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On my first day as an undergraduate at Syracuse University I was confident that I knew exactly what was to come on my path throughout the next four years. I would attend lectures, live in a dorm, make new friends and graduate as an English Education major ready to head a classroom in an inner city school district. While I have in fact attended lectures, lived in both a dorm and two apartments and made new friends who feel like old friends, the one thing that has changed is the “end goal.” Now, as an English Major with a double minor in both Education and Policy Studies I am more determined than ever to participate in the quest to change the face of education in the United States. After taking a course titled “The American School” I was exposed to a wide variety of issues that those in the field of education have faced and continue to face across the country. This course combined both sociology and education to explore these issues in a way that made them relevant to an audience composed largely of education majors who had limited experience in the field outside of their role as a student.

That being said, the topic that stood out most to me was that of charter schools in the United States. The topic was briefly touched on, almost as if it was a curse word in the education field and when students asked questions about charter schools my professor seemed unsure of his answers. I began researching charter schools almost immediately and stumbled upon The Center for Education Reform’s website. I read the articles on the website and decided to apply for the Summer 2015 internship in the hopes of better understanding the education reform movement as a whole and the role charter schools play in the movement itself. Six months later, here I am on day one. It is evident in the first few hours that the staff at CER is dedicated to the education reform movement in a way that involves the next generation. The goal is to involve a generation of people who want change but more often than not are too lazy to do the research – especially if the research is longer than 140 characters. I hope to help spread the message of CER to the next generation in a way that they can understand while also increasing my involvement in and knowledge of the education reform movement itself. Over the coming weeks I hope to fully immerse myself in the education reform movement in a way that provides me with the knowledge and resources to involve others who could be instrumental in developing the movement.

Ciara O’Sullivan, CER Intern