College Student Shelby Farris Awarded Impact Award for Founding Nonprofit Fighting Discrimination and Harassment in Schools
A sophomore at Washington College in Chestertown, MD, Shelby Farris is the founder and executive director of Students for Educational Equity in the US (SEE US). After being the victim of discrimination and harassment in school after coming out, Shelby set out to empower students to become advocates for equitable, inclusive, and affirming spaces while also providing student-led professional development to educational professionals through their Proud Schools project.
Q: Can you introduce yourself?
A: I am the Founder and Executive Director of Students for Educational Equity in the US (SEE US). You can find more information at the following website: www.studentsforeducationalequity.org
Q: What is the best career advice you ever received?
A: Your career should reflect your passions. It sounds cheesy to say "do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life,” but it’s true. When you are working in a field that reflects you personally, your career becomes more about the impact you want to make with your life than about making money.
Q: What compelled you to enter your field?
A: Having been a student who experienced harassment and discrimination because of my identity and having struggled to have my educational needs met, I am trying to be the person I needed. I want to make sure that student voices are at the center of every conversation about what is happening in our classrooms.
Q: What’s one industry-specific thing you wish you knew when you started?
A: I wish that I had known how much resistance there would be to working with "kids." I thought that this idea seemed so simple and yet so critical to the work of education that I wouldn't have to fight so hard to get in front of audiences, but there is tremendous resistance to including all voices.
Q: What trends do you see dramatically influencing the work in your industry?
A: I think that the ongoing struggle to build intergenerational teams is going to continue to influence the way that we make progress in this field.
Q: What’s a common myth about your industry/job?
A: A common myth is that everyone is working in education or a nonprofit field for selfless reasons.
Q: Is there anything else that you would like to share?
A: I am 19 and I started doing this work at a very young age, which means that I am one of very few people who will be able to say that before I graduated college I had more than a decade of experience working globally to improve educational outcomes for students.
If you are interested in following Students for Educational Equity in the US, you can find their social media links below:
