May 16th, 2024

BCNY Alum José Vilson

This May, alumnus José Vilson returned to BCNY to hold a professional learning session with BCNY staff titled “Reflecting on Youth and What We Do.” José Luis Vilson is a veteran educator, sociologist, and author in New York City, NY. He is currently a doctoral candidate and professor studying sociology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is also the executive director of EduColor, an organization dedicated to building and supporting communities of educators of color. He is the author of the best-selling book This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education.  

Important Themes

José reflected on his own experiences as a member of BCNY and as a long-time educator. He discussed important themes regarding strengthening parent engagement and youth leadership. These included equity and justice, servant and principle-based leadership, and gradually releasing responsibility. Justice, here, concerned justice in how we address and redress. Its combination with equity required answering questions about what we do not have answers to and what needs to be answered. This all being underlaid by considerations of power. Servant leadership meant choosing to reflect the right energy out into the world while remaining humble. The focus on principles struck a needed chord for BCNY staff, allowing them to consider and reflect on the principles unique and indelible to BCNY. When thinking about processes with our members, gradually releasing responsibility- taken from classroom experience- meant leading while allowing those learning to take on more to grow. The session closed with an enduring reminder: everyone deserves their full respect and full humanity.  

Lessons

BCNY is thankful to José for offering his knowledge to continuously build BCNY as a place of safety and growth for its staff, community, and members. The lessons we learned in this session will undoubtedly germinate into stronger member-to-member cultivating structures and processes that build staff and parent engagement. Like José, BCNY aims to lead by servitude and humility with uncompromising principles.