Kevin Sanders
IUPUI
Kevin Sanders, a third-year student at IUPUI, is committed to advancing equitable education opportunities for everyone. For the past two years, as a Sam H. Jones Community Service Scholar, Kevin has addressed educational inequities in the classroom at George Washington Community High School, where he mentors students around college readiness and works on curriculum development. He also is passionate about leading his peers to take action on an Alternative Break service trips. He recently led a break on centered on disability justice, where he created an intensive curriculum experience that included meetings in Washington, D.C. to meet with congressional representatives and national policy experts on disability.
Personal Statement
Education remains one of the greatest mediums through which to counter oppression and enact social change. The power of a single idea may ripple through a classroom and send shockwaves through communities miles apart, or be used to perpetuate systems of oppression long experienced by marginalized populations. Throughout my time in college, I have come to realize that the classrooms, offices, and workrooms we find ourselves in are inundated with historical inequities, physical barriers, and obstacles to success. Furthermore, my career remains a part of a dynamic, rapidly changing field of conflicting ideas, learning theories, and administrations that all affect the quality of education in communities across the United States. My philosophy while in university has been to learn as much as I can about social issues, that I may work on challenging the status quo in my own classroom.
I have had the honor of serving on Alternative Break trips and working with hundreds of youth across Indianapolis to learn more about issues that students face. I have strived to become a student-centered, rather than test-based, educator that proudly features the assets and talents of our next generation of leaders. Only collectively will we begin to change the world.
