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• MIKAYLA: Hello, and welcome to the Classnotes Podcast series featuring reflections from our IDRA Education Policy Fellows. My name is Mikayla Arciaga, and I am our Georgia advocacy director and our education policy fellowship coordinator. We'll be talking about the fellowship and how our fellows will be using this experience, and what they learn to inform their next big adventures. During this episode, you'll hear from our fellows, Kaci Wright, Vivek Datla, Isabelle Philip, and DeAndrea Byrd. Please check out their bios and their work using the link provided in the podcast show notes. In this episode, we'll be inviting our fellows to share kind of an overview of their work, what they learned overall, why they joined us, and what they'll be doing with this experience going forward. So welcome. Thank you, guys, for being here. We'll start with DeAndrea first. In previous episodes, you've mentioned you were not totally sure that you should apply. And so, I'm curious, why did you end up going through the application process to pursue this program?

• DEANDREA: Well, I was first referred to this program by someone, and they were pushy, and told me twice, and they kept texting and calling me. It was like, "No, DeAndrea, you really need to do this." So, I was like, "Okay. I do respect what they do. And, I did want to turn my lived experiences into, like, real policy change. I had some things that I had to advocate for, but how can I go out there and make this better? Even though I started advocating because of my son Zaire, the truth is there are hundreds of DeAndreas in the world and hundreds of Zaires. So, as a parent who navigated the school system from special education meetings to fighting unfair discipline decisions, I always hit a brick wall when it came to rules and policies, and essentially found there were no parent rights sometimes. So, I knew what was happening on the ground, but I wanted to understand how decisions were kind of being made at the top. And I was oftentimes finding myself mad about things that these people literally couldn't change because it was law and it was policy, so they couldn't do it. I saw the gaps between reality and policy. So, I knew. I was like, "Okay, you need the tools. You're mad, but you need the tools, the training, and the support to help close the gap."

  And this fellowship really gave me the chance to learn how to move in the policy spaces, but with purpose, to make sure that voices, parents, students, and communities like mine are not just heard, but respected, responsive, and included, and how not to make bad bills worse, make good bills better, protects what protections are already in place. So, you will be able to come back and do the work again. And it's just not a super big fallout, and you can't do anything. So, this Policy Fellowship program really enlightened me from beginning to end. I knew where the problem was. I knew how to organize. I knew how to get appeals, file ORC complaints. But now I know where the root comes from. The root is the policy, the law. So, if there were no policy, then these other things would not be in place.

• MIKAYLA: Yeah, thank you. I think that was exactly the goal. So I love that you captured that. Vivek, what about you?

  VIVEK: Yeah. So, I am a former schoolteacher and a former school program coordinator and saw a lot of inequities in my classrooms and amongst my students in my schools all the time, many of which I think could be traced back to policy failures or poorly designed policies. And, you know, I wanted to help influence policy in a way that would benefit the types of students that were-- that were in my classroom. And I also studied public policy in school. And so, to me, the fellowship is a perfect opportunity to kinda combine those academic and professional experiences and develop into an effective advocate for equitable education policies. And I really appreciated how long IDRA had been doing this type of work. I was really drawn to the quality of work from previous IDRA fellows as well, including our very own Mikayla Arciaga. And I kind of just wanted to continue in the footsteps of the work of other previous fellows.

• KACI: Yeah, like Vivek, my experience as a classroom teacher really motivated me just to get involved in the policy process in general as it relates to education, which led me to start my master's program in education policy. And a lot of times, sitting in the classroom, you hear a lot about research and theories and all these big concepts. And at times, you feel apart from the change-making. And there were a lot of moments sitting in class where I was like, "I really want to apply what I'm learning in the Capitol down the street." And that really made me look for different opportunities where I could do that in a supportive system, an organization that has been around for a long time and has the expertise to guide me and really show me the ropes. And IDRA was the place for that. I'm happy I did, and I got to experience this amazing opportunity. A combination of my teaching experience and being in school really pushed me to go all in on this experience.

• MIKAYLA: We're so glad we had you. Isabelle, what about you? Why did you apply for this fellowship?

  ISABELLE: Well, I'd been doing education advocacy work for two years before that while I was still in college. But all my experience had been very much learning on the fly, like, "Oh no, this bill is happening. Now we have to do this." I wasn't really learning from a deep seat of knowledge the way that IDRA is structured. And I'd worked with Mikayla before. I’ve asked for tips on what to do or how to talk about things many times. So, when I found out about the fellowship and that they specifically had a policy comms role, I was like, "Wow, that's kind of perfect for me." So, I ended up applying, and I'm very glad I did because, rather than informal mentorship, I got a lot of professional experience that I wouldn't have otherwise. I learned a lot from Christie and the comms team about different professional standards of comms. It was cool, like, working with YouTube and WordPress and all of that in the same way that I learned a lot from Mikayla and the rest of the Georgia team about policy.

• MIKAYLA: All right. Well, you guys have, like, almost hinted at it, I think. But I'd love for you, Vivek, to kinda share what the fellowship experience was like for you?

• VIVEK: It was everything I could have hoped for, even if there were many, many surprises along the way. I feel like I have had the opportunity to work on so many different aspects of education policy. I was lucky because of my dual role. There was a lot of, like, research and writing, but there was also support for direct advocacy as well, which I'm really, grateful for. And I think just to call something specifically, I've learned how to change my communication style for so many different types of audiences too, from policymakers to fellow advocates to the public and media and more. And I really appreciated how the s-- the staff at IDRA just trusted our experiences and expertise and let us dive into as much of the work as we wanted to. And I got to do it all under the guidance of the most incredible advocates in the world at IDRA, who are also just great and supportive and affirming people, too.

• MIKAYLA: Yeah. We strive to be very supportive. DeAndrea, what about you? You came to this without a policy background, which I think was unique to the team. And so, I'm curious what this was like for you.

• DEANDREA: This fellowship experience was both powerful but also eye-opening and full of growth. Honestly, I have the community organizing. I know how to organize. I know how to mobilize. I know how to make change. So, to learn how to analyze legislation and the power of on-the-fly testifying from the kids, it was just like throwing a curveball in a softball or a baseball game because legislators really couldn't deny student voices on the fly. They didn't know they were coming. They spoke eloquently. They knew what the bills were about because they read the analysis. They had the statistics, but they also had the feeling of being a youth, the actual impacted class that you're impacting. I feel like that was a very valuable strategy-wise. I also learned how to communicate. Like Vivek said, I learned that you have to communicate with people on all levels, but you also have to have different forms of communication depending on who you're speaking to. Community communication must be solely tied to emotion. Legislative communication must be solely tied to policy, politics, and statistics. What they want to be seen as is very performative. It's a dance you must do. And then other organizations and coalitions as a different language that you must speak to.

  Some people want to get credit. Some people want certain things from you, transactionally, if you work with them. Some people are experts only in one thing. So just learn how to communicate and how to be cooperative and work together. I learned the rules of engagement, especially learning self-care, and just how to navigate the emotional weight of the work. I have never been so emotional in my life as I was during legislative season and trying to be a regular person, being a human, a woman, a mama, and just DeAndrea, along with advocates. I was like, "Wait a minute, you've got to separate this." So, it was empowering. And I left the fellowship with stronger relationships, more knowledge, and a deeper commitment. And I love the other people that I was able to connect with as I moved through my learning, and connected with some people in places that they needed to be as well.

• MIKAYLA: Fabulous. It's one of our main goals that y'all get to build out your professional networks around this space. I'm curious, kind of moving forward in the fellowship, we start with onboarding and learning all these practical skills. But then there are aspects of this I think Vivek kind of hinted at. That there are just certain things, as much as we try to prepare y'all for, there are just certain things we cannot teach you. You must learn as you're going through it. And so, Kaci, I was hoping you'd be able to share a little bit about what it's like to learn about legislature as it's happening. What are some of the lessons you learned that, like, you weren't expecting?

• KACI: No, great question. And I just got flashbacks to my first time teaching, you know, you're in school and you learn the programs, but then you're like, "Wow, I did not learn how to do this," until you're in the classroom. A lot of it felt like that. And I really thrive in that environment. I learned best in that environment. It's a unique experience to be in the building, watching stuff go down, and then on the spot, thinking of a solution to try to fix the problem. And that's a lot of what we did. And throughout time, I feel I have gained in my skills in that. And I was able to kind of ask questions on the spot. If I want to go see this office, I will be able to be there in person and figure out a way to maneuver that environment and do it in real time. And so that was awesome. And just coming from what you learned, the practical skills of what you learned in school, and kind of just combining that all together to really push forward. The policymaking process was a cool experience. And it was a learning curve for sure. Sometimes I felt like, "Okay, I don't know exactly what I'm doing, but I'm going to try." And that's all learning is, right? It's just being there on the spot, taking it for what it is, and getting feedback and just becoming better the next time you do it. So, it was awesome. And one of my favorite parts of this fellowship.

• MIKAYLA: The Georgia team adopted a motto from my five-year-old niece, who says, "I'm just learning. It's okay. I'm just learning."

  KACI: Yeah. change policy.

  MIKAYLA: Exactly. I'm just learning how to be an advocate in the state Capitol. So, on that note, on the idea of our State Capitol, Isabelle, what would you say it was like being in the building? I know this is sort of new because you've done a lot of background work, but being in the building, getting to know lawmakers, and really interface with people in our coalition. What was that like?

• ISABELLE: Yeah, I mean, before, a lot of my work was over Zoom, so it was very new to have to get dressed up and, you know, occasionally wear heels. That was very new for me. It did make the work much more bearable, honestly, which maybe that's counterintuitive, but being able to talk to people in person is just very different than working on your laptop for eight hours a day. So being able to talk to coalition members and partners after a tough hearing or, you know, when you're working super late, that was good. And it also just made me feel more connected to the work that we were doing. On the legislative side of things, that was very interesting in its own way. I think that Vivek touched on this just now, but I'd already had a lot of comms experience, so I knew that you had to change your narrative for different audiences, but I got a speed run in speaking to people whose positions and ideologies are just so wildly different to mine, but also needing to try and find common ground to at least build a relationship, even if that wasn't gonna result in anything actually happening this session. So that was a very interesting experience. And I think it can be very tough, especially when an issue is personal to you and you just want to look at the person and be like, "Why do you think the way you do? What is happening here?" But I think it was still a good experience to gain and a good muscle to build, especially if you're thinking about sticking around in this work for a while.

• MIKAYLA: Absolutely. And I think you, you got a good example of if you get to stay around and build some of those relationships eventually, sometimes there are the conversations, which are like, "What are you thinking? And why are you doing this?" But thank you so much. And I hope you will take those experiences with you, but I do want to highlight before we wrap up, just that you each brought specific things that we were so excited to have as part of our team. You brought knowledge and passion and expertise of your own, and you've each referenced it in different ways: your teaching experiences, your advocacy experiences, your organizing experiences. But I'm curious about the connections between those things for you and why that connection to policymaking and this space was so important. And Vivek, if it's okay, I'd like to start with you on that.

• VIVEK: Yeah, sure. That's a great question. I think for me, you know, and this is something we've talked about, but I am constantly motivated by my experiences as a teacher and as an educator. I know how many extremely difficult circumstances my students had to navigate and have to continue to navigate in their lives as they grow older. And that motivates me every day and makes me want to change policy for the better. And I think it's really the starting point for any facet of this work, right? Let's think about the students who have had to overcome the most challenges in their lives. Let's think about how we can design policy to support those students and their families as well. Our goal should be to improve the circumstances for those students in the ways that we can by continuing to advocate for just and fair education policies so that all students, to steal a line from IDRA, have the opportunity to receive an education that sets them up for healthy and successful lives in the future.

• MIKAYLA: I think all of us can relate to that. Isabelle, tapping you back in. You've highlighted your communications experience. You've hinted at some of your personal experience, but I'm curious about the passions that really got to come out of this and why you think those are so important to connect with policymaking.

• ISABELLE: So, my background is in student advocacy, student organizing. And I think that that gave me a lot of confidence when I was at the Capitol, which was really helpful, and a lot of confidence in the students that we brought because I knew that they had what they needed to be able to advocate for themselves. And I think that's very important not only for young people, but also for any community member who comes to the Capitol to know that they're not somehow less than just because they don't have a little badge that has their name on it. And I always want to carry that forward in any of the work I do. I also had the comms background that Mikayla mentioned, but specifically, it was work where I would ensure that anytime we were doing anything, we were involving students who hadn't done it before. So, whenever we were talking-- wanting to talk to the press, we would train a student, preferably one who wanted to speak to some kind of personal experience to speak to the press, which was kind of unprecedented because it is much more inefficient, but our goal wasn't efficiency. Our goal was making sure that as many young Georgians as possible were able to communicate their stories in a way that mattered to them and would highlight the issues that they face every day. And I think that experience kept me really grounded in knowing that, yeah, I'm getting all these skills, but at the end of the day, if I'm not making sure that goes to other people, then it doesn't really matter.

• MIKAYLA: It was such a pleasure getting to share that work with you. DeAndrea, what about you? I know some of your passions, but I'm excited for other folks to hear about what brought you to this and how you've connected that to this work.

• DEANDREA: I brought knowledge, number one, my expertise as a parent and advocate navigating the student discipline system, the student dashboard, and navigating special education. So, I knew how to go and find data, but through the fellowship, it made me understand what the data actually meant and who was responsible for said data, and how that information was obtained. It also showed me how to use data as a strategy when it comes to getting what you want and how to speak a different language with data. I understood data, but not in this way, before coming into the fellowship. Never understood in this way, where it came from, how it's systematically done. So, my passion for that was definitely elevated in this fellowship. I knew where to go, but I didn't know what to do with it. Also, for me, I came in this where I saw policy as something that was like so far away that I was removed from. But this lived experience shaped how I see policy as something that really has real impact on real families. And it can have real impact on families for years. And to undo policy is sometimes harder than to get a good policy the first time. Just connecting my advocacy to policy, I feel like I have made my superpower bigger. It made me know what I know. So, I can go out here, you know, and do the work behind the scenes and help those people get in good trouble. Make sure it's strategic good trouble and not just trouble where you are using your mouth, but you're getting things done. Um, because in this advocacy field, like, you do need a mouth to say hey and speak up, but you also need the knowledge and strategy to know what's working behind the scenes and what's working against you when you're not working. So yeah.

• KACI: Yeah, I think my passion for education stems from a lot of different places. Personally, I think about education policies that change the trajectory of my family and their involvement in the education system, and how they promoted me to get involved in teaching and to work with students. And I think it was interesting coming into the Capitol, having a few different identities, you know, coming in from the teaching background, but also being a somewhat recent student of public education. And at times, I feel like those two identities were very conflicting. What's best for students is not always what's best for teachers and vice versa. And at times, I thought that was a hindrance. But throughout the session, I really felt like having those two different experiences, it really allowed me to have a diverse point of view on a lot of different issues. And I was able to speak from the student perspective but also speak from the teaching perspective. And it made me realize there can be solutions for everyone. It just comes from having those diverse backgrounds to having those conversations. And so yeah, just being able to work with students in the classroom, seeing what they've experienced, and then seeing what teachers experience allowed me to think that the entire education system has a lot of barriers and inequities and systems that just aren't best for the overall success of schools. And that really made me be like, "We need to change something. And I'm going to do it at the Capitol." So yeah.

• MIKAYLA: And I think you all really did make those changes. Thank you, guys, so much for joining us for this session, this third episode in the series. I really hope that for folks who are listening, and I hope for y'all that we can emphasize, like, that you don't have to have formal training and policy to be part of this process. And in fact, we need more folks who aren't wonks but are just real people who really live their real lives. If you are interested in this fellowship and feel like you may not have access to space otherwise, this is who we're looking for, and that's who we want for this program. And so, thank you guys again for sharing your expertise. And I hope listeners will join us for the last of our series in Episode 4.