Writing a New Story
“Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.”
– Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
How do we understand the stories of public education in California? How do they shape our understanding of the past, the present, and the future? Whose voices and perspectives contribute to that understanding as they shape future possibilities? The answers to these questions have profound implications for the 5.8 million children and young people – mostly students of color – who attend California’s public schools, as well as for their families and the adults in the system who support them.
Too often, stories about public institutions, including our schools, are framed by those with enough power and privilege to gain access – to the media, to policymakers, to “thought leaders.” Race, age, income, language, and the intersection of these factors have implications for whose voices and stories shape our collective understanding (or “the narrative”) of school – whether it is working or not and for whom, what is needed and why.
Lost, often, are the perspectives of students and families, particularly students and families of color, and educators – those closest to our education system. Lost, is the nuanced reality they face every day – the stories of promise and progress, alongside the stories of deep inequities, despite the steady work to create a more just and fair system of funding, accountability, and shared local decision-making. Lost, too, is the wisdom, experience, and vision that are essential to solving today’s complex challenges.
But throughout the state, school communities are living into new ways of learning and leading together as part of broader efforts to transform schools. Young people are leading discussions about how high schools can be welcoming and inclusive spaces that support student wellness, as well as their academic success. Students, families, and communities are joining with educators to co-create a collective vision for their public schools and their role in preparing young people to be full participants in their communities, state, and country.
At Felicitas & Gonzalo Mendez High School, for example, students, families, staff, and partners work together to support and exercise a shared leadership model for decision-making that is rooted in a collective commitment to equitable education. Partners expand and deepen the work of this community school in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles, including supporting student leadership within and outside of school.
I was drawn to the Stuart Foundation by a shared commitment to developing a full and rich understanding of the stories of public education in California and our progress towards education justice. This includes both awareness of the “current state” as well as attention to the emerging stories unfolding in schools, districts, and communities throughout California. While remaining clear-eyed about the challenges, I believe these emerging stories – of student agency and leadership, of partnerships and practices rooted in relationships of trust and respect, of engaging and empowering learning – are especially important.
So what does that mean for the work of the Stuart Foundation? For starters, we’re doing a lot of listening. We’re exploring how we can use grantmaking, relationship building, and our own communications’ efforts to support the changemakers and storytellers whose work and perspectives are too often missed or marginalized, especially BIPOC students and their adult allies and partners. And we’re approaching our efforts with humility and a deep appreciation for all those whose work we have the privilege to support.
We welcome your thoughts. Share your ideas, tell us your story at stories@stuartfoundation.org.
In solidarity,
Roberta Furger, Senior Director, Narrative and Strategy
Foundation News
This month marks a very bittersweet moment for the Stuart Foundation. Susan Little, our beloved Senior Director, is retiring after over a decade with the Foundation and a long, distinguished career in philanthropy. Susan’s commitment to the Foundation, its partners, and staff has shaped not only our work over the years, but many of us personally.
“I am deeply grateful for all the ways Susan has mentored so many of us at the Foundation over the years,” says Stuart Foundation President Sophie Fanelli, who worked alongside Susan for 10 years. “On a deeply personal note, I will miss her sense of humor, her quiet leadership, the depth of her commitment to doing right by our partners, and the gifts of grace, patience, and kindness she shared with me as I made my way into this sometimes bewildering field of philanthropy.”
Susan epitomizes the type of staff any foundation would be fortunate to have: she is a consummate professional who prioritized directing the Stuart Foundation’s resources to grantees. She deeply values grantees as essential partners and was grateful for the opportunity to support and elevate their good work. Over the course of her career, Susan witnessed profound changes in philanthropy, but her orientation remained the same: an English major who knows that the best work is plain spoken and from the heart.
We will celebrate Susan and remember her in many ways, but especially with a very sharp pencil always in her hand and a love of language and passion for our grantee partners in her heart.
We are pleased to welcome three new staff members: Kathryn Bradley, Partnership Manager, was previously at the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation working as the Education Fellow with a focus on Student, Family and Community Voice; Rani Hanstad, Coordinator, Strategy, Partnerships and Learning, joins us from UC Berkeley where she worked as an Active Innovation Studio (AIS) Coordinator, working to foster partnerships between the AIS and other departments to create more collaborative spaces for instructors and educators; and Emily Huston, Senior Executive Assistant, joins us from Koop, LLC where she was Head of Operations/Administration. Emily brings a range of experience in executive management and administrative support processes, operations, and events. We are so happy to have them at the Foundation!
Painting by Urvi Kulkarni, an 11th grade student at Belmont Senior High School in Los Angeles. This painting was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 2023 California Coastal Commission’s Coastal Art and Poetry Contest.