Speaker: Korianne Gevaert
What inspired you to become part of SAAEF?
Korianne Gevaert: What inspired me to become part of SAAEF is that I have a lot of students in my population that come from struggles, very similar to struggles I had myself growing up, and they felt very frustrated with the system and all of the rules and all of the things that were out of their control. So part of the reason I joined SAAEF was to not only advocate for them but also to help learn how to encourage and help them advocate for themselves. My primary goal was to learn how to empower my students so that they could feel like the system wasn't entirely against them and that they had some of their own control over their own lives and situations that they were in.
What were your biggest accomplishments during your SAAEF fellowship?
Korianne Gevaert: I think the biggest accomplishment I had during the fellowship is that I come from a state that didn't have a lot of support systems. There wasn't a huge group of advocates or volunteers or anything like that and through the fellowship and through COABE, I actually was contacted and connected with what little resources there were in the state and currently I am a member of the Iowa Literacy Council, our state association. I joined because of the fellowship. And I'm in the process of trying to rebuild and expand the advocacy that is done in our state through the state association. And as part of that I've been connecting a lot with other schools that are in the state, whereas before we were very, each school was kind of isolated doing its own thing, so I'm trying to actually expand and rebuild and I think getting able to be placed in the position where I have the option of even participating in something like that was a big accomplishment due to this fellowship.
What would you like to say to someone in the field who is unsure if they have what it takes to be an advocate?
Korianne Gevaert: I think when I first signed up for the fellowship, I was unsure if I was able to be an advocate. I had done a little bit of volunteer support group for some other advocates, but nothing at the level of what the fellowship was presenting. So it's very normal and natural to be unsure if you are someone who can handle it. But the primary thing that I learned is that anyone is capable of advocating for themselves and the people they know, it's just gonna take some work, even being kind of restricted with what I was allowed to do due to my position at the school I'm at and a lack of support in the state, I still felt like I was able to make small but important changes. To encourage my students themselves to advocate for each other and themselves, I set up a Student Ambassador program and convince a lot of our students to share their stories with us and even though I didn't feel like I was making great changes at the state level or the national level, I felt like I was making an impact on the individual students. And a lot of that was just due to wanting to help them and willing to put the work into helping them.
