I'm Susie and have been a good friend of Emilia since she graduated from Willamette University in 2020. I have had the pleasure of witnessing her experience and passion for teaching expand to impact children and families from many backgrounds. Due to her status as a part-time student and the recent defunding of critical programs, she has limited access to scholarships and grants to continue her education and to continue improving the lives of children who are otherwise often left behind by the education system.

She is currently pursuing an MA in the Teaching of English Language Arts at Teachers College, Columbia University which is a program for working teachers, so she can continue to work full time serving her students while simultaneously maintaining a 4.0 GPA in her graduate studies. Emilia is also working a second part time job and applying to scholarships so she can finish her Masters.

Her graduate studies and research focus on how to support teen girls in secondary classrooms who have mental health diagnoses. This research is incredibly important because teenagers are struggling with rising mental health concerns, and methods to best support girls in particular are largely under researched.

Emilia teaches at a school that supports exceptional students, and she specializes in supporting learning disabilities (such as Autism, ADHD, generalized anxiety, processing disorders, dyslexia) by affirming students' unique gifts and strengths. This is a relatively new school she has been with since its beginning, and they are performing crucial work to develop programming that has literally changed students' lives.

Emilia works in a rural community. Supporting rural educators and rural education is especially important because rural communities like hers lack vital resources that particularly impact exceptional and learning disabled students. Please consider donating so Emilia can continue improving her work serving and positively impacting the lives of the children she cares so deeply about.

Emilia said, "I, too, have experienced many of the challenges my students face. I have worked hard my entire life to succeed in school and in my career. I went to university on a speech and debate scholarship, graduated with my BA early, have published academic work, and have received several grants and awards over my university career. My goal with my MA is to continue serving and teaching underserved, under-resourced, and often misunderstood students, in particular girls with mental health concerns and other disabilities. Thank you for reading my story!"

Emilia's work is literally foundational to a better world! Thank you so much for reading and for considering contributing.