Davina Srioudom

Davina is a rising junior at UC Berkeley.

Explain how public education has impacted your life.

From my own experiences with public education in California, I was actually quite fortunate to have opportunities to enroll in college-level AP and IB courses. I also recognize that many communities didn’t share this privilege of having their schools offer the same coursework. Many students from our community were strongly encouraged to opt-in to these programs, as it’d allow them to receive course credit that would save them both money and time in college. Naturally, these drew in first-generation, low-income, and BIPOC students who jumped at this opportunity, as a means to better themselves and their family’s future.

However, despite these great options, the fractures within our schools were still prevalent. Courses that were meant to hold at most 25 students, were nearly doubled and teachers were placed in a difficult predicament that hindered them from devoting their full time or support to individual students. For a school that prided themselves on providing rigorous academic courses, it became clear that they lacked the resources to sustain and support both students and faculty. Because of this, I have a strong admiration for the resilience of students and teachers that never faltered and persisted through all the challenges prompted by insufficient education funding. 

Why should fully-funding public education be a priority?

As a first-generation student, I owe a lot of my success to my parents. My parents are both immigrants from Laos and the two of them have made countless sacrifices so that my siblings and I had access to a plethora of educational opportunities. Not only have they continually served as my pillars of support, but they’ve also served as my primary motivation to do good among others and to continue paying it forward.

Unfortunately, it could be difficult to fully achieve this, when our schools are still continually underserved and communities lack the adequate resources necessary to support one another. By working with Evolve, I am hopeful that we will continually work to confront and dismantle financial barriers to education accessibility that have plagued our communities for far too long. If we are truly committed to supporting and uplifting our most marginalized communities, it starts with funding our public education systems and ensuring that all students, no matter their origin or background, have the opportunity to succeed and thrive in an environment that encourages their growth and power.