Eye to Eye

I am applying in support of students who learn differently (LD). These students know, often after painful experiences in a classroom, that quality education is not just a matter of acquiring knowledge or a career. It is a process that allows you to figure out how your mind works and what you love to do. I have found what I love to do, and this is it!

Eye to Eye recently brought students together in submitting an open letter to the Biden Administration, enumerating seven reforms: 

• early interventions for all students, regardless of their socioeconomic background;

• accommodations that are crucial for success;

• the opportunity to learn self-advocacy skills;

• mandatory training for educators to work with LD students;

• an education that sees all students as social-emotional learners;

• space to hold LD voices;

• the power to make decisions about the future.

If awarded, I would use the prize funding to advance these agenda items on behalf of all American students who learn differently. We have an extraordinary opportunity to address the needs that many of these students had before the pandemic and that are even more pressing now. All we need is the collective will to do things differently, and to listen.

I am a social movement leader on the front lines of the learning rights movement. I imagine a world where one day all learners will be seen, heard and valued. Being diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD at a young age, I later committed my life to students with learning differences. 

As a student at Brown University, I founded Eye to Eye alongside a group of dedicated volunteers. Six years later, I left my job as a college admissions officer and re-committed myself to propelling the movement I had begun. Eye to Eye has since become the only national organization run for and by people with learning and attention issues, like Dyslexia and ADHD.

We have reached over 10,000 students since our founding 20 years ago. Next year, we plan to reach 3,500 students nationwide. My goal for the future of this movement is to reach 25% of all middle school students who learn differently. To accomplish this, the organization supports students through mentoring, advocacy, and teacher professional development. I was recently fortunate enough to be featured as a CNN Hero, which I believe will bring even more awareness to learning differences and the way we address them in American schools.

Eye to Eye’s mission is to improve the educational experience and outcomes of every student with a learning disability (LD) and / or attention disorder. The lived experience of those we serve is at the core of our work and all of our interventions. 

The lack of equity in our schools contributes to a system that is failing students who learn differently by teaching to the majority. More than half of all students with learning disabilities and attention disorders are suspended from school each year; one in three are held back one or more grades; one in four are diagnosed with depression; and one in five drop out before reaching high school. Of the students who do make it to high school, only 68% earn a diploma; 21% enroll in a four-year college; and 46% are employed. (National Center for Learning Disabilities).

We address this inequity by centering the experience of our students - and the proximity to the problem we are trying to solve - at the core of our work. 

Eye to Eye serves students who have been diagnosed with some form of learning disability or attention issue, most commonly dyslexia and/or ADHD. Learning disabilities and/or attention challenges intersect all racial, ethnic, incomes, genders, and other socio-economic groups. 

We are the only national mentoring movement run by and for people with learning disabilities (LD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The demographics and lived experience of the community we serve is reflected in the composition of our board, staff, and volunteers. I’ve spent the last twenty years teaching students with learning disabilities how to self-advocate. Young people with learning disabilities have long been ahead of the curve in embracing more equitable, humane approaches to learning. They have been asking terrific questions we should all be asking: What is the purpose of education? They’ve realized, often after painful experiences in a classroom, that quality education is not just a matter of acquiring knowledge for a career. It’s a process that allows you to figure out how your mind works and what you love to do. I see Eye to Eye as the vehicle to make these students’ vision a reality.

The disability rights movement is vacant of a true leaderful movement, with “co-conspirators” across intersectional identities. Policies remain the same (Individuals with Disabilities Act), and we are battling to get more funding to fully deliver on these efforts. The way students have been involved in planning the future of education, and the way teachers have been trained, is not working.

Our solution looks at a communications model based on our club model. Eye to Eye Clubs are led by and for students who learn differently and their allies, with students feeding policy decisions and implementing change on their campuses.

We propose investing in the nexus of social movement revolutions and nonprofits fixing problems - investing in social entrepreneurship to change the discourse. This work needs to include students, educators, parents, and others to create grassroots organizing and efforts to “start a revolution” about school, during this opportune time when education has been flipped on its head.

Finally, we also propose looking at the influence of celebrity endorsement, social change movement leaders, grassroots organizers, policy makers and, at the core, stories of students. We are asking ourselves, “What can we create that is adjacent possible?”