What I learned from seven weeks at Colorado Succeeds – as an Educator, Worker, and Coloradan
By Elizabeth Shalda, 2024 Urban Leaders Fellow for Colorado Succeeds
On my first day, I sat across the table from one of the most well-spoken, impressive women I’ve been humbled to meet. Katie Kruger, Colorado Succeeds board member and business executive, asked us all, “Where are you stuck?”
For seven weeks, I worked as a fellow for Colorado Succeeds through the Urban Leaders Fellowship, responding to what has felt like a season of “stuck” in my life. It’s an odd feeling to try something so new after nearly a decade in the workforce, feeling like you’ve honed your craft and cultivated confidence in your profession. I walked in excited but utterly unsure of what I could offer such a different space than my classroom.
I’ve been an educator for nine years, and have taught a wildly diverse array of students in very different settings. I know my craft and how adaptable I need to be; I like to believe I know what my kids need when they come into my classroom. I know that as a teacher, I can learn to do almost anything if it’s what my students, my school needs. But working in an office? I don’t know anything about that. Or at least, I didn’t, until this summer.
Helping people through teaching is part of why you stay, even when you’re burned out, stretched thin, and counting down the days on your calendar. You’re doing good and meaningful work that is having a tangible effect on society’s future.
But after my fellowship, I’ve learned that there are also good people doing good work outside of the classroom to increase student opportunities. They sit at desks and around conference room tables, they work side-by-side with business leaders, legislators, educators, and communities, investing in the intersection between students’ needs and the needs of our state. They examine the landscape and its gaps with depth and curiosity in ways I have never had the capacity to as an educator. And then, they get to problem-solving.
Working for Colorado Succeeds, I’ve learned so much about myself. I came into this fellowship questioning what I had to offer or if what I had to offer could even translate to the non-profit, advocacy, and policy world. My insecurity was met with an abundance of grace, encouragement, and trust. It was foreign to be treated like a professional in a space where I didn’t feel like I had earned it. The 2024 Session alone highlights the balance of force and ease that was my experience this summer. Everyone is always working towards the same goal but doing it in a way that honors their humanity and that of their teammates. Across teams, there is consistency and clarity – all of the work is connected, rooted in the mission of growing generations of Coloradans who can serve our state with their talents and training. As a teacher, this clear alignment and collaboration was simultaneously familiar and strange.
It’s not foreign to work with others towards a common goal, but to do so with the time and capacity to truly engage with your team in a meaningful way? That’s new to me. In the school system, spare minutes are rare. You simply don’t have time to give, and there are few opportunities to actually leverage the expertise of others, engage a thought partner, or just listen and learn from someone else’s lived experience.
During my seven-week fellowship, I had the pleasure of connecting with most of the team at Colorado Succeeds. In each conversation, I was struck by the diversity of paths to this work, but especially the common thread woven between them: a desire to invest in our education system, support the work of educators, and help students. Amongst the high rises in downtown Denver are people working hard to support me and every other educator in the state, even though many educators do not know they exist.
Educators often feel so alone in the work, as if we are the only ones investing – maybe that’s why we pour ourselves into it until we’re empty. But this summer taught me that there is incredible, meaningful work being done around and for us. We have partners we haven’t met. We are benefitting, and our students are benefitting, from the work of people who love and believe in the power of education and know that their energy is best used beyond the role of educator. We are far less alone than we think.
As I transition into the role of Instructional Coach this coming school year, I’m taking with me so many lessons – but especially the work of humanizing the workplace. In the middle of my fellowship, I got very sick. As a teacher, everything in me said to power through and show up. But at Colorado Succeeds, I was given the trust and support to say “It’s in everyone’s best interest if I work from home” and then was appreciated for that. While we still need adults supervising classrooms, I’m taking with me a different understanding of collective care – taking care of the whole by taking care of yourself.
Is it possible to cultivate that ideology in a school? I’m determined to find out. I’m taking Rachel’s enthusiasm and ability to make complex work accessible, Sarah’s trusting disposition as a mentor and ability to empower others, Jaidi’s gift for encouragement and validation, Shannon’s balance of humility and expertise, and Madison’s clarity and responsiveness—in different ways, they’ve all coached me in ways I hope to replicate.
At the end of my time with Colorado Succeeds, I feel utterly unstuck. I’m energized by the knowledge I’ve gained, soaking it all up like a sponge. I know myself more deeply, the kinds of spaces, experiences, and work that energizes me, a clearer understanding of myself as both an educational professional, and a professional who worked in Education. I know more about our state, its strengths, its struggles, and the work done between the two. I know more about our districts and schools – so many schools are doing such meaningful work to serve their students, their communities’ needs, and our state’s well-being, from Holyoke to Salida, Cherry Creek to Westminster. I now know students who have benefited from this important work happening in our downtown office, the State Capitol, and in their districts. Their voices and stories are the ultimate testament to the mission of Succeeds.
In our society, success is often synonymous with achievement or accomplishment. But what I carry with me is not some tangible evidence of my work as a fellow – it’s excitement, it’s hope. Colorado is on the cusp of something great, of giving its youth the experience, credentials, and knowledge they need to stay and thrive in our state, and I’m honored to have been a part of that work.
Elizabeth Shalda was the Summer 2024 Urban Leaders Fellow for Colorado Succeeds. Originally from Michigan, she has served the Denver Metro Area as an educator for nine years. Informed by her Master’s in Education Policy & Practice, she’s passionate about work that reimagines the system to meet the needs of students within and beyond her classroom.
