Kelsey Harrington – David Nathan Meyerson Prize for Leadership and Giving 5x5 Speech

SLIDE 1

I believe that every child deserves equal access to quality education. Are you in?

Hello, everyone. My name is Kelsey Harrington and I am grateful for the opportunity to share tonight.

We have and will continue to collectively hear from some of the most amazing and compassionate
individuals speaking tonight.

Just this week, my friends and I were in the library discussing readings from class and a non phil studies
student later asked us if we always get that deep into conversations. The answer is yes.

I consider myself incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such servant leaders and braniacs on a daily basis.

With that being said, I believe it is important that I show how nonprofit exploration would impact my
experience at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

I would like to begin by diving into who I am and what makes me a good fit. I will then talk about why I
care about education, go over what others are saying about it, discuss how nonprofit exploration will
help me grow as a leader and apply what I learn in my own community, and show ultimately, what fruit
could grow in the community from such a focus on education.

This May, I will graduate with a business degree and a philanthropy degree. The choice to pursue both
educational paths came from a passion for collective impact and a personal desire to understand things
from an inter-sectoral perspective. In terms of education, I believe we all must be invested.

Internship and volunteer experiences such as visiting the GE Foundation have reinforced the need for
postsecondary education in workforce of tomorrow.

Finally, readings and coursework in my philanthropy courses have opened by eyes to the major role that
education plays in long-term poverty alleviation.

SLIDE 2

I believe that each of us have unique reasons that begin to explain why we are passionate about one
cause or another.

When I really reflect on what it was that caused me to care about education, I think back to the small
rural public school experience. The dream of one day being on the PTO for that very school. The desire
to always learn more… I was like a sponge and there was so much water around me. My early education
had such an impact on me that when my parents encouraged me to get life insurance while I’m young
and its still cheap, I found myself in a position to name a beneficiary. I could not think of a single entity
that played a larger role in shaping me and opening up my future than my school.

However, I would be sadly mistaken if I did not recognize the enormous influence that role models in my
family had for me in terms of education. Learning came second to none-other-than religion. In fact,
school was so important that if we misbehaved or performed poorly at school, the consequence was
twice that at home.
However, my first understanding that education could actually work as a force against social problems
came from hearing my grandma’s story.

Meet Berneice.

She is one of those role models that I mentioned before. Her story is unique though because through my
earlier years, she pushed me and reminded me that she graduated HS, went to college and she had a
good job. I was to do the same and I knew it. As I matured, though, I got to hear another snippet of the
story. You see, after college my grandma found herself in an abusive marriage and she strongly credits
her education as the reason she was able to leave that relationship. She was independent and self-
sustainable, able to provide for herself and her children.

This awakened me to see education as a force that has the power to reckon with a multitude of social
issues.

SLIDE 3

As was previously mentioned, Muncie is home base for me. I am proud of my hometown, we have the
highest charitable giving in the state and the second highest civic engagement. It was where I was born
and raised, but I always knew that there were members in my community who were affected by a
variety of things including substance abuse, food insecurity, and homelessness. In fact, we lead the state
and the country in some pretty terrible statistics. However, it was only recently with the Muncie
Community School crisis that I began to piece together the connection between education and poverty.
As you can see on the screen, students are currently behind where they should be, and it really starts at
the beginning of their education. What interests me are the combination of both of these data sets. I
believe that education plays a large role in long-term poverty alleviation and I want to be a part of that
work in my own community.

I plan to begin my career and deepen my civic engagement in my home town just six short months from
now. However, as of right now, the conversation about education’s role in poverty alleviation is still very
young and no defined collective action has started yet. My goal is to embark on nonprofit exploration on
this very topic so that I can learn from models that other communities nationwide are using and then
bring this home to Muncie.

SLIDE 4

There are multiple organizations across the country who are focused on this cause. A widely adopted
framework known as cradle to career, marks six indicators in an individual’s educational life that, when
all are achieved, puts them in a position with access to greater opportunities. Even some states are
adopting this framework, many with the goal of achieving 60% of working age adults with some form of
postsecondary education. Ultimately, the greatest return on investment is early childhood
education…the time before kindergarten readiness and studies at the Ball State University Educational
Psychology department point to a mother’s education level as one of the key indicators of a child’s
academic progression.

Unfortunately, we also know that there lie major inequities between race, ethnicity, gender, and
socioeconomic status that have long prevented children to be able to follow such a path. That is why I
am fascinated with the work done by the organizations shown. All Hands Raised is not only focused on
helping kids progress along this framework, they are digging deeper so that they can make education
more equitable so that some kids, for the first time, have the opportunity to move across these steps.
Poverty and education work together in a cycle and it is vital that we understand how they have
generationally impacted one another.

SLIDE 5

While I am not an expert in education or poverty, and many of us aren’t, what is so cool about this
framework is that it is grounded in collective impact. Therefore, whether as a graduate of this great
school, I work in philanthropy, business, or government, it matters not. We all have a responsibility to
education.

As I inch closer and closer to graduation and the first step towards my career, one thing is certain.
Nonprofit exploration on the topic of education and its role in long-term poverty alleviation is something
that not only will be informative and eye-opening. It will make me a better leader and equip me ideas,
tools, and a network that I can bring back to my home community of Muncie, IN. From there, I will stir
up action.

After all, each of us are stakeholders in the education of our youth, and as we invest time, talent, and
treasure in the children of today, we open the door for the opportunities and flourishing of tomorrow.

Thank you.