Richard Maez: Rooted In Community

[00:00:00] Hi, I'm Katie Kramer, President and CEO of the Betcher Foundation. Welcome to Colorado Leadership Stories

[00:00:08] where we talk to everyday courageous leaders who have made transformational impacts in their communities

[00:00:15] and are building a better state for everyone. You'll hear from leaders and organizations and communities throughout the state

[00:00:22] as we explore the idea that leadership is an activity that anyone can do.

[00:00:30] Today we're joined by Richard Mays, a Betcher scholar from 2011 who is the Deputy Director of Ednium, the alumni collective.

[00:00:40] A Denver-based nonprofit organization that puts community engagement and leadership into action through partnering with public school alumni,

[00:00:48] specifically alumni from Denver Public Schools. Richard is responsible for all programs including the annual leadership development cohort, research and storytelling initiatives,

[00:00:57] and policy ideation and implementation. It's a lot. Richard, I'm so glad that you are here. My friend, it's been a while

[00:01:06] and I can't wait to talk about your story as well as Ednium's work and chat with you. So let's start by learning a little bit more about you.

[00:01:14] Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm a Colorado kid. I grew up in Southwest Denver and Harvey Park. Both my parents were born and raised in Denver.

[00:01:23] My dad lived a majority of his childhood off of third in Santa Fe, before I moved into Lilliton and my mom. Her parents built a house in the Harvey Park.

[00:01:33] My siblings still live in Harvey Park. My husband and I just bought a house down there so we're two minutes from her. So very much like love the community that I grew up in and being able to give back.

[00:01:44] I love it. And your DPS kid too, right? And it went to Kennedy High School if I remember right?

[00:01:50] Yeah. All three of the schools in Southwest Denver is very much a neighborhood school, mainly. And I really enjoyed it.

[00:01:57] I loved school from the beginning. It worked for me. I played school on my parents' basement. Like I always had a vision for me of working in education at some point, whether that was right after graduation or later in life.

[00:02:10] But I really had a great time and it was a supportive community. I had great teachers through all of my K-12 experience which doesn't happen a lot for some of the alumni that we work with but I'm very grateful for the experience that I had,

[00:02:25] especially being the oldest in my family trying to navigate what life was going to be like after graduating high school.

[00:02:31] Yeah, for sure. And so proud that you won the Bachelor's Scholarship of course. And I know you were a leader at a young age and very active in your community. I remember that part about you.

[00:02:42] So tell us a little bit more about growing up and some of the things that you were involved in.

[00:02:46] Yeah, I mean the big thing for me is I always I learned from my parents the power of giving back to your community. So my dad was worked with kids who came from families with substance abuse and then my mom was a stay at home mom but she was always involved in our school.

[00:03:01] And so I saw the power of giving back especially my freshman year of high school, my dad suffered a traumatic brain injury.

[00:03:08] And so being able to see the community come support us was really powerful for me.

[00:03:13] And so I always felt like it was my duty to pay it forward throughout my time. So in middle school it was coming back to my elementary school and tutoring in courses in high school.

[00:03:24] It was realizing that we didn't have a recycling program. And so how can we start a recycling program in our school?

[00:03:31] It was going back and building relationships with middle schoolers who needed that additional support. And so as how can I because so many of our community is given back to me, how can I pay that forward?

[00:03:41] Well, I remember when you weren't run you won the Bachelor's Scholarship and I think you had your eye on one particular university on the west coast that was high on your list.

[00:03:50] But then you chose to stay home and went to the University of Denver. Tell us about that decision and how that has impacted you long term.

[00:03:58] Yeah, I mean I was the oldest in my family neither my parents went to college but they were very, I wouldn't say I would say forceful that education is the path to success.

[00:04:09] And so like whatever I needed to do, I needed to pursue education. And for me it was like my whole family has lived within five, ten minutes of each other here in Denver.

[00:04:19] This is my chance to get out and explore something. And like set my sights high and like Stanford was the one that's where I wanted to go.

[00:04:27] But I had my parents on the side saying you can't rule out any of the schools in Colorado just yet. Like there are great options here just check it out.

[00:04:37] And so when I was a semi-finalist for Bachelor, I visited on the semi-finalist at DU and was really blown away.

[00:04:45] I was really awestruck that they never tried to sell me on the school. They just shared about how important community and belonging was.

[00:04:53] Well, it's to that space. And I was never able to visit Stanford but whenever I talked to anybody and that sort of thing, I never got that feeling of community belonging. But I did at DU.

[00:05:04] And so that's why I chose ultimately to pick University of Denver. I remember calling the former director of scholarships here at Katie Craig and asking her opinion.

[00:05:17] And she's like, I'm not going to tell you what to do. And I'm telling you to figure out where's your best fit. And when I really thought about it, DU and Bachelor was where I needed to be.

[00:05:26] And I'm grateful for the experience. I had such a valuable experience going to DU. I mean, I'm a biracial by cultural kid who learned a lot about my identity and who I am going into a space like that.

[00:05:38] And really found a passion for being here in Denver and giving back to my community because again, they've given so much to me and I had such great experience at DU.

[00:05:49] Well, it's great. And I guess your path has been a bit windy even in education, right? So tell us what did you study in school and then before we talk about Ednya which I can't wait to discuss.

[00:06:02] Tell me about that path because I think the theme has been mostly education for your careers. That right?

[00:06:07] Yeah, I mean, I went into college thinking that I wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to go out and tell the stories of people and quickly realized that was not for me.

[00:06:17] I took my first journalism class and let's just say the do anything to get the story mentality was not part of who I was as a person.

[00:06:26] So I quickly fell into taking courses that I was super passionate about and interested in, during a history in Spanish where I'm learning about those pieces and it kept coming back to all of my volunteer work and my work at DU came back to working with youth facilitating experiences.

[00:06:43] And it just made sense to go into education going back to like playing school in my parents' basement, like it felt right.

[00:06:52] And so I graduated from DU. I got my first job, a professional job at the University of Denver running their orientation program which let me tell you it is a very different experience working at an institution versus going to an institution and I learned a lot in the year that I was there.

[00:07:09] But found my way to George Washington high school where I did my student teaching and absolutely fell in love with that school community.

[00:07:16] It is a diverse population of students from different spaces in the city that I really loved and I found education for me was really being able to tell the stories and hear the stories of my students.

[00:07:38] And how can we capture that in a real and authentic way?

[00:07:42] I spent four, five years at George Washington as a counselor and then manager of our IT program and it was challenging. I mean that school with its history is a challenging experience in Denver and it's a beacon of what academic segregation would like in the city for a really long time.

[00:08:03] But I really enjoyed that experience. I learned a lot about myself professionally before I made the change to join Ednium and work in the education adjacent nonprofit space.

[00:08:15] I love it so let's talk about that about your work and the why behind it.

[00:08:21] I mean, Ednium is an action focused community development organization that partners with public school alumni to change the way cities educate and reinvest in their home broke talent.

[00:08:31] And so we believe that just like Betcher and the promise of Colorado and the potential of color audience that there is a huge untapped talent pool here in the city of people who grew up here that went to school here.

[00:08:44] And so that kind of the perspectives and the experiences that can get back in meaningful ways.

[00:08:49] And so how do we leverage those experiences and bring those alumni to the table?

[00:08:54] We do that in a couple different ways but it's really about understanding their experiences and then how do we make policy changes not just at the district level but at city and state level to really make sure that all of our systems education, economic

[00:09:10] and our focusing on reinvesting our talent that we have here right in her backyard.

[00:09:15] I love that. And your deputy director now, right?

[00:09:18] Yes.

[00:09:19] A big job and I know one of the major roles in Ednium is programs that you do.

[00:09:26] And so what are some of those and talk about the impact of those and what outcomes you're going for?

[00:09:31] Yeah, I mean so we have three focus areas authentic research community development and tangible action.

[00:09:37] And we believe that those three areas are mutually reinforcing and we can't do one area of work without the other.

[00:09:44] So we start with our authentic research and that really is building the trust in the communities that we want to serve.

[00:09:50] So whether that's our schools or with our community partners listening to the experiences and perspectives of our alumni.

[00:09:58] So understanding like what was the education system like for you?

[00:10:03] How do you define success? Do you feel like you've achieved your definition of success?

[00:10:08] Really spending deep authentic time with individuals to understand their experiences.

[00:10:14] We can't make policy change or build programs without first spending time understanding the community you want to serve.

[00:10:23] And through the research, that's how we've developed our programming called community development, which is specific programs for our alumni.

[00:10:31] Like our leadership launch pad or our Denver deep die, which really allows us to take the alumni and exploration of leadership.

[00:10:39] What does leadership look like in different spaces?

[00:10:42] Who are you as a leader?

[00:10:43] What kind of leader do you want to follow?

[00:10:45] Questions that I don't think that we're asking all the time, especially in the education system.

[00:10:53] What does that look like?

[00:10:55] We're exploring topics and issues in the city that affect our alumni.

[00:10:59] And like what is the city doing for that?

[00:11:02] So our Denver deep dive takes us to different spaces and can access with different policy makers to understand.

[00:11:08] Okay, this is the issue in housing in the city and what they're doing.

[00:11:12] It's this the right strategy or climate and sustainability.

[00:11:17] What does that look like?

[00:11:18] And how can we integrate these pieces?

[00:11:20] And then we have our connection series, and that's really the social capital bridging aspect of like how do we connect our alumni to city leaders and policy makers.

[00:11:30] So they have the social capital that developed their civic capacity to engage in the work.

[00:11:35] And then ultimately through the authentic research and community development is about what action are we taking to better serve not only our alumni but our young people.

[00:11:46] So that's really taking the experiences perspectives where people are struggling in the issues and identifying policies that we either need to change or create something brand new.

[00:11:57] It's kind of serve our community in a better way.

[00:12:00] That's great.

[00:12:01] So the folks that are participating in your programs, what's that age range for students all the way and how old are your alums?

[00:12:09] Yeah, our alumni partners that we directly serve are anywhere from 18 to 35.

[00:12:14] And we really determined that because there isn't an infrastructure in the city that like helps people navigate life after high school.

[00:12:21] Right.

[00:12:22] And so we really want to be able to bridge that gap of the early career into mid career alumni.

[00:12:43] Like how do you get to your next step professionally?

[00:12:46] I'm sure we like to define leadership as mobilizing people to do the difficult work of transforming communities for the better, which is a lot of what Edmium does.

[00:12:55] And that difficult work reference can be challenging to capture but I know that part of your strategy is also about in the storytelling space to help people talk about and influence through that.

[00:13:09] So how are you doing using storytelling to advance your mission?

[00:13:13] That's a great question and I think it hits at the core of what we do and what I love.

[00:13:18] And I've tried to emulate and all my work is like, how do we get people to really dive in and understand their authentic self and that their stories are meaningful?

[00:13:28] And can affect change.

[00:13:30] I think it goes back to our research.

[00:13:32] We call it design lab.

[00:13:34] Really two main questions is how do you define success and have you been able to achieve your definition of success?

[00:13:42] And those two questions really open the door of like what are the struggles and issues and challenges and barriers you've been facing, which then leads us to figuring out like how do we take all of that information that we're getting from the individuals who are opening up to us and sharing those perspectives.

[00:14:00] And identifying the key ways that we can transform communities.

[00:14:05] I think the difficult work that we've been able to navigate through is just like sitting down and listening to people.

[00:14:13] We're in such a divided time right now and polarize space.

[00:14:17] But when you start sitting down and talking to individuals, we're not all that different.

[00:14:22] So it's like us spending the time really understanding our communities is how we've been able to push through policies that some people think would have been super difficult.

[00:14:33] But when we sat down and met with everyone, everyone was on the same page but no one was talking to each other.

[00:14:39] So we became that bridge to make sure that everyone was understanding the issue.

[00:14:44] That's great.

[00:14:45] Well, I want to ask you a version of the question that you just said you asked others, which is you're doing this space and I wonder how it may have influenced you.

[00:14:55] Right? Like the work that you're doing, how has that informed or changed the way you think about leadership Richard?

[00:15:02] That is a great question.

[00:15:04] And it's funny because I was thinking about this coming into here because it is a podcast on leadership stories is that in high school and in beginning of college, I always thought leadership was the person at the front who was charging forward and moving the work and going through my time at George and even especially through Adnea.

[00:15:26] It's a leader is someone who was willing to sit down and engage but also is willing to say I don't have all the answers or I'm wrong about that.

[00:15:35] And how do we engage other people to make the adjustments to move forward?

[00:15:39] How do we empower the individuals to show up in a gauge and authentic way?

[00:15:45] And yeah, you do need to have the leaders that are up front and pushing forward.

[00:15:50] But you also for me leadership shows up of like how do I stand back and empower the community to go out and do the work?

[00:15:58] Because it's not just me.

[00:16:00] Like if I leave or or go do something different, then that change has gotten not going to happen.

[00:16:06] So how do we empower the collective to be able to do the work?

[00:16:09] Wow, wow.

[00:16:11] And I know with Adnea's work part of that is to influence local policy decisions and be at the table when those important decisions are made just like you were talking about.

[00:16:21] So maybe tell us a story about why be one policy or issue where you feel like this whole thing is working.

[00:16:29] This is how it's supposed to be and there was maybe an outcome that you feel proud of.

[00:16:33] Yeah, talk about I mean this is our main policy way and we were talking as a team

[00:16:38] that we don't celebrate this often enough.

[00:16:40] Some excited talk about it.

[00:16:42] Please do.

[00:16:43] Is that in our original cohort of our leadership launch pad, we found that what was lacking from the educational experience was an understanding and ability to navigate your personal finances and a history of who I am and where my people come from.

[00:17:01] So through that experience we identified like there's a lack of financial literacy and ethnic ethnic studies courses in DPS.

[00:17:11] Some schools are offering at some schools aren't, but our alumni really felt like every student no matter who you are where you've been or what you've been through should go through and take those courses.

[00:17:22] And so we worked to lobby the school board to add personal finance and ethnic studies as graduation requirements.

[00:17:31] I think the big piece that goes back to the difficult work of transforming communities is that people weren't talking to each other.

[00:17:39] Like our alumni were advocating for this students have been advocating for this for over a decade now but nothing was being done because people weren't working to each other.

[00:17:49] And so we spent the time and we sat down with district leadership who said, well, we're all for this but it's the school board you have to talk to.

[00:17:58] We sat down with a school board. We're all for this but it's the teachers union.

[00:18:02] The same thing with the teachers who then blamed the principals union then blamed district leadership and it was full circle of like all of you are on board but you're blaming the other and not being able to get it done.

[00:18:14] And so we just spent the time. We spent a full year talking to you all that this is what we needed to do.

[00:18:19] How do we move forward? Now is the simple piece was just getting people to talk about it.

[00:18:24] And so in 2021, we were able to pass the policy and this year's the first year where all high schools are offering both an ethnic study of scores and a personal finance course that is now a graduation requirement for the class of 2027.

[00:18:38] Awesome. What a great story. I think the other thing that I take away from that to return is just the stick to itiveness and taking the long view right the patience.

[00:18:49] I think so many times just community change people getting patient but it takes courage, it takes tenacity and just conversation.

[00:18:59] So wow, what that's a great story and what a wonderful outcome for for our students.

[00:19:05] Well, I'll add like the difficult work. Yeah, and passing it but we've learned the last couple of years is actually implementation.

[00:19:11] Oh really? And how do you stay with the work for us has been crucial.

[00:19:16] How do we continue to support the district to make sure that this is laid out the way alumni and students want it to be laid out.

[00:19:23] Right. And so like I think of that the transforming communities isn't just passing the law or changing the policy.

[00:19:29] It's like then how do we make sure that the voices of the people impacted are still included at the table when it comes to implementation.

[00:19:37] There's been a big challenge but really excited because like it's the district is still bought in that alumni voice is powerful and needs to be at the table for these decisions.

[00:19:49] It's great. Give us a peek at what you're kind of working on now is there something that you're excited about policy or trying to affect change or some of some of that work that has you lit up right now about that.

[00:20:01] Yeah, but one that I'm like super excited about and I think it's my teaching my education background.

[00:20:06] Yeah.

[00:20:07] And so I think that's why we're doing this because our latest coer asked the question why are high schools not offering more credentials that lead to higher outcomes right after graduation.

[00:20:18] So that students can leave high school and immediately start working $20 an hour with benefits.

[00:20:24] There are opportunities there are schools doing that already across the state, not enough.

[00:20:30] And so I think that's what practice says of how that works or we can do.

[00:20:33] And I think that comes from like from our alumni we're hearing.

[00:20:37] I want to leave high school with a credential so that if I go to or for your university and I graduate as something to fall back on there's not a job immediately or I can use this credential to pay for school as I'm going to school

[00:20:52] I want to explore this credential job and then go back or expand my learning eventually.

[00:20:58] So it's not a college is bad or shouldn't be sending kids to university but it's like how can we leverage high school for more opportunities just going out and pursuing a college degree.

[00:21:10] Great, well, I'll be excited to hear how that unfolds.

[00:21:13] Okay, so final question before our lightning round and I want to take it back to you personally.

[00:21:18] This being something that is certainly near and dear to my heart personally but also the BETRA Foundation.

[00:21:23] I know that you know that we have long been involved in supporting education and educators especially the teacher workforce over the years.

[00:21:32] But you are one of those individuals that have had a number of career opportunities in education.

[00:21:37] And so whether it's teaching advising or counseling administration or working for a nonprofit that is trying to support education you've chosen this path and certainly your career up to this point includes a number of those roles.

[00:21:50] And so my question is this how can we better elevate the education profession as a society so more young people aspire to work in education.

[00:22:00] This is a great question Katie and it feels like you want me to solve the issues around.

[00:22:05] Actually yes.

[00:22:06] But for me I feel like, I mean I always wanted to work in education.

[00:22:10] My grandpa was a teacher at Thomas Jefferson and again both my parents were long time volunteers in the schools that I was in and so I saw the power of education

[00:22:22] and what a great teacher or a great mentor or facilitator could do for individual.

[00:22:27] I know I've had multiple of those in my time but I think in terms of elevating the sphere for young people it's really about giving them exposure.

[00:22:39] I think when you say working in education immediately goes to teaching and immediately goes to all of the negatives that come with teaching.

[00:22:48] And there's a lot there's a lot of work. It's not an easy job and it will be challenging you'll learn so many skills that will test your leadership ability greatly in terms of being in the classroom.

[00:23:00] But I think it's our responsibility to expose young people to what are the opportunities and how do we shift not just high school but the K-12 experience to understanding the varied careers that are out there.

[00:23:13] And it's not just sitting in a course learning algebra or reading a novel but it's like let's explore the opportunities that are outside there and the skills they need to go into that.

[00:23:26] Like I never thought until I was applying for better and other scholarships that there were organizations that I can work for doing this work.

[00:23:36] I didn't realize that until my senior year of high school. So how do we start that earlier? There's so many different opportunities and that in education you learn so many transferable skills.

[00:23:49] I think that's the piece too that goes unrecognized is that you are a jack of all trades when it comes to working in the education space.

[00:23:59] So how do we capitalize on that to show young people that being able to work in education whether it's a teacher counselor or administrator, you'll be able to go do whatever you want to do after because of the skills you've developed.

[00:24:12] Oh, it's great great answer. Well, all right you have survived the interview here but we'll get to the lightning round to wrap us up. Okay. So Richard what's your favorite Colorado hobby?

[00:24:23] This is a new one I started in the pandemic and that's cycling. Oh, great. I really enjoyed it. It's definitely a challenge. I'm not great but I'm hopefully get way more miles this year.

[00:24:34] Oh, that's great. Where are you riding? Right now we live in Southwest Denver and so I take the Bear Creek Trail out to Red Rocks. So great.

[00:24:43] It's just beautiful. Nice. That's wonderful. All right. Favorite Colorado land work.

[00:24:50] I would say Grand Lake. It's my favorite place in Colorado. It's beautiful like natural lakes. I got engaged there. We spread my dad's ashes there. We went there every summer and so that is a space, a place that is very special to my heart.

[00:25:09] I love it up there too. That's a great spot. Okay, what action hero do you most identify with?

[00:25:15] I am a huge starwurst fan. Yes. Some people like we'll debate about this but I obi one can obi is my favorite character and what he's able to do and his story throughout all of the movies and books and TV shows. I'm a super nerd like fly watch everything and read everything.

[00:25:38] I'm just who he is as a person. It's super inspiration. I love that. It's great and yes, I've got a tiny little Yoda on my desk just down the hall here.

[00:25:52] Okay, so what are you currently binging? Show a book or podcast something that you're finding interesting or entertaining?

[00:26:00] My husband and I we just started watching the Netflix show beef which has been winning a lot of awards. It's fascinating. I just say go watch it. Watch the first episode because it'll capture you.

[00:26:15] Sounds great. I'll put it on the list. Well, thank you very much for coming in. It's wonderful to spend some time with you and continue to watch this amazing career that you have made for yourself.

[00:26:25] And we're just so proud that you're a better scholar too. So congratulations. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[00:26:31] Thank you for joining Colorado Leadership Stories where we hope to inspire the next generation of Colorado community builders, doers and different makers.

[00:26:41] Colorado Leadership Stories is presented by the Betcher Foundation. The Betcher Foundation supports Colorado by empowering leaders and communities with tools to tackle challenges and pursue opportunities.

[00:26:54] Building a better state for everyone. With an 85 plus year legacy of giving back, we're committed to amplifying our impact for future generations.

[00:27:05] That's the spirit of Betcher.