Angèle Griffin

Angèle Griffin is a student at the University of San Francisco and a former Evolve campaign intern.

Why is education important to you?

Education is far more than going to school everyday learning how to properly graph a parabola. In this day and age, education is the gateway to many career opportunities and higher education that one cannot attain without a strong foundation in the K-12(14) program. Education is more than just sitting in a classroom and memorizing everything the teacher writes on the board. With strong education, our children will be able to continue strengthening their critical thinking, a skill that is applicable to all areas of the world, and develop other important skills that limited education access cannot properly fulfill.

How has California's lack of education funding negatively impacted you?

Although I was enrolled in a public school system throughout my childhood, I was fortunate enough to attend one of the higher ranked chain of schools that pushed their students to pursue a higher education after graduation. However, California's poor education funding impacts were, and still are, very prevalent in both the student population and our teacher faculty. A good portion of students who attended my high school when I was still enrolled didn't even live in our city; I had friends who commuted 45 minutes on the freeway to and from the school everyday for four years. The majority of faculty members who were not AP teachers were struggling because they were all being underpaid.

How has the increasing cost of college impacted you?

I feel the brunt of increasing college tuition every semester; at the end of every school year, we, the students, get an email from our university signifying that they will, once again, be increasing tuition by X thousands of dollars for the following school year. The increased prices from not only tuition costs, but also purchasing textbooks and other school supplies, that can easily accumulate up to over $500, and living expenses can really start to weigh down on people, especially college students who are already carrying a lot in our hands.