Features

Good food is fuel for learning says Christine Tran, a University of Washington doctoral student studying Educational Leadership, Policy & Organizations.

The former Los Angeles Unified School District teacher remembers how her students did not enjoy eating school food. They'd commonly refer to it as ‘prison food.’ Students who qualified for free lunches chose to go hungry instead, with direct impacts on their academic performance.

UW College of Education students La’akea Yoshida and Christina Black dreamed of doing a world of good as educators. “My entire life, I have wanted to make a difference in the classroom,” says Christina, a recent master’s in teaching graduate and recipient of the Daniel V. Iyall Student Support Fund. Her Alaska Native grandfather never had the opportunity to attend college, nor her mother, who raised Christina and her siblings as a single parent.

In her 11 years as a teacher, Kate McMullen has regularly found herself called upon to serve as a leader. This past summer, the UW Master's in Instructional Leadership student found herself in yet another leadership position as she traveled to New York and joined 12 other teachers from around the world for Performance at the Center.

Most children in the United States grow up in communities where concern for their education doesn't start until they enter the K-12 school system. Yet by that time, a vast amount of mental development has already taken place.

That's the motivating factor behind the National P-3 Institute being hosted by the University of Washington College of Education Oct. 27-30. Fifteen school systems from every corner of the country will gather to begin improving and integrating the education children receive from birth through their elementary school years.