Speaker: Ted Kroll
What inspired you to become part of SAAEF?
Ted Kroll: What inspired me to become a SAAEF? I think I was inspired by our former executive director, Patrick Brown, in Michigan who urged me to become a voice for adult learning, seeing the advocacy work he did for adult education and hearing his story about being a SAAEF fellow really made me think about how I could carry on his work that he had done in the state of Michigan by becoming a SAAEF itself. So really for me, the inspiration came from him and for me to carry on his work and continue to be a voice for adult learning in our state.
What were your biggest accomplishments during your SAAEF fellowship?
Ted Kroll: Biggest accomplishments during the SAAEF Fellowship while I have been a SAAEF fellow. Number one, we're able to collect advocacy survey data from our state really for the first time, narrowing in on who have people talked to in terms of the legislators. What have they done during AFL week? What they had asked for, what did they advocate for. So using that data, it really helps us determine what groups do we really need to reach out to, what do we need to hone in as a state agency or a state organization to get more professional development to our members on around advocacy. In addition, we hosted Advocacy Day on the Hill in Lansing, big one. We hired a new director for our state, for MACAE, the Michigan Association of Adult Community and Alternative Education, and we're currently advocating to keep funding for our literacy coalitions and community organizations for a one-time funding that we had called ALOF, the Adult Literacy Opportunity Fund, which we are trying to get into the permanent budget through advocacy work with our legislator.
What would you like to say to someone in the field who is unsure if they have what it takes to be an advocate?
Ted Kroll: I think if you're thinking of becoming a SAAEF, you're unsure if you have what it takes to be an advocate, understanding it's a little intimidating, I think, for anyone at first, the realization that we're doing advocacy work every day, when we talk about our programs, when we share our stories, and we share our successes, most importantly, when we let our learners' voices be heard. We have it in us to do it. We are doing it. I think being a SAAEF fellow what it has done is helped me learn how to harness all this messaging that I was doing, that my program was doing, that my students were doing, and it taught me how to harness this into a cohesive message that I could share with people in my community, people within my state, about the importance of adult learning and how they can support adult learning in Michigan.
