Stuyvesant High School

At that time, there were three in the room.

Brown's High School of Science, Stuyvesant, and Brooklyn Tech.

Okay.

So on her advice, I actually successfully took the test and entered into Brooklyn Tech or Brooklyn Technical High School.

I think this was back in late 2015.

So I had at the time two boys, on the JV and the varsity teams at Stuyvesant High School in New York and I became the football house.

And so I would feed large swaths of both the JV and the varsity football team and so I would prepare a lot of food on weekends because it's like having locusts descend because the boys have to eat 6,000 calories a day so you have to figure three people worth of normal food for each boy and it was a lot.

So I'm making some huge quantity of stuff on a Sunday And I have, I want TV on in the background as a distraction.

I'm Brooklyn born and raised.

Attended Stuyvesant High School with your friends and New Garden.

And I believe her brother Mark went to Stuy too.

That's funny.

I went, there was a little bit more diversity in middle school.

And then I was at culture shock when I got to my high school, which was Stuyvesant High School in New York City, very different than the elementary school that I navigated.

But what I I would say I learned through all of that is this notion.

I didn't have the words for it back then, but I started to learn very early what access and opportunity looked like.

So with the migration to New York, she came to New York, married.

And I don't know if you're familiar with Stuyvesant High School.

No, I'm not.

No, it's the top ranked high school in New York.

It outshines private and public school.

And her two children were two of five black children to integrate Stuyvesant High School.

One became an electrical engineer.

One became a mechanical engineer.

It's the story of a woman I met through this podcast named Dana Nelson.

who ended up years after the World Trade Center fell, ended up going to high school near 9-11 at Stuyvesant High School.

And she shared a story that just stuck with me and still sticks with me for a number of reasons, one of which is the critical role that a nonprofit played in getting this one person and many others the information and accountability they needed.

Welcome to Nonprofits are Messy with Joan Garry and experts.

This is so important.

You were a teacher at Stuyvesant High School back during the Reagan administration.

Sorry, Tom, but I've got to give some context.

Yeah, you're dating both of us here.

They always took advantage of office hours when they were offered.

Um, and later she taught at Lowell, which is the San Francisco version of Stuyvesant, right?

And you may not know Stuyvesant or Lowell.

[laughs]

Or Lowell.