5 Reasons to Know... 5 Graduating Ed.M. Students

Jeff Layton
Technology, Innovation, and Education
It started by chance. Working as a substitute teacher while pursuing acting, Jeff Layton was unimpressed with the "educational" videos left behind by the teachers for him to show. He decided to produce his own, including the latest about the gold rush that won best educational short at the Kids First! Film Festival. While at Harvard, he interned at PBS and with a unit of Scholastic that creates educational software for schools.

Lana Asfour
International Education Policy
Growing up in the United Arab Emirates, Lana Asfour knows how education can impact economic development. Driven to become an advanced knowledge-based society, the area has heavily courted American universities to start satellite campuses, including the one created by her employer, the Qatar Foundation. When she returns, she will continue helping the American admissions offices recruit local students and guide public schools with the often-unknown college admissions process.

Kim Snodgrass
Risk and Prevention
Her early schooling was sporadic, bouncing back and forth between foster care and her mother. Since then, she's become a staunch advocate for traumatized youth and interned at several related Boston nonprofits. The author of two books on foster children, including I Am a Foster Child and That's Okay with Me, her goal is to start a residential school for foster children.

Briget Ganske
Arts in Education
A congressman's daughter, Briget Ganske realized early on the importance of telling stories. Now a documentary photographer, she once led an afterschool photo program in Harlem and worked with female journalists on a South African newspaper. While at the Ed School, she helped run a film workshop for teenagers in Boston, and through the student-created Learning Through Libraries program, taught children in one El Salvadoran community how to use cameras.

Chike Aguh
Education Policy and Management
His parents came from a small village in Nigeria. His father, now a physician, returns every year to provide free medical care. This public service ethos inspired Chike Aguh to help troubled teens stay in school in New York City and teach in Thailand as a Fulbright scholar. Next fall, he'll start MPA and MBA programs at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Photo: Tanit Sakakini