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Meet Stephanie Parra of ALL In Education

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Parra.

Stephanie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am the proud daughter of immigrants from Sonora, Mexico. My grandfather migrated to the United States in the 1940s through the Bracero Program. As an immigrant farmworker attempting to house and feed a family of eleven at the time, my father now shares stories of living in extreme poverty and experiencing hardships. My mother tells me about her own experience living in poverty in Mexico as well, having to live in an abandoned building made of adobe as the only form of shelter available to her and her siblings. Because of their personal experiences, my parents raised me to value and respect the American public education system. I grew up with the understanding that attaining a high school diploma and a college degree would afford me opportunities that my parents did not have access to as children in Mexico or America, for that matter. It is their lessons, stories, and experiences that have shaped me into the fearless advocate for public schools and Latino families that I am today.

Most of my challenges came upon my transition from high school to college because part of that shift included moving from my hometown of Yuma, Arizona to the bustling city of Tempe. It also required guidance and support that my parents no longer felt they could provide me with during and after the transition. My parents simply knew that I had to get out of Yuma and go to college so they encouraged and supported me to do both.

I was fortunate to find support in relatives and friends along the way, and I was able to secure a full-ride scholarship to Arizona State University. In my first semester at ASU, I almost lost my scholarship because I could barely attain the 2.5 GPA that I needed to fulfill my scholarship requirements. I often think about where I would be if I didn’t find the support I needed to stop my downward spiral my freshman year of college.

As a graduate student at ASU in pursuit of a master’s in higher and post-secondary education, everything became clear about my personal struggles and those of the students I was teaching at the university. In my graduate coursework, I learned about the complexities of various student subgroups in college. Why students of the same identity or similar backgrounds tend to flock to each other on college campuses across the country. We find solace and support in each other because we are all navigating a shared lived experience. There is power in finding a community that will see you, hear you and understands the struggles you are facing. Without this kind of support network, unfortunately, many times it is easier for students to give up on their dreams of attaining a college degree because the barriers to achieve it are too great to overcome: economic challenges, social and emotional stresses, family duties and responsibilities, just to name a few. It was in this moment and in this review of the research that something inside of me lit up.

This work is deeply personal to me because it is part of who I am. I see myself in our young people striving to make their parents proud of all the sacrifices they made for their kids to obtain a high school and college degree. And I see my parents in the families working incredibly hard to ensure their children have access to the opportunities that were not afforded to them. We must ensure that all students have access to high-quality learning environments and opportunities to achieve high school and college degree attainment. And we must dismantle all the barriers that many of us continue to face because we are first-generation college-going students without the social capital to navigate the complexities of the American P-20 education system.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Like many female Executives, my leadership journey developed over time and it was mainly because of the support of women along the way who believed in my potential. These women made a lasting impact on my personal and professional life. They helped me overcome the struggles I encountered throughout my journey. Upon finishing my graduate program, Andrea Stouder Pursley hired me to run operations for the Sanford Education Project at ASU. Shortly after that, Andrea recruited me to join her at Teach For America national. She was the first manager who made an explicit commitment to developing me into a leader in Phoenix and Arizona.

In an honest conversation with Andrea, I expressed that local Arizona politics and anti-immigrant rhetoric were pushing me to consider leaving my home state for a more welcoming and inclusive environment. Andrea’s response will forever stay with me, “Stephanie, you can leave like everyone else leaves AZ in frustration, or you can stay, and we can invest in your leadership so that you can be the change our community needs.” Andrea truly created space for me to grow and lead, needless to say I decided to stay and create change in the state that I love.

Once I realized I had the agency to create the change I wanted to see in Phoenix and across Arizona, there was nothing and no one who could stop me. I found a community in leadership programs like Valle del Sol’s Hispanic Leadership Institute, New American Leaders and Valley Leadership. I positioned myself to serve in leadership roles where I could influence outcomes and decisions that impacted students and families like me.

Investing in and developing my leadership really ignited my pathway towards serving on the Phoenix Union Governing Board. It took recognizing that I didn’t need to leave my home to feel welcome, rather it was on me to create a welcoming environment. Most importantly, I realized that we are the leaders we need to build a better, more inclusive and vibrant Arizona.

Please tell us about ALL In Education.
At ALL In Education (Arizona Latino Leaders in Education) our mission is to ensure that individuals from the communities most impacted by education inequities are the ones making decisions for all students. We seek to build an Arizona where ALL communities have access to opportunity and justice. Where no child is at risk of falling behind, where parents feel valued and supported and most importantly where ALL kids feel loved and honored in their classrooms.

Where every single attribute that students and families carry is viewed as an asset that should be nurtured and developed so they can be our state’s future leaders. Our organization is doing this by defining our role in the ecosystem and working to not only build awareness of the inequities in our education systems but to actually change the systems long term.

EQUITY – Lead Actionable Outcomes: Drive equity framework to change new and existing policies, practices and programs.
LEADERSHIP – Build Pipeline: Build a leadership pipeline to advance Latinos into positions of influence.
POWER – Hold Accountable: Use the power of accountability to hold leaders responsible for outcomes for Latino families.
INFLUENCE – Be An Innovation Catalyst: Design, pilot, study, and partner to scale new and amplify existing impactful initiatives.
POLICY – Advance Agenda: Develop and advance policy reform through our sister 501(c)4 organization, ALL In EdAction Fund.

What we are most proud of is our Equity Framework. The ALL In for Arizona’s Future Framework for Advancing Equity will ensure we ask critical questions, assess data, and engage the community to increase educational attainment for Latino students, students of color, and low-income families.

Evaluate Question Understand Include Thoughtful Yield Opportunity. Arizona Latino students are the fastest-growing demographic block in the state, representing 46% of the overall student population. The economic success of our state depends on their achievement. Additionally, Arizona low-income families and communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by inequitable policies, practices and programs for far too long. These inequities have spanned issues like education, workforce development, housing, immigration, healthcare, and have resulted in large populations of disconnected and disengaged youth of color in our state.

What sets us apart is that we are working closely with the communities we serve. We believe that in order to create change we need to take their perspective and experiences into account. We want to highlight and elevate the community voices that we are focused on serving.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
As a child I remember my dad would take me and my sibling out to fields where he worked to show us what he did every single day. From seeing the hard labor that went into his job to seeing his colleagues work tirelessly. This experience was one that helped mold me into the woman and leader I am today. I know now it was his way of promoting education but as a kid I just enjoyed the time I got to spend with him because he worked so much that we didn’t see him often growing up.

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