Broad Education

by Nazbanoo Pahlavi (HNZ'03)

In April's Carnegie Mellon Today
Camp counselor isn't an uncommon teenager job. But Camp Iroquois director Dave Sherman doesn't allow just anyone to join his staff. Leadership is important. So is the ability to connect with disadvantaged children. He also wants someone he thinks will be inspired by the experience.

In his search, he considers the students at the Elmira, N.Y., high school where he is a gym teacher. He approaches Sarah Coon, a sophomore, who is active in sports and school clubs. She agrees to become a summer counselor at the upstate New York camp.

Youngsters—identified as high-risk by the New York State Sheriff's Association—are bused in each week. Coon learns many of the campers haven't had ideal childhoods. Don't they deserve a chance, too, she wonders? "I just knew instantly that this was the group of people I wanted to work with," she says.

It has been 10 years since she felt the need to list camp counselor on her résumé, but it established her career path, which she began in 2001 as a Teach For America teacher. In addition to classroom work, she's accumulated education policy and management experience, and in 2006 she earned her MPM in education policy from Heinz College.

Last year, she was chosen for a two-year Broad Residency in Urban Education, which places residents into top-level management of urban school systems. Only 31 residents nationally were selected, which represents less than 5% of the applicants. All have advanced degrees. Coon's residency is at Achievement First, a charter school management organization with 15 schools in Connecticut and New York. She is director of evaluation and organization development.