Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Whalen. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Born into a proud Black, Chicano, and Indigenous family, Erin found himself enticed by education’s power to provide people with a sense of self that could be leveraged as a powerful force in the world. Erin’s mom fought hard to provide Erin access to affirming and engaging learning institutions that contributed to molding him into the man he is today. After graduating from New Roads High School in Santa Monica as a Santa Monica Gem and Posse Scholar, Erin moved away to study Anthropology at Grinnell College in Iowa and at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Erin began his teaching career at North Miami Middle School where he taught all grade levels and sections of English. During his time at NMM, he met a remarkable young boy who would change his life forever. Sicard Delva, now Erin’s son, inspired Erin’s thinking for creating a school that centered resources for youth experiencing some of the harshest societal inequities. Through Sicard’s brilliance and insight, Erin was able to think differently about schools’ role in stabilizing at-promise youth in our big cities.
After being nominated Teacher of the Year, Erin transferred his career in education back home to Los Angeles where he worked at KIPP: Sol in East Los Angeles. Throughout the years Erin and Kari Croft, RISE’s founder, worked together with students, families, and partners to develop concepts for Da Vinci RISE High. In 2016, Whalen and Kari Croft applied for and won a highly competitive $10 million grant from XQ: The Super School Project, funded by Laurene Powell Jobs and Russlynn Ali. The pair aimed to create a school that could offer essential but often overlooked resources to this student population, such as one-to-one case management, job opportunities, flexible scheduling, and a curriculum that addresses both immediate and future needs, such as financial literacy. The school they envisioned, Da Vinci RISE High School, opened its doors to 30 students in 2017, and Whalen served as its first assistant principal. In 2021, Whalen became the school’s principal and executive director. Now as the Executive Director, the school now serves nearly 210 students in three locations.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Erin’s Challenges: Seeking out wellness options to increase sustainability for personnel working in high-trauma environments. We are consistently trying to find ways to affirm and empower our educators despite the reality that our professions are often under fire and/or are undervalued in society. I am particularly seeking out ways to maintain strong career paths for educators of color to stay in the classroom or in positions of leadership in schools. Unfortunately, due to severely low pay for folks in education, having a long-lasting career and obtaining a preferred quality of life are often unobtainable in tandem.
RISE Challenges: Even before the pandemic, our country struggled to provide equitable educational experiences to students navigating homelessness, foster care, and/or the probation system. COVID-related challenges such as school closures, economic hardship, housing crises, and lack of access to adequate mental health services exacerbated these inequities, further impacting systems-involved youth and the youth of color who disproportionately comprise this population.
Youth navigating housing, foster, and justice systems are exponentially more likely to be exposed to trauma, which is dangerous to students’ physical and mental health. Failure to receive adequate treatment for trauma – coupled with a chronic lack of basic necessities such as food, housing, and transportation – can make it impossible for students to focus on their education.
Traditionally, services to address these needs have been viewed as outside the scope of a school’s responsibilities.
RISE is challenging this notion by providing on-campus comprehensive services alongside access to an innovative instructional model.
Inequitable funding formulas and inadequate designation:
• The national average per pupil allocation is $12,612, with the highest level of funding in New York at $24,020.
Outdated school funding formulas that prioritize the investment of taxes into the economy over education and that fail to account for California’s high cost of living to leave RISE with roughly $11,300 per student.
• A report from the Public Policy Institute of California (2021) states that in 2019-2020, California’s highest-needs districts spent approximately $19,300 per student. This was possible because district-wide enrollment numbers and low concentration of high-needs students allowed for targeted redistribution of funds to account for the extenuating needs of certain students. Because RISE is an independent charter operating as a singular LEA – and because of the high concentration of high-needs students – this redistribution is impossible.
When RISE launched in 2016, it pursued designation as an alternative, non-classroom-based, countywide benefit charter in order to provide students the greatest flexibility possible to account for their competing priorities and to ensure they weren’t penalized for absences due to court dates, childcare, changes in placement, jobs, and more. However, RISE’s current designation results in a substantial loss of funding due to the following factors:
Despite the operation of three facilities across the county and the regular on-campus attendance of students, RISE does not receive facilities funding reserved for classroom-based models. Despite the multiple high-priority indicators included in the Dashboard Alternative School Status requirements, the Local Control Funding Formula allocates additional funds for only three indicators: low-income, foster youth, and English Learner.
• COVID-related campus closures significantly increased students’ needs, compelling RISE to access financial reserves in order to expand service provision. Costs for additional technology to equip students for participation in virtual learning; increased availability of mental health services; expanded case management to account for economic and housing instability; and basic necessities such as meals, transportation, and PPE quickly added up as the pandemic stretched for longer than anticipated.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As an Executive Director, I also think of myself as a creative, storyteller and as the person lucky enough to get to scream from the mountaintop about the amazing work my team is doing at RISE.
I think of myself as a model for self-care and joy. So I work to dig deep into my passions; dance, spoken word, art, and fitness. My hope is that I can set a precedent for the rest of my team. I write grants furiously to continue to ensure our students get what they deserve. I am never done learning and stand humbly in my truth that I have a ton to learn.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Students do not need to memorize. They need to think critically and effectively navigate the influx of knowledge surrounding them at all times. Every student’s academic journey will be individually designed to meet their unique needs. Upon joining any school, students, stakeholders, and staff should co-create a Personalized Learning Plan (PLP) to articulate the student’s personal and professional goals and interests as well as an overview of the academic skills they are working to master and their plan for doing so. PLPs rely on the following systems and structures to truly individualize students’ academic pathways.
Industries are seeking emotional intelligence and interpersonal competencies. Though specializations are important, I consistently hear other leaders say, “I need passion, mission- and vision alignment, and an ability to work with others, I can coach and train the rest.” These skill sets don’t always come independently of guidance, so schools must adapt.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dvrise.davincischools.org/
- Instagram: @Leogrijalva or @DVrisehigh
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4iJ2zDFX4r17pqsidSrQpQ
- Other: https://xqsuperschool.org/school/da-vinci-rise-high/
Image Credits
Stacee Lianna
