What's my personal connection to this reform? What's my experience with education?

• All my life I have attended Catholic schools because of the poor public schools in my urban neighborhood of Logan Square.
• Those schools did not have a great variety of resources and were known more for violence and discipline problems than education quality.
• My father attended public school his entire life while my mother attended Catholic schools. Attending Roberto Clemente high school for my father who lived in, Humbolt Park, a neighborhood at times known for its poverty, crime, gangs, and violence was not something he often spoke about.
• Clemente high school today still has the same racial tension, lack of resources, and violence that my father saw daily and managed to overcome.
• My mother has always been a hard worker going to so called "good" schools her whole life.
• My father and mother both had parents similar to those that I imagine send their kids to the Cristo Rey schools.
• Their parents both came from Puerto Rico only speaking Spanish and not speaking a word English until they came to the U.S. What helped my mother and father succeed was concerned and caring individuals who believed they could succeed.
• For my mother it was her family and teachers and for my father it was his family.
• Both of their communities made it possible for their success through involvement in programs such as after school tutoring and work-study jobs.
• Just like the students we read about in "Our Schools Suck" some of which came from poor neighborhoods and first-generation families my parents too struggled with education and at times what felt like a lack of support from those around them.
• Both my parents have always encouraged me to be proud of my Puerto Rican culture but to not let that pride cause me to go into a "cool pose" mode where I start acting as if the only thing important to me is "acting ghetto" or trying to portray a stereotype so others will accept me.
• Like the girl mentioned in the "Our Schools Suck" book I don't feel as if acting white is a reason I have succeeded I feel that being myself is the reason I have succeeded. I do not often portray the stereotypical role of a Hispanic student. I speak without a Spanish accent and without using slang or a variety of vulgar words when I carry on a conversation.
• Some have told me in the past why am I trying to be something I am not and why can I not accept who I am. I tell those people I am not a stereotype and I act the way I do so that others will take me seriously and never judge me or underestimate me basaed on how I look or what languages I know.
• My caring teachers and involved parents were key to my school success and that is why community schools are at the heart of my reform effort.