Noelia Figuereo
Mary Nangeroni Social Justice Award
5/5/2015
Social Justice is the involvement of all individuals regardless of race, nation, class, or profession to meet the needs of a just society without ignoring the rights of any members within the community. In order to obtain a just and sustainable world, community leaders must come together as equals to collaborate and bring awareness to the issues that are plaguing the global community that we live in. The importance of social equality cannot be aggrandized without utilizing the concept of the socioeducational ecosystem. This concept includes a community of people, such as, parents, students, coaches, and organizations, which work in conjunction with the educational components like independence, civility, and leadership. The interaction of these systems has shaped my understanding of the valueship of social justice within the community. In short, as part of an intellectual community, I have found that some kind of help and motivation is needed for us to stay focused on our goals in life. However, social barriers, distractions, daily obstacles, problems plaguing our families and the global community are always going to be present.
For example, issues such as educational inequality, single-parent households, and gender based social barriers are important to me. Poverty disproportionately affects girls and women globally causing lack of education. Single-parent environment affects children's learning and household management. Gender based social barriers cause socioeconomic instability for women.
Social Justice is a vital tool in establishing a system for the common good. I am firmly convinced that in order to improve Social Justice we must increase public awareness and bring people together to collaborate on methods of solving these issues.
Outside of the classroom, I have spent the past five years working with similar issues within my extended family. This inspired me to look for alternative methods for helping those in need. The struggle to overcome major setbacks not only changed my life but it also inspired me to effectively change others who have faced similar problems.
Argelis Estevez, my nephew, was suffering from health-related issues due to childhood obesity. I utilized supplementary education to accelerate his mental growth, physical development, and awareness within his daily routines. I, then, retaught the same educational system to Argelis's mother to reinforce the idea of “Familial Stabilization & Household Management”. I applied these educational strategies until both his academic and health performance improved.
In my present job, I serve as the head tutor & mentor for The Academics and Athletics Academy for Excellence and I provide educational support services for K-12 students. I am looked upon to deliver accelerated learning by serving as a partner to those in need, by using self-discovery, personal growth, goal-setting, and goal reaching. I also serve as part-teacher, part-tutor, part-mentor, and part-accountability monitor. These skills, that I gained, align with my mission, which is to focus on connecting with the youth to increase awareness and provide concrete solutions to the problems plaguing their families and the global community.
My team and I, which is comprised of international athletes, scholarship students, and existing community leaders took on a project at South Lawrence East Middle School for Spark Academy. Their method is to integrate a rigorous academic and life-preparatory curriculum with fitness and athletics. Therefore, my job was to provide students from all backgrounds an opportunity to interact through group discussion, where student to mentor setbacks were discussed which helped in the development of their self and social awareness.
After working with students at Spark Academy, I developed a strong notion towards the implementation model of cultural complementarity which is people of many cultures coming together to use their diversity as an asset to improve and prevent disparities. This model is used as an innovative system for life micromanagement to prevent stagnation and poor performance in pivotal areas within multilingual communities such as academic, socioeconomic, and familial areas. This model is designed to help students increase their abilities of critical thinking, data processing, inquiring, reading, and understanding of detail.
My mission is to become a representative of the Master of Education in Community Engagement with a concentration in K-12 education. I want to lead by example as a first generation bilingual leader that will be an empowerment to the underserved communities. My goal is to build a career in education by teaching children, through multiple languages through a non-profit organization of my own. I will aim to use multiple languages to teach leadership development, group efficiency, performance optimization, and self-discipline to future leaders.
Further into the future, I plan on attacking the larger challenges that stand between women and equal opportunity. In specific, challenges such as the lack of access to education, legal protection, capital, and access to markets. My intention, at this stage, would be to create a non-profit organization that truly focuses on the progress of the individuals in question. As a current head tutor and mentor, I am dedicated to working toward the common good. The common good is referred to as one that calls for an integral and quality education for all, as well as a more just, social, and human organization(itcultura.net).
This has directed my goals, my passion, and my ambitions towards working with students, parents, athletes, professionals, and organizations to create greater opportunities to overcome future obstacles that all of us may encounter in a lifetime. Access to distance learning and community-based practice opens opportunities and is more likely to encourage graduates to work in familiar areas.
If I were allowed the opportunity to confront these issues, online tutoring and in-home training is the innovation I would use to combat to end educational imbalance. I am firmly convinced that the spread of innovation or technology crosswise over nations will be the main educational resource for educating women on their human rights. When parents are working full time they have less available time for their children, the situation may lead to either behavioral issues or lower academic achievement( livestrong.com).
In order to combat this issues, Women from different cultures and communities need to come together and build....share their ideas, collaborate with one another, ability to express themselves. I would autonomously grow International Female student clubs to help women entrepreneurs start or grow their own businesses. This is because, according to Gender Inequality Index (GII), Gender Equality remains a major barrier to critical policy Intervention and simulation in human development.
There can be no social or economic justice, or human rights progress around the world without diversity and Social Justice(Unfinished Revolution, Worden, Minkey). Many gender-based challenges are still present within today’s globalized world. If I were allowed the opportunity to confront these issues, my future goal would be to focus on the major factors that deter many future female leaders. “Women’s equal rights and influence in the key decisions that shape their lives and those of children must be enhanced in three distinct arenas: the household, the workplace and the political sphere”(globalissues.org).
Furthermore, poverty disproportionately affects girls and women causing lack of education. Single-parent environments affect children’s learning and household management and gender-based social barriers cause socioeconomic instability for women. For this reason, I strive to implement a socioeconomic advancement organization for these young adult women and their single-parent households. Most recently, I made a proposal to increase familial stabilization and household management. This monumental effort will be a vital tool in learning efficiency, assisting gender equality, and globally providing education for women and girls.
In order to provide concrete solutions to gender based global issues, we have to support young adult women and single parent households to help create gender equity and education globally for women and girls. I am a true advocate for the power of supplementary education. My career aspirations are to provide high quality education to women and children in disadvantaged communities. I believe the development of these assets yield many socioeconomic benefits for girls and women.
Being considered for the Mary Nangeroni Social Justice award is truly an honor and only a stepping stone, as I move forward in my career as a future educator. If you were to grant me this award, I am firmly convinced that our community will gain a passionate leader and female role model to aid in the growth of our collective efforts.