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Meet Carla

What made you choose GW?

I was at San Francisco State for my first two years of college, studying first sociology and then child and adolescent development
The first time I was introduced to the achievement gap and the drastic inequalities in the education system was when I volunteered for Jumpstart in a low-income school.
This experience sparked my passion for equal access in childhood education, and I realized that I needed to start looking for other programs to transfer into.
I was researching schools within the human services field, and found the GW Human Services and Social Justice program, and it seemed perfect for what I was interested in doing
I have always been involved in community service and leadership, and it’s always been a theme in my life
I didn’t even know what human services was until I found this program – I was looking for advocacy in education to help create change and close the achievement gap – I didn’t know what approach I wanted to take but I thought GW would help me figure out what path I wanted to take to spark change

What do you like about service-learning?

I think it’s one thing to learn a theory in the classroom, and I think it requires a specific type of thinking and perspective to apply it in real life
It’s an enriching experience because you engage in the field and see it from their perspective
We all are serving particular pop, so when you chose and interact with them – they are no longer a theoretical “other” they are more humanized in the process

What has been your favorite class at GW and why?

I’m a psych minor and I took a class called Psychology of Stress and Coping – I really liked it because it was something that everyone can use
When people in the HSSJ major go into the field, we have to handle our own boundaries and stress and be self-aware, and we have to understand the overarching stress that other communities feel
You have to understand the psychology and the biological response – the physical and emotional toll it can have on you

What do you plan to do after graduation?

The jobs that I have applied to so far are teaching positions, I am particularly hoping to get a teaching fellowship in dc
I’m currently an intern at the Department of Education, and I have become extremely interested in the policy side of things, but I’m still deciding which path I want to take. As of right now I want to work in the classroom to gain the perspective, and to learn what is lacking in the classroom and in the communities. I could take that perspective to move into possibly a Department of Education job or a school psychologist position.

How is the Capstone class preparing you for that?

It’s interesting to compare how we’re acting as a foundation vs my role at the Dept. of Ed., where we’re in a competition to give out money for magnet schools to desegregate these schools.
It’s interesting to see the full picture, from writing a grant from the nonprofit perspective, to be a foundation, and to be a federal intern

Tell me about your “Learning by Giving” experience so far.

It was definitely an interesting process to be a part of the mission team
I hadn’t given much thought about how someone comes up with a mission and creating a mission
It was interesting to think about what subject area and what populations we want to target as far as actually giving money away
It is a unique opportunity – I feel like capstone was created to empower us as students to understand what it was like to have real-life money to give to communities, and to grasp the concept before we’re in the field ourselves