Eric and Stephanie give us the rundown on the fifth annual Beating The Odds Summit, which was started by former First Lady Michelle Obama to celebrate students overcoming barriers to attend higher education. Don’t miss out on excerpts from the conversation with Mrs. Obama, Hamilton’s Daveed Diggs, La La Anthony, and more, as they share advice for college-bound students.

021 - Celebrating First-Gen Students at Beating The Odds Summit w/ Michelle Obama

For eight years, President Obama made the White House a place that brought people together-- incredible students, parents, principals, district leaders, school counselors, teachers, college presidents, professors, business leaders, and more. And after January 2017, the inspiring stories we heard and the incredible people we met no longer had a place to share their experiences and good ideas with folks across the country. 

These stories constantly reminded and inspired us of people’s commitment to education. It is the ultimate bedrock of our society, and people are passionately fighting to make it better. At the White House we were fortunate to get to shine a spotlight on some of those incredible education advocates and practitioners, and we want to continue to shine that spotlight and talk about what’s working, how others can get involved, and hopefully be inspired along the way.  We hope you’ll join us.

Education

Training

Language Courses

Higher Education

K-12

Educational Technology

We talked to Dreama Gentry, Executive Director of Partners for Education at Berea College, about her advocacy for rural students and her work creating a national dialogue around what educational success looks like for them. She also previewed the 2020 Rural College Access & Success Summit. As always, stick around for our moment of hope!

304 - Supporting Rural Students

This week, we have an episode with Yolanda Savage-Narva, the ED of Operation Understanding D.C. -  a nonprofit D.C. organization working to build a generation of Black and Jewish community leaders who promote respect, understanding, and cooperation while working to eradicate racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination. We talked about how she uses her diverse identity to help students understand the similarities between seemingly different cultures and backgrounds. Stick around for our moment of hope!

304 - Finding Identity In Education

In today's episode, Mario Rossero - Senior Vice President for Education at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts - joins us to talk about the importance of arts in education and the role that the Kennedy Center plays in increasing arts education in schools around the country. Stick around for our favorite segment of every episode - our moment of hope!

303 - Arts In Education

We sat down with Laura Ross, the 2020 School Counselor of the Year, to talk through her personal journey as a school counselor. Laura is a middle school counselor at Five Forks Middle School in Lawrenceville, Georgia - she talks to us about the challenges, the rewards, and the important moments that come with this important position in students' lives. Stick around for our moment of hope!

302 - A Conversation with the 2020 School Counselor of the Year

We're back from a fun winter break with an exciting, exclusive conversation you'll only hear on swampED! We sat down with Brian Coleman, 2019 National School Counselor of the Year, and Rodney Robinson, the 2019 National Teacher of the Year to have a conversation around their experience as educators and championing equity in education. Join us for our first episode back and as always stick around for our Moment of Hope.

021 - Celebrating First-Gen Students at Beating The Odds Summit w/ Michelle Obama

Download our free app to listen on your phone