18 Years with Syreeta Watkins

Our farewell conversation with a beloved employee about her tenure at IISME/ Ignited. 

 

 

How have our community of teachers and mentors impacted you over the past 18 years?

One of the biggest ways that Ignited teachers have impacted me is by letting me see behind the scenes of how teachers work, because teaching is their passion and all the work that they do makes such a huge difference on people’s lives. I was the recipient of so many amazing teachers’ caring, kindness, and belief in me. 

For mentors, it was really inspiring to see how reinvigorated they were by working with teachers, and how passionate they were about supporting teachers – how they recognize the fact that society puts so much pressure on teachers and the education system.

We always think about the mentors having an impact on the teachers, but then seeing the impact the teachers had on the mentors was really cool. One of our mentors became a substitute teacher after being a mentor, and another mentor said he learned to communicate more effectively because of his experience getting to work with a teacher who was new to this environment. It made me so happy to see these reciprocal relations, this symbiotic relationship between the mentor and teacher.

 

Reflecting on your 18 years with us, how has the organization evolved during your time? 

One of the things that I really appreciate and love about the organization is that even though some of our methods changed, our core mission hasn’t. After almost 40 years, we’re still in this for teachers and the students that they serve, and for bridging education and industry. It’s been really awesome to see how the organization has become better; we’ve always had this iterative approach to improvement, to listening to our different communities to really effect change in meaningful ways, to being unafraid to try new things. I’m proud of the Ignited team for being adaptable and working so well together over the years. It’s awesome.

 

What are some of the moments that stand out to you? 

I would say what stands out most are all the people that have been involved in Ignited over the years – from Kaye Storm to Marie Earl, who came back and helped us with strategic planning at one point, to Jennifer Bruckner and Shari Liss, who’s still on our board, to all of the people that have crossed paths with us.*

One of my favorite teacher memories was when I was assisting with fellowships at Lockheed Martin. During first-day orientation one summer, there was this amazing teacher all dressed up in a suit and tie, and I sat next to him on the bus to Lockheed’s security. I asked how he was feeling and he confessed he was incredibly nervous, uncertain of meeting expectations in a very different environment. Not only did he succeed that summer, he came back to the program several more times and started helping other first-time teachers adjust. Watching him go from “I don’t know if I can do this” to “I know I can do this and I’m going to pay it forward” – it still gives me goosebumps to think about.

*Kaye Storm: First IISME paid staff member, longtime director of the Stanford-Ignited program
Marie Earl: IISME Executive Director from 1988 – 1997
Jennifer Bruckner: IISME Executive Director from 2002 – 2014
Shari Liss: IISME/ Ignited employee for 19 years and CEO from 2014 – 2019; current Ignited Board member

 

As someone who’s been a beloved part of this community,  do you have any parting thoughts to share?

Whether it was coincidence or a sign – I actually found out about IISME when I was in high school. One of my teachers had done a fellowship, and hearing her talk about the experience had a tremendous impact on me and I really wanted to work there. I’m really grateful to IISME/Ignited for taking a chance on me 18 years ago, because at the time I had just graduated  college! 

Thank you to the teachers for being the amazing people that they are and dedicating their “time off” to grow and develop in new ways. They just make me so happy.

And to the staff – the team is so amazing and so dedicated and so passionate about the work that this organization does. Getting to work alongside them for all of these years has really been the highlight of my days, and I am grateful.

 

You’ve been known to leave hilarious math puns in your away messages. Can you leave us with a final Out Of Office math pun?!

Even better, I’ll leave you with two!

Send Syreeta your best wishes!