Evelyn Castro

Background

About Evelyn Castro

I am humbled and beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to open Ednovate's third high school, a network of high performing and innovative high schools in Southern California. USC College Prep, Santa Ana, will open its doors to its founding 9th grade class on August of 2016. As I prepare for this journey, I have been thinking a lot about what would it take to design and lead a breakthrough school. I believe that a key ingredient is a leadership that is both coherent and courageous and that, consequently, overturns the status quo, and a talented and dynamic founding team. To achieve great academic results, we must first demonstrate genuine and authentic love and care for the students we serve. An environment where students feel that they are cared about and where they can, without hesitation, trust every adult in the school will allow them to exercise their full potential and develop agency, self-awareness, purpose, and hope. A nurturing environment that sees every child’s struggles and experiences as assets that can inform and guide instruction, partnered with a personalized learning experience that considers each child’s strengths, areas of growth, and passions, can lead to results that can disrupt cycles of oppression. I grew up in the same circumstances as many of the students that I have had the pleasure of serving and will continue to serve and that has made me a school leader that approaches every situation with a great sense of urgency. My service work is driven by my sincere passion and commitment to student empowerment and freedom. Education is the most important social justice issue of our time and it is my goal to revolutionarily lead my future school team in developing students who are ready to conquer collegiate level work, have a strong sense of self-awareness, agency, and purpose, and effect positive multigenerational change in their communities and the world.