Charter school leader Sonia Park spent her childhood as one of the only kids of color in suburban Philadelphia schools, then watched her own son experience the same othering thirty years later in New York City. She runs the Diverse Charter Schools Coalition because belonging is not a side issue. It is the thing that determines whether kids can thrive.
In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Sonia, Executive Director of the Diverse Charter Schools Coalition, to talk about why intentionally diverse public schools matter and what it takes to keep building them in a moment when the word "diversity" itself is under federal fire.
Sonia traces her own arc: clean carpets and isolation in the suburbs, older buildings and belonging in the city, two years in Korea that taught her what freedom actually feels like to take for granted, and a winding path through Edison Schools, the New York City DOE under Dennis Walcott, and the U.S. Department of Education under Secretary John King. She is candid about the moment she realized her son was experiencing the same marginalization she had, and what that anger turned into.
DCSC now represents 106 networks and over 280 schools across 26 states and Washington, D.C. Sonia explains why the coalition can say things its member schools no longer can, and why running by herself every day is how she leads.
Listen in for a conversation about belonging and the leadership practice of forgiving yourself when you are not perfect.
Chapters:
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01:32 Meet Sonia Park: from Philadelphia kid to leading 280 charter schools
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02:21 Clean carpets versus older buildings: what each kind of school taught her about belonging
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05:55 Two years in Korea: tear gas, cab drivers, and what freedom really means
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19:48 An Edison newspaper ad and a charter school career started by accident
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23:18 From Manhattan Charter Schools to Secretary John King's Department of Education
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28:30 There was no path: how Sonia weighed each career pivot
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33:31 Inside DCSC: how 106 networks build belonging together
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36:42 The coalition that can say what its member schools no longer can
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43:36 Running alone every day and the leadership practice of forgiving yourself
Links:
Connect with Sonia C. Park:
LinkedIn Reach out to Sonia to learn more about the Diverse Charter Schools Coalition's work supporting 106 networks and over 280 intentionally diverse public charter schools across 26 states and Washington, D.C.
Stay strong.
Episode 28