Growing up, Stephanie LaPierre says, she was surrounded by advocacy. Her parents brought her from Mexico, where she was born, to Atlanta, Ga., with, she says, “the dream of a better life.”
“I would always watch these marches or protests, and I’d ask my mom what was going on, and she would say that people were fighting for something. They wanted their voices to be heard. That always made me feel passionate about advocacy work. When I was a girl, my parents took me to immigration reform marches, which was very common for us down south, to continue to fight that fight.”
In middle school, LaPierre launched a student march in her class, a campaign that called for easier ways for immigrant parents to become U.S. citizens.
“We wanted our parents to have a better life,” she recalls. But LaPierre’s father was deported and sent back to Mexico. After this, LaPierre’s mother enrolled her younger sisters in Head Start, and when LaPierre picked them up and saw how welcoming and supportive the teachers were, she realized that this was a career she could pursue.
As a student at Bunker Hill Community College, LaPierre volunteered at Head Start. It was a rewarding experience that let her work with immigrant families like hers and with families that had fewer resources.
Today, LaPierre is earning her bachelor’s degree from the Boston University Metropolitan College. She is the lead teacher at the Boston University Children’s Center. And she is a member of the fourth cohort of Strategies for Children’s Advocacy Network.
Not surprisingly, what LaPierre has found at B.U. is an opportunity for advocacy.
“I was taking a class at B.U. called Challenging Educational Inequity, and the Children’s Center came up when we were talking about the affordability of child care and how many people can’t afford it.”
The Children’s Center serves families who have a university affiliation, and it’s located in Brookline, Mass., a town with limited access to government-funded childcare programs. The town, for example, does not have a Head Start program.
“That conversation made me realize that I could make some changes. It didn’t make sense to me that the Children’s Center is only available to faculty, staff, and students of Boston University, and only those who can afford the program. That means a graduate student, a custodial staff member, or someone working in the dining hall often can’t manage the cost based on their salary. I had always thought that there must be a way to welcome other children to the program.”
LaPierre shared her idea, but the feedback she received was that there were considerable roadblocks to getting funding for children whose families could not afford the full tuition. But then the Childrens’ Center hired a new director, Felicia Billy, a member of the Advocacy Network’s first cohort.
“Felicia made the teachers feel that goals are attainable if you work hard enough.”
Now, for her Advocacy Network project, LaPierre is working with Billy on a plan to create five spots for children from lower-income families by soliciting donations from the larger BU community.
“We live in a world where we need anti-bias and anti-racist education more than ever. And I think one way I can teach that is by opening a window so my students can see other people’s lives. We use the word ‘community’ a lot in our classroom, and I use it a lot in my teaching. And I feel that if we welcome other people into our community, that’s the best way to learn and become a stronger community.”
LaPierre says the Advocacy Network has helped her by shifting away from the “this is too hard to do” perspective to thinking about the strategies she could use to climb over obstacles.
There’s also an underlying theme in LaPierre’s work.
“This is all rooted in empathy, that’s what I want children to learn,” she says. “Parents might struggle with teaching a child about empathy. So, before we begin with words like I’m sorry, we start with, Oh, you hurt your friend. Like, let’s talk about it. And we can dig deeper into other times when you can have empathy. This approach also teaches families and grown ups about how to look at the world through a much wider lens.”
So once when LaPierre asked a child to help her clean up some paper, and he pointed out that the janitor could do it, LaPierre explained that by cleaning up, she and the child could help make the janitor’s job easier—a perspective that the child’s parent thanked her for sharing.
What does LaPierre want policymakers to know?
“I would like them to know that what we do is more than daycare. We teach children lessons that might not be in the curriculum or written down on the board or a piece of paper, but we are teaching them life lessons. We’re teaching them how to regulate their emotions. Skills that are crucial for children to attain before entering public school, as they provide the foundation needed for academics.
“I and my fellow teachers explain to children that they have autonomy, that they can be their own person and grow up and achieve their biggest dreams. Building a better environment starts with giving children that hope and support.”
How does LaPierre keep her spirits up during challenging times?
“I consider myself privileged, and instead of just letting my privilege sit there, I’m using it. Any anger or sadness that I have, I ball it up, and I open up my computer and ask myself, What can I do to make a change? What can I offer to other people?”