This is a series featuring the Early Childhood Policy Pathway Fellows and their experiences in their 20-month fellowship positions. To learn more about the Fellowship, visit our website.

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What drew you to work in early childhood?

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to work with people and make the world a better place. 

At age ten, I founded Awesomeness, an afterschool program for kindergarteners at my elementary school. Since then, I have tutored, babysat, worked as a camp counselor, designed and led curriculum for students at my humanistic Jewish temple, and mentored peers.

In college, I studied public health, learning about how we can make it as easy as possible for people to be as well as they want. Yet I never realized just how important the first five years of life are. That changed when I interned at East Boston Social Centers after my sophomore year of college. Working with the Every Child Shines team to ensure every child enters kindergarten joyful, thriving, and ready to learn, I grew enthralled with the early childhood space. 

During our annual Community Convening about improving kindergarten readiness across East Boston, parents, educators, and community-based organization staff shared that they knew policy impacted families’ lives, and weren’t quite sure how to get involved. Attendees identified the need for a policy professional to build a bridge between community needs and legislative action. 

Fast forward to fall 2024, my senior year of college, and Lydia Icke and Melora Balson at the Commonwealth Children’s Fund were considering starting a fellowship focused on early childhood policy in Massachusetts. Justin Pasquariello, the incredible CEO of East Boston Social Centers, asked if I would be interested in joining this fellowship after graduation. 

I said yes instantly. In just nine months, Justin and the East Boston Social Centers team, Lydia, Melora, Strategies for Children, and other host organizations made magic happen, developing and launching the inaugural Early Childhood Policy Pathways Fellowship.

I feel deeply grateful to get to dive into this field with the support of the Fellowship and East Boston Social Centers.

What projects have you been working on and what have you learned from this work?

My projects aim to make policy more accessible to the East Boston community and to empower people to engage in meaningful change.

I write the Policy Corner newsletter, a weekly, early childhood-focused series that dives into the impact of an enacted or proposed policy as well as providing an action step and a bright spot of hope. I have strengthened my ability (and learned how difficult it can be) to translate complicated policy and differing opinions into a few non-partisan paragraphs that feel understandable and, if appropriate, actionable to our hundreds of readers. Leading up to the November elections, I started “Ballot Breakdown,” a mini-series diving into the upcoming ballot questions that has taught me so much about the proposed changes. 

In addition to writing about policy, I also design and lead workshops to remind community members of their power to create positive change. My time at East Boston Social Centers came full circle at the fifth annual Community Convening this summer. Adapting a presentation I had created for a Social Centers staff training, I led an advocacy workshop for more than 100 attendees. Preparing for this workshop pushed me to think about how to help attendees realize that they are already incredible advocates. Whether speaking up when a child needs additional support services or connecting a family with resources, community members are using their advocacy muscles every day. These same muscles can help shape policy through emails to elected officials, testimony, or community organizing. 

How has your relationship with your host supervisor impacted what you’ve learned?

Katie White, the director of Every Child Shines, was my supervisor during my summer 2023 internship at the Social Centers, and I was so grateful to start my career under her supervision. Katie sets an incredible example of how to build trust through consistency and responsiveness. By both leading by example and offering feedback, Katie has helped me think deeply about equity and ways to create change with, not for, our communities. 

Katie’s openness in sharing her experiences in direct service and systems change work shapes how I view my role, reminding me of the importance of approaching others with an open mind and humility, and also making sure I take care of myself. She urges me to explore professional development opportunities, which has meaningfully expanded my Boston network. Through those connections, I’ve learned how early childhood is shaped by social determinants of health like food access, immigration, housing, and economic mobility, and how much stronger our solutions can be when we work across those silos.

In your work as a Fellow, what are some of the persistent challenges and emerging solutions that you’re seeing?

High-quality, affordable early childhood education and care benefits all of us, whether or not we have young children in our lives. From doctors to the cashiers who ring up our groceries, from teachers to caregivers for older family members, and from small-business owners to mail carriers who deliver our packages, many of the people who make our lives possible can work because their children have somewhere safe to learn and grow. We also all have a stake as taxpayers: investing in children early can help prevent the need for more expensive interventions later in life.

People who work in early childhood and those who love a child under the age of five are predisposed to care about building a strong early childhood system. As someone who did not know any of this before working at East Boston Social Centers, I am eager to welcome others who may not already be invested in the early childhood field. 

There is a strong moral argument and a strong economic argument for having a comprehensive early childhood system. I see framing this issue from different angles and bringing diverse voices into the conversation as both a persistent challenge and an emerging solution.

What are some long-term solutions that you’d like to see?

I believe increasing educator pay is the first step towards a long-term solution. In line with recent research, including focus groups I conducted with early educators, higher wages for early educators can lead to greater retention, higher-quality teaching, and eventually additional early education spots for children. I hope this would also create a positive cycle: higher pay sparking changes in the culture around early childhood changes, with everyone agreeing that it is essential to invest in children’s first five years of life.

What has been surprising in your time as a fellow?

I have been pleasantly surprised that many of my favorite parts of college have carried into my time as a fellow. I still get to learn deeply, engage with kind, thoughtful, mission-driven people, and work towards making the world a better place. Now, instead of writing an essay for a grade, I get to write testimony or public comments on behalf of the Social Centers to shape policy.

I was not expecting a smooth transition to the working world. I feel immensely grateful for both my college experience and the Policy Pathways Fellowship for creating joy and fulfillment.

How has your fellowship experience informed your career goals?

My twelve months in this fellowship have reaffirmed my love of working at the intersection of community and policy. It has also shown me the value of specializing in an area, which has increased my excitement about building depth and connections in a specific field to make meaningful change.