 2022 they had 43% of residents representing the multicultural landscape, and the incoming cohort next year is 81%. Important and impactful how financial support can shift teacher preparation and ultimately student outcomes.

While I do national partnership work with university programs and district leaders in Minnesota and New Mexico, I also lead some national work on a network analysis project to understand how relationships and networks affect systems so we can gain a better understanding of how change happens. We’re partnering with the University of Alaska on this project and I’ve learned so much, which is always exciting to me when I have the opportunity to apply new ways of thinking to my work.
 

What was one way you centered yourself or worked on your mental health while being a graduate student with many other responsibilities?

I definitely relied on my friends that I met in the cohort. I’m so grateful for the bonds we made and the support we gave each other. We did problem sets together and set up our own cohort outings. I also think my friends and I tried to do things outside of the immediate UEP community because you can get stuck in your little academic bubble. So we made friends with other graduate students in NABRIT (National Black Graduate Student Association) and I was able to make some good friends from those connections that I still keep in touch with today. I would also spend time at the U-FLI Center (Undocumented, First-Generation College, and Low-Income Student Center). In a place like Brown, it was important for me to find racial and socioeconomic affinity groups to find that sense of belonging and others who shared similar experiences and were at Brown. When things felt a little too stressful for me, I would also come home often to New York City and I’m fortunate I lived relatively close. Shoutout to Barahona Express, the Dominican door-to-door transportation service to/from NYC and Providence!  I also took advantage of the counseling center at Brown and went to therapy weekly, which taught me quite a few lessons on managing stress that I still use today.
 

What advice would you give a student applying to the program? 

First and foremost I would say to use the resources provided by Brown to the fullest extent. I would also say to keep in mind the possibilities of where the UEP program can take you. While it’s not a bad thing to believe you are going into the program for one skill set, the program presents you with the opportunity to discover and build on different skill sets. Personally, I came into the program wanting to work in government offices and districts but through the program, I was able to think about different skill sets that can be applied in different settings. I also think interested applicants should remember their foundations, their beliefs, and their mission in the work of education. You want to make sure you are aligned and firm in your belief that your learning and experiences in this program will impact real lives. It’s necessary to keep equity at the forefront and understand systemic challenges affecting communities, especially in our current political climate. Learning and working in policy and data can change the way you view things and will sometimes take the human out of education. You’ll see people and experiences as data points and variables, but it’s important to understand that that is not their whole story. While the quantitative is important and helpful, the nuance within the qualitative can ground the understanding for you as a student, a professional, and a person in society.

It’s easy to get lost in the work and develop a sense of hopelessness for all of the challenges occurring because you can’t solve everything at once. However, one of the things I’ve learned is that these points of crisis are also the points of ripe innovation and reapplication of frameworks that may not have worked in the past but can work now, perhaps differently with a changed mindset. There is always work to be done within this field at every level, and if you’re intentional, you will always find your moment to do it.