archive: first profile

I'm 28 years old, a poet and a lifetime reader. My affinity has always been towards children, and my political priority the transformation of the institutionalized inegalitarianism of American schools.

I truly believe in the social promise of "paying it forward," which may make me naive - but I'm smart, committed, and creative too.

I've just begun a unique, progressive residency program in urban education. In one year, I will be entering my first classroom in the Chicago Public Schools as a high school English teacher. This is the story of my journey. Well, the story-in-progress anyway...

drawing by nelson, to accompany his journal response, 2007