Alumna Kia Darling-Hammond sent this email message to WISE Founder, Vic Leviatin, in advance of the April 3^rd Coordinator’s Forum:

Dear Vic,

It was lovely to speak with you yesterday!

It’s hard to believe that two entire decades have passed since I presented one of New Rochelle High School’s first-ever WISE projects.  I didn’t feel like a pioneer at the time, and it wasn’t until many years later that I began to understand the size and weight of what we accomplished.  I have since come to see that a student-driven, rigorous, and deeply analytical learning context is “the thing.”  It’s the portal to relevance that opens windows to meaningful learning.  In fact, my senior project exploring social and behavioral psychology laid the foundation for my impending graduate study.  Twenty years later, I am entering Stanford University’s Developmental and Psychological Sciences PhD program.  My research will emphasize how learning ecologies and key interventions can have large effects for young people.  Sound familiar?

I can only begin to thank you, and the 1994 WISE team, for creating a space in which my nascent passions could take root and begin their growth.  It was my first experience with deeper learning, and it is the bar to which I hold other educational undertakings.  I am ecstatic to know that 45,000 others have had a similar experience, and that the program continues on at NRHS.  It was, quite literally, the best part of my secondary academic career.

I am eager to learn how the event goes.

Best regards,

Kia
New Rochelle High School ’94, Yale BA ’00, Bard MAT ’07, Stanford PhD
Chief Operating Officer, Stanford Schools Corporation