2021 brought us the 87th Texas Legislative Session and a whole lot more-- an inauguration, Snowvid, and vaccine rollouts, to name a few. After quite a school year, the Legislative Session has come to a close. Charter schools serve less than 7% of Texas’s students, but the controversy around school choice looms much larger. Each session is an opportunity to continue to define and refine public school education in our state. Enjoy the second episode in our 2-part series regarding advocacy at YES Prep.

2021 brought us the 87th Texas Legislative Session and a whole lot more-- an inauguration, Snowvid, and vaccine rollouts, to name a few. The end of the school year is now within view the Legislative Session is also rapidly coming to a close. Charter schools serve less than 7% of Texas’s students, but the controversy around school choice looms much larger. Each session is an opportunity to continue to define and refine public school education in our state. Enjoy the second episode in our 2-part series regarding advocacy at YES Prep.

2021 brought us the 87th Texas Legislative Session and a whole lot more-- an inauguration, Snowvid, and vaccine rollouts, to name a few. The end of the school year is now within view the Legislative Session is also rapidly coming to a close. Charter schools serve less than 7% of Texas’s students, but the controversy around school choice looms much larger. Each session is an opportunity to continue to define and refine public school education in our state. Enjoy the first episode in our 2-part series regarding advocacy at YES Prep.

It’s the last episode recorded in 2020, a year we won’t soon forget.  As our final guest of the year, Carmen Darville invited Andrea Citchen, Founding Principal of Southside elementary to talk about a potpourri of topics.  We cover partnership schools, principal life, the residency, mothering and mom-ming, identity, redemption, and success. As we start 2021, may the stories of possibilities and successes concurrently increase our aptitude as they ground us in our mission. 

Episode 3 of Honest Conversations hosted by Carmen Darville, Chief of Staff, welcomes Bina Dao, Director of Student Culture and veteran employee of YES Prep, who recently transitioned from a campus-based role to a Home Office position. She is an unwavering advocate for students, equity, and excellence. Together we explore her identity as an Asian American woman engaged in the critical work of students’ academic and cultural experience constantly challenged by false dichotomies. We discuss assimilation and allyship, camouflage and courage, campuses and home office, pandemic response and student learning. Listen in to learn more about her take on silent model minorities, and her refusal to silence her voice in pursuit of a commitment to disrupting the status quo.

Last week we recorded episode 2 of Honest Conversations, where Carmen Darville, Chief of Staff, had the privilege of hosting her teammate and friend, YES Prep’s Chief Program Officer, Nella Garcia Urban. They explore their similarities as women leading in this work and debunk the idea that Black and LatinX culture are so different. While they value what makes them different, take a listen and learn about how they have found their best selves by locking arms as reformers, leaders, moms, wives, and all the roles executed as they move through spaces.

In our inaugural episode of Honest Conversations, Carmen Darville engages in a dialogue with Mark DiBella, CEO of YES Prep Public Schools. He shares his experience leading the efforts of reopening schools in a pandemic with safety, learning, and equity in mind.