Marco's Wisdom About Advocacy

Elda, Marina, Daniel, Marco, Melika

On Saturday, February 28th, San Mateo Adult School Student Leaders presented a workshop on the "The Power of Student Leadership."   Morning Student Council President Daniel, former Student Council President Marco, Advocate Marina, and Board Member Melika inspired everyone in the room with their presentations.  Student Council Board Member Elda captured the event on video and provided support on many levels. 

You can read a full account of the workshop here.

Marco spoke about the power of student advocacy for Adult Schools and Adult Education.

Marco speaking about advocacy.

He talked about attending and speaking at the Oversight Hearing on Adult Education in Sacramento in January of 2014 with other student leaders.  He talked about attending the Harvard Symposium on Adult Education thru Skype.  The Harvard students asked him, "Why should we spend money on adults when kids need money for their education?"   Marco explained that our school has answered this in many ways.  "If the parents do well," he said, "the kids do even better."

He closed his presentation on advocacy with this wisdom:

We would not expect you to believe in the importance of what we're doing if we had not believed it ourselves . "In darkness, no one lights a candle and hides it under a table, but instead it's placed on top, to shed light to all."

As a minority we have to "swim against the tide"; however we must continue to speak up if we want to be heard.  Because, the truth even when it comes from a minority of a few will remain  the truth.