Cristina Garza is the director of social impact for the Mission Economic Development Corporation. She curates and leads all STEAM and entrepreneurship initiatives for this EDC, and through this work commits herself improving the financial mobility of area residents, and fostering progressive and equitable economic development practices. Among the programs she founded are Web of Women, an initiative to teach technical skills to women professionals, and Career Readiness and Empowerment of Women (CREW), a multidisciplinary internship that trains young high-school women to serve as leaders in STEM and entrepreneurship. She is  2017 Next City Vanguard and named by CityLab Latino one of the Top 20 Young Civic Leaders of 2017. Before her career in economic development, Cristina worked in several museums in New York City including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rubin of Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and the Brooklyn Museum. 

• What prevents the community relationships from having this kind of impact?
• By the time they leave your school, they are not attractive to industry.
• Don’t want to give tax incentives just to have them import their talent!
• It’s not worth it to train someone who doesn’t have the soft skills.
• There could be better systems where EDC pays for the high schoolers to work somewhere.
• Challenges with push to early-college schools.
• You were ready to get out of your hometown.
• Too scared and insecure to do the real things that I wanted to.
• Seeing myself as being capable of talking about.
• Shy away from educational issues that are hard to measure
• Feeling like we are not good enough.
• Define what is important.
• Everyone is measured by their productivity and we are teaching kids that.
• Reevaluate how much time we are putting in kids’ schedules to think about these issues.
• Have time in kids’ schedules to go to counseling and go to group therapy.
• There are only two things that kids do all day in school: Compete or try to get good grades
• How rare it is for kids to have an opportunity to work on something that is open ended.
• Hard to ideate because they have never been given a prompt and how to deal with it.
• Ideas come from spending time thinking.
• Start the semester with what are the problems you see affecting you and others?
• Giving kids time to find their own story and their own why
• They are experts in their lives.
• Policies should be done in consideration of their voices.
• The level of complexity that youth today are experiencing.
• Understanding their power and owning their truth.
• how to be a transformative principal? Spend at least one hour sending emails to industry leaders asking about how to prepare their kids?

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL, and Renaissance Learning:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation.

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.