Antonio Cediel

USP Cohort 11, Deputy Superintendent for Schools and Cluster Leaders, Boston Public Schools

"I came to USP with a strong commitment and desire to make changes in urban education on a large scale. At the same time, I knew virtually nothing about the work of a district superintendent and had only a vague notion of what I would learn in the program. By the end of the year of coursework, I felt that I had developed a strong conceptual framework with which to approach the work of district leadership. The USP seminar, in particular, was very powerful in that it effectively melded academic theory with the practical realities of urban school leadership and was far more rigorous than any other courses I took at Harvard. The six-month internship with an urban superintendent was a pivotal experience which provided me with a wealth of opportunities to achieve my own learning goal: to be prepared to take on either an assistant superintendent position in a large district or the superintendency in a small urban district. This goal would have been unreasonable at this stage in my career had it not been for the excellent training I have received throughout the program. Never before in my life as a learner have the expectations been so high, and the support been so personalized."