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A New Platform for Change

Letter from One Day editor in chief, Ting Yu

Dear Fellow Alumni,

Over the course of the past year, I followed the budding political careers of Sekou Biddle (N.Y.C. ’93) and Tina Hone (Bay Area ’92). Both were locked in tight races for district school board seats in Washington, D.C., and Fairfax County, Va., respectively and ultimately won. When Biddle, Hone, and two other alumni—school board members Layla Avila (L.A. ’97) of South Whittier, Calif., and Natasha Kamrani (Houston ’91) of Houston—traveled to Boston in February to participate in the roundtable discussion featured on the cover of this issue, I was excited to meet them in person.

Yet it wasn’t until introductions were made and the four of them began trading campaign stories that I realized what a special moment this was for them. There was an instant sense of camaraderie and connection among them—a relief, almost, to be in the company of other like-minded folks in this difficult line of work. It reminded me that trailblazing is both exciting and lonely work. Unlike the education and nonprofit sectors, which are stocked with our alumni, politics has been a road less traveled by our ranks. “This has been like therapy,” Hone joked at the day’s end.

Of our 12,000 alumni, several hundred work in politics, but only seven hold elected office. I wanted to know what inspired them to run, what made each of them tick. I’ve always thought that politicians were born to their work—that public servants possessed some kind of internal chip that allowed them to fight the good fight while withstanding intense public scrutiny. Yet what struck me most as I listened to their stories was that three of the four had never considered running and had, in fact, been somewhat reluctant to enter their races. Can I change things from within the system, they wondered. Is the personal sacrifice worth it?

In the end, all of them—two lawyers, a vice president at the New Teacher Project, and an executive director for Jumpstart—said yes. They entered the race because they felt they had to. They ran so that they could bring to the table their perspective, as teachers, that every child could achieve at a high level. “I saw what an education can get you when you have money and what you get when you don’t have money,” says Avila, a native of inner-city L.A. who credits her success to her seventh grade teacher. “It taught me that the public schools can absolutely provide students from low-income backgrounds with a phenomenal education. And I thought if that’s possible for my own experience, then it’s possible to do it for other kids.”

As you read our cover story (p. 28) about the political experiences of these four, you may be reminded, as I was, of what success looks like when you’re teaching. As in the classroom, victories are hard won and rarely glamorous, but they are undeniably worthwhile, and each barrier broken is a step toward a new day. As Kamrani said during the roundtable, the dialogue is changing because there are new voices at the table.

Warm Regards,

Ting Yu
New York City '03
Editor in Chief