The Students March

We asked master’s candidates Jess Bialecki (Human Development and Psychology), Hannah Brilliant (Teacher Education Program), Bobby Dorigo Jones (Education Policy and Management), Christina Kirby (Mind, Brain, and Education), Sarah Mintz (Teacher Education Program), Megan Red Shirt-Shaw (Higher Education), and Danubia Carmagos Silva (Human Development and Psychology) to share their reasons for participating in the march.

Why I march:

Danubia: I am marching for my daughter Aaliyah and all the other children in the world. I am marching for immigrant women and their children that similar to my situation had no choice other than to leave their native lands to proudly adopt the U.S. as their mother nation.

Megan: I wanted to be there to represent Native American women. I am Oglala Lakota Sioux and the #NoDAPL issue has been really important, so I wanted to make sure that I made a contribution in making it visible.

Sarah: I was feeling so much sadness, anger, and fear after the election, and a lot of that has to do with my identity as a woman. I felt it was important to show up and turn that anger and shock into tangible action.

Hannah: I hope to be able to show up for others, to stand up and be counted on the right side of history.

Christina: I think we just have so much work to do for women in this culture of victim-blaming and excuses via “locker room banter,” which is just completely unacceptable. And that’s my personal motivator. Like any woman, I unfortunately know many people who have gone through sexual abuse, and parts of this election kind of felt like a personal attack against women. I think a lot of people can empathize with that feeling.

Connecting to the march as educators:

Jess: During this election season, I had thought a lot about the absence of education from political dialogue in this country, at least on a national scale, and I found that really frustrating. I think as educators, a lot of times we’re really focused on our work internally, which is critical. But it’s also really critical for us to participate in the political process and have our voices heard to the broader community and society, so that education isn’t as removed from the dialogue as it has been. And because education is a female-dominated field, I think in this new presidential term, it’s going to be really important for us as female educators to voice our opinions and make ourselves heard.

Bobby: I believe that the ultimate goal of education is to empower people to assert agency in their lives and in their society. I hope the Women’s March shows young people that, even in today’s political climate, their voices, their ideas, and their passion are incredibly important.

Danubia: Our children deserve a world that they feel safe to live in. Safe to be themselves, safe from hatred, racism, stereotypes, and all the ISMS that some of us in the society have continued to oppose.

Sarah: I think often about the values I want to impart to my students in the classroom, such as empathy, courage, community, and resilience. By attending the march and speaking out against oppression and hate in continued activism, I am attempting to live out these values in my own life.

Christina: Right now I’m working part time at a school in Dorchester, and the majority of my students are immigrants. The day after the election, one of my students said to me, “I feel like the American people just voted against my future,” which was absolutely heartbreaking. I responded to her, “You have valid reasons to feel that way, but you should know that there’s a massive community of people who support you.” And I think the sheer numbers of people attending the Women’s March, or sister marches in different cities, can kind of demonstrate that. “Look at these hundreds of thousands of people who do support you and stand against this and do want you to succeed.”

Connecting to the march as students:

Jess: While I was really disappointed and saddened by the whole election season and the outcome of it, I was really glad to be at HGSE. The community here, of people who are really compassionate, passionate, and also just really good listeners, was such a helpful place to process what had happened. And as we turned from processing to thinking about what comes next, and what to do, I felt really inspired by people around me pushing us to concrete action.

Hannah: Attending one of the world's most elite institutions carries with it an incredible chance to take part in shaping educational discourse for the future. But we must do so in intentional, thoughtful ways. Attending the march, surrounding myself with thousands of other people doing the same kind of work as I am, is a way to remind myself about my place in all of this. I still have so much to learn about being an accomplice in dismantling the oppressive systems from which I benefit. I know I could always stand to listen more to the people who actually know what they're talking about.

Christina: Seeing the investment of everyone at HGSE has been a positive spin on the election for me. We have all these people who are willing to go forward and make change. These are people that are going to be affecting schools or systems and individuals, and hopefully can share these ideas or implement these ideas at a larger scale.

Megan: As a co-chair of FIERCE (Future Indigenous Educators Resisting Colonial Education) here at HGSE, we’ve done a lot of work on pushing the narrative forward for contemporary Native students, ourselves included. Seeing others at the march equally as passionate about their day-to-day passions rejuvenated me for the work we’ll continue during our last semester here at Harvard. I’ll remember all of the beautiful faces I saw [at the march] as I head into classes that center around better education for future generations. They’re growing up, and we can’t let them down.

Sarah: So much of what I have learned so far at HGSE relates to the intersection of education and social justice. I think attending the March is just the first step of ways I can bridge what I am learning in my coursework to real actions in my community.