Student Profile: Fred Lee, Data Analytics Credential, Persuasive Writing Credential, 2021

Having spent the last two years working closely with children in the classroom, Fred Lee wants to see that students’ needs are prioritized and met. “My mom, being a teacher in the Philadelphia school system, gave me an insider view on educational policy and how it affects kids. Now, serving in Americorps, I can see firsthand the ways in which the needs of students aren’t being met.”

After completing his bachelor’s in Spanish from Stetson University, Lee became a substitute teacher for Alachua Public Schools in Gainesville, Florida. Lee says that his experience as a substitute led him to pursue an AmeriCorps service position with City Year, a national community service program in Philadelphia. “When I spoke with City Year, it seemed like they were really trying hard to actually address problems so that students could receive the adequate support that they need to succeed in school.” 

Now Lee works closely with students to provide additional support in classrooms where capacity is particularly limited. 

“There are so many narratives about students' abilities being dismissed simply because they cannot pick up a subject or topic very quickly. But they are fully capable—it’s mostly often a matter of giving them a little reassurance. I think it’s important to have support systems in place, especially as schools are so under-resourced. Since being at City Year, I’ve gotten to see how policy affects both students and teachers.”

Lee was recently granted a Fulbright Brazil English Teaching Award. In addition to studying Portuguese, Lee will also serve as an English Teaching Assistant for lecturers once he is placed at a university. “I’ll also be doing some community engagement projects, and would also like to get involved with education research. I am considering pivoting towards a career in international education or even international development, so this is an excellent opportunity that has pushed me to think about my potential career trajectory.”

Since he was considering a graduate degree in public policy, Lee elected to pursue both the Data Analysis Credential (DAC) and the Persuasive Writing Credential (PWC) credential in 2021. “I thought it would be something that would help me determine if I wanted to eventually go on and pursue an MPP, or even if an MPP was something I could handle. The curriculum seemed like it included topics that would be in an MPP, so I thought it would be more useful than just taking an economics or statistics course.”

Lee said that the flexibility of these programs was one of the primary reasons he felt it was possible to pursue these credentials while working full time. “The self-paced learning structure was incredibly helpful, especially for the DAC. It was great to be able to look back at the recorded lectures to review topics on a weekly basis.” 

Lee also credits the professors and teaching assistants for making the courses thoroughly enjoyable. “Assistant Professor Austin Wright and his teaching assistants were tremendously helpful with teaching complex concepts. In the DAC especially, they paired skills with the concepts so we got to learn how data is analyzed in the real world.”

Finally, Lee said both credentials have given him concrete insight into policy that will benefit him moving forward. “I’ll be using a policy brief I wrote as part of my PWC work for graduate school admissions. And because I pursued both of these credentials, the effect is two-pronged: not only can I analyze and understand data, but I can write effectively about these issues as well.”