My name is Jesus Galvan, and I recently joined ACTE as its new Research and Policy Coordinator. In this role, I will support ACTE with various research, data and policy activities, including creating fact sheets and writing blog posts.
I was born and raised in Southeast Texas, near the Louisiana border and the Gulf of Mexico. I grew up in an area plagued by poverty and attended poor-performing schools – despite this, I remained oblivious to my living situation until I reached high school. Only then did I begin to realize how access to a good K-12 education, college and a stable career often depended on where one was born, their socioeconomic status and their racial/ethnic background. Once I enrolled for college at Rice University, I took my lived experiences and began to focus on attaining a career where I could work in education in some capacity.
At Rice, I engaged in numerous research and internship experiences to expand my knowledge in education research and policy. This includes interning at the Educational Testing Service, the U.S. Department of Education and Latinos for Education and conducting research with the Houston Education Research Consortium and the Kinder Institute for Urban Research. After graduating from Rice, I enrolled in the Master of Arts program in Educational Policy Studies at Boston University, where I interned with the Wheelock Educational Policy Center and worked alongside the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy on a project analyzing STEM-based work experiences for high school students in Massachusetts. I have many different interests in education research, but CTE began to bloom as a particular standout because of its push to secure stabilized futures and career paths for all students, an issue that I particularly care about.
In this new role with ACTE, I hope to contribute significantly to the expanding opportunities that CTE can bring about, particularly for vulnerable student populations in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also hope to see flourishing economic opportunities for these students because of expanded CTE offerings – in an increasingly expensive era, building wealth for the most vulnerable student populations is urgent.
Outside of work, I enjoy collecting New York Times newspapers, listening to music (shoutout to the band Beach House), visiting museums and cooking with my parents.
If I can be of any help or assistance to you, please do not hesitate to reach me at [email protected]. I would be more than happy to speak with you.
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