Hi all! Amanda coming to you live from the think-team working on proposals, research, and everything in between. Recently, we have been working on devising individual OKRs, which excites me to know that everyone can feel comfortable focusing on their lanes. This way, I get to also better understand my fellow giftmakers. This is one of my favorite part about working in su-re.co, as we treat our co-workers not just numbers or employees. Especially once I get to know everyone's background, I can learn to be inspired by each other. Automatically I get to understand everyone's mission in su-re.co. The most undebatable common ground is that everyone wants to help and support more people. No matter how far they are in education or their expertise, they want to contribute to society.
Education has become a topic to discuss among blogs. Maybe it is because we are working closely with Green school. Even for me, who's not working offline in Green school, I get inspired by the students. Maya wrote a blog about educational privilege here https://www.su-re.co/post/working-at-su-re-co-pt-12-are-you-educationally-privileged. This definitely let me reflect on my academic journey. Long story short, I went everywhere... I was exposed to an international environment since I was very young and I am also still very closely in touch with my big families in my hometown, so it was normal to adapt and codeswitch. Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that not every student is fully facilitated nor have access, and I continue to do my part to bridge these gaps.
Looking back at my educational journey, I used to have the phase of "i don't know what to do with my degree" that most kids have. But after these thoughts and Fabian's early blog about privilege https://www.su-re.co/post/feeling-guilty-about-privilege, I do not want to put my background as a disadvantage. It is easy to see that all of these experiences were solely beneficial for my self-development, whether related to skills, networking, and opportunities. But the routine self-reflection in su-re.co has changed my perspective on that. It has guided me to the things that I am good at and the impact I want to continue to give. I realize that the further we dive deep into our expertise, the more we have something to share. I recently experienced this. I thought working in operation will not overlap with any student activities, but I am glad I was wrong.
In preparing for our upcoming student symposium, I had the opportunity to discuss with students. They had clear ideas and objectives, but when it came to planning, there were distractions and confusion on where to start – I think partly because it was an online meeting and partly because it entails many details and follow-ups (especially the unexpected ones). So, instead of showing them the exact template, Maya and I try to guide them with questions to spark some ideas from students. Starting with asking them what they would expect if they position themselves as the participants, the roles they usually expect, etc. When they list them out, we support them by reorganizing their thoughts and suggesting ideas based on our experiences. It was interesting to see their train of thoughts and confidence!
No matter how far we think we are from the realms of education, we aren't. Everyone should be an educator in their own way. Everyone can share whatever piece of wisdom or knowledge they have because people do not own everything and may not receive everything. Anyone always has something to share, whether they know it or not.
So wherever you are in your educational journey, did it ever cross your mind to be an educator?
Thanks for reading. See you next week!