Oakland High Student Eva Ngo, GO Summer Intern, Shares Her Perspective

August 10, 2010

In News Blog

This summer, GO Public Schools had the pleasure of hosting Eva Ngo as a Coro Youth Fellow summer intern. Eva's internship was sponsored by the Coro Exploring Leadership Program, a program which helps youth develop leadership skills, stretch their limits, and work to make a difference in their community. Eva, a sophomore at Oakland High, offered to share her insights on Oakland public schools, and a bit about her internship experience.


Most people think Oakland public schools are bad. But what really makes a school "bad"? For that matter, what school is perfect? Yes, Oakland has its challenges, but does that mean Oakland students can't make it to college? Oakland students can't get a job because of where they live? I don't think so.

No matter what you think of OUSD staff and teachers, in my opinion, Oakland students are smarter than all of the stereotypes you hear. Sure, we come from an urban area. Yeah, we live in what may be a "bad" neighborhood. But does that really make Oakland a bad place for education? Our neighborhoods don't necessarily reflect how well we can do in school or how far we are going to go in life.

Oakland students aren't too different from any other students, and Oakland communities aren't too different from any other community. From what I observed, it's Oakland's reputation that makes us different. Stereotypes about Oakland schools have made students, teachers, school staff, the district, and even families give up because they don't believe in themselves anymore. Now we have a school system that is considered "bad". But, in my opinion, Oakland schools have more potential to grow and succeed than any other school.

My Summer Internship
As part of my internship duties, I wrote and conducted a survey for GO Public Schools. The purpose of my survey was to see how aware Oaklanders are of issues concerning public schools.  Drafting a survey may sound easy, but it was a lot of hard work! The process has taught me to be patient and to put in effort if I want to succeed. I learned how to make my questions specific, how to focus on one topic, and how to make questions that make sense to most readers. (I also learned that most people say "No" if you try to get them to take a survey)

I surveyed residents in districts 2, 4, and 6, since School Board member positions from these districts are up for election this year.

Some of the questions I asked on the survey were:

• Do you know which school board members are up for election this year?
•  Do you think you understand the roles or responsibilities of the school board?
• Who do you think has the most influence over the quality of our public schools?
  

I learned that not many people know about school board elections or about the roles and responsibilities of the School Board. The School Board is supposed to be benefiting the community, but the community knows nothing about the school board's role. A lot of residents don't know that they have a strong voice in the community, and a strong voice to advocate for their children's education. In general, community members aren't aware of what is going on with public school education unless they have a school-aged child.  But even if you have a child in school, do you think you know enough about public education? Less than half of the community can even name their school board member.

So, that's my opinion. What do you think about public school education? What do you know about public school education in Oakland? Think about it.  

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