Speaker: Michelle Ford
What inspired you to become part of SAAEF?
Michelle Ford: I wanted to be a part of SAAEF because I had thoughts and ideas to share I also wanted to learn more about being an advocate, what it entailed, and I wanted to find out what other states were doing to push adult education In the area where I live there's very little done for adult education. And being on the school board, I knew about what was going on in the school system and the public school system, but there were no real programs in our area for adults and I wanted to know if there was a way to draw in more programs.
What were your biggest accomplishments during your SAAEF fellowship?
Michelle Ford: I can say my most memorable experience was being on the Hill. The first thing was meeting people from other states and other advocates and talking about, you know, some of the programs that they did, some of their accomplishments and some of their challenges, the next thing was meeting Representative Bobby Scott. He was personable and we had a real conversation about education, and you know, he was able to throw in points and ideas from his area and so I felt that he really was engaged in adult education. Another thing about being on the Hill was when I did a video and Facebook shout outs. And coming back and people were asking on Facebook and they were asking in person, what were you doing? Why were you there? What were you talking about? And you know that opened up many avenues as far as being able to tell them, you know, I am with the organization COABE and I'm a state advocate for adult education and what we were doing was advocating for funding for adult education and then you know I was able to talk about the fact that you know in our area we don't really have a lot of programs for adults and so you know it got people to thinking and that felt really good to me.
What would you like to say to someone in the field who is unsure if they have what it takes to be an advocate?
Michelle Ford: For someone who is unsure about whether or not they wanna be a SAAEF advocate or whether they think, you know, they can be effective. I think just getting out there and talking about adult education, giving it your best. I can say that during the process, I didn't feel as though I was accomplishing what I could see other people were accomplishing and then I had to realize that, you know, some people have programs that are well established, some people have great connections and,. you know, I had to work with what I had, what I knew to do, and so I think I made this impact. I think it was a small impact, but I do think um it opened the eyes of some people, so you would never know until you try it, so just step out there and do it.
