A Note to Parents From Ednovate’s CEO: Why We Work Hard For You Every Day
Dear Parents,
Over the last few months, I’ve loved sharing some of the great elements of Ednovate with you. Today, it is my honor to share why I have chosen to do this work for the last 20 years.
In 1972, my parents fled the Philippines, which was under military control, to look for a better life in the United States of America. My father came here alone at 18 and landed in downtown Los Angeles. My mother came here with her six siblings and her parents, all of whom ended up in a two-bedroom apartment in Santa Ana, California. Both arrived in California with high hopes for a better future. This is where my parents’ American Dream began.
I was raised at my grandmother’s house on South Sycamore Street in Santa Ana. I was told that education was the foundation of living out our American Dream, yet every day as a young boy I watched my uncles struggle with the language and the culture of their American high school. They didn’t feel safe, they didn’t feel welcomed, and they didn’t feel successful.
Like many of you, my parents dreamed of seeing me graduate from college. So they enrolled me into the Irvine Unified School District, where the education I got was different from what my cousins received. Even though my uncles and cousins are brilliant and smarter than me, most of them didn’t graduate from college, which has led to some financial and career struggles. It seemed unfair to me that where you were born dictated the quality of the schools that you were able to choose from. That feeling never left me.
Even with my parents ensuring that I attended a higher-performing high school, I still faced challenges as I was the first in my family to attend college. At the large high school I attended, I was lost in the crowd. I lacked strong guidance on how to apply to colleges or for financial aid. My parents even paid for a college advisor to help me apply to schools, and that person took my parents’ hard-earned money and submitted incomplete applications. I was rejected by all ten colleges that I applied to. We were devastated but became more determined. I eventually submitted late applications and I started at USC in the spring of 1998.
This experience has fueled me for the last 20 years, as I’ve spent my career helping first-generation, college-bound families and students have access to a high-quality education. I started this work in Boston and continued in Chicago. After 12 years, I returned to Southern California to create high schools that prepare students like me, from families like mine, to succeed in high school and college.
While my work took me across the country, my heart never left Southern California. As I stand on the second floor of our new home for Legacy College Prep in Santa Ana, I can see the hospital where my grandmother cleaned floors and cleared our path to the American Dream. Together, we built our 6 Ednovate schools to bring high-quality education to our communities and to be part of your educational journey as you live out your hopes and dreams.
As we expand to serve even more students, please help us spread the word by sharing this blog post and your own educational experience with your friends and family with #weareednovate.
Thank you for being a part of our Ednovate family. Your faith in our schools means the world to me.
Oliver Sicat, CEO