Michele Leardo
Walton Family Foundation
Austin, TX USA
"You really can do anything."
Career Roadmap
Michele's work combines: Education, Non-Profit Organizations, and Helping People
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Talk to people about what they do for work. That's a great way to expose yourself to different paths. If you want to get into education, I highly recommend participating in student teaching experiences. If it wasn't for student teaching, I wouldn't have been able to really figure out what I really liked about teaching and where I wanted to put forth my efforts. It wouldn't have been enough to just learn about education in the classroom—those hands-on teaching experiences were critical.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Elementary Education and Human Development
Boston College
Graduate Degree
Education Policy
George Washington University
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
I’ve always loved children so I decided to study to become a teacher when I went off to college.
2.
In college, I got to do a few different student teaching experiences in a range of environments—suburban, urban, private, and public schools.
3.
I resonated most with my experience teaching in Boston Public Schools, so I spent my senior year student teaching full-time in that district.
4.
I graduated in 2009 at a bad time in the economy, so I moved to Italy and got a job teaching in Rome.
5.
That experience prompted me to think about education more systemically, so I decided to go back to school and get my master’s in education policy.
6.
I then did research at New York University about the contextual factors that influence students—things like crime exposure, the neighborhoods they live in, whether or not they eat breakfast, etc.
7.
My research was very interesting but I felt disconnected from schools and students, and wanted to do something that brought me closer to schools, community, and people.
8.
I became interested in philanthropy and got the opportunity to work as a program officer for the Walton Family Foundation, where I get to work with school districts or organizations that support them.
