[MUSIC PLAYING] I think that the School of Education offers a great opportunity to immediately start making a difference in the field. I think there's often this conception that graduate school is before you become a therapist or an educator. And the reality is that from your first day, you're already in that profession. 

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The students here are committed to the social justice mission. The small classes, that individualized personalized attention that we provide is also an opportunity for them to consider that's going to be their professional family after they graduate. 

So there's just unlimited possibilities with a program that's this connected but has such a broad reach. To get the training here and to blossom into an adult with real career aspirations and drive here, and then to give all of that back to the same community, it's felt really, really special. 

I think USF really does a good job at practicing what they preach in terms of not just within the classroom, but, I guess, within the whole community overall. I really wanted a school that was invested in giving back to the community, which USF does. And they have great partnerships with a bunch of different organizations throughout the Bay Area. 

My research was with immigrant kids detained at the border with Dr. Dominguez. So it's like I'm working with kids at OUSD, and it's kind of like this weird full circle. She saw that I was an international student. She saw that I had my struggles that I could share and talk about. I see that embodied by my professors like Dr. Dominguez. She was an international student herself, so she understood my struggle. She saw me. 

Because it's not just a professor who is going to just talk to you about the textbook and what you should know and sharpen you in that way. They're coming from the angle of I'm actually in the field. I'm actually doing this work. And being real talk with you to say, hey, I've been where you are. I've been the trainee. I've been the one to make the mistakes. 

I remember one of my professors, Dr. Padilla. He taught our first class. He said on our first day, you're now all my colleagues. And so anything that you all do to make a difference is building up the School of Education, is building up our profession, is building up USF. You 

Can Make a difference in a family's life before you even walk across the stage and get your grad degree. 

That sense of it starts now. You can make a difference where you are. No matter where you're coming from, no matter what you are bringing, no matter what experiences have shaped you, it really starts from the second that you join the School of Education. 

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