As I reflect on my work so far across various roles and organizations, I’m greeted by a collage of projects, tasks, and initiatives that I’ve been a part of. And so, when I was recently confronted with the question of what my most impressive achievement was, one might imagine how dauntingly endless I imagined the responses could be. Certainly, many of my achievements were impressive – even more yet I could make sound impressive through crafty phrasing and bold statistics. I could give a sanitized, resume-style answer for nearly anything. Yet, when I started to consider my values and goals – what I want to reflect back on me as a person, rather than just me as an employee – that’s when I realized what the answer would be.
I’m currently working in the IT department for a K-12 school district neighboring my hometown. At the start of my second year in this role, I was tasked with helping our local Educational Foundation revitalize the application form it uses for their yearly scholarship awards. The application that had been used for the past decade had been custom-built by a contracted developer several states away whom nobody had any remaining records of. Its age was beginning to show, and the Foundation’s Scholarship Committee were looking for a more modern and easy-to-use version. Our department’s database administrator, I’m sure, was also delighted to no longer be on the hook for remembering old passwords and teaching a rotating selection of committee members how to use the antiquated program.
From a technical perspective, I consider this project an achievement in being resource-efficient and user-centric… is the fancy way of saying I managed to build it entirely within Google Drive. I often say that, aside from my fiancé, my second true love is a spreadsheet. So when I identified that the application system at its core was a form to collect student responses and then a list of scores calculated from those responses, the project went from “custom build a new web application” to “make a Google Form and some spreadsheets.”
This is, of course, glossing over all the time spent pouring over old data to reverse engineer scoring algorithms and translating them to excel formulas, a task which should have any sensible developer turning instead to SQL. I was, however, not a developer, and only sometimes sensible. In fact, I was keenly aware of the limitations I was working with. The world of K-12 is not one that includes the luxuries of time and resources. Though I have a degree in computer science and a strong enough background in coding, I correctly identified at the time that this would be an exercise in making a minimum viable solution. This continues to be an important lesson that I’ve picked up over the years – often, the gap between the best solution and the most practical solution is wider than we might think.
And still, at the end of the day, none of this is what’s impressive to me. Because every year, the highlight of my job is the evening I get to go to the awards ceremony. For 4 months of the year, I work with the Foundation to prepare the application, open it, ensure the data is clean, and send it off to them so they can select the award recipients. And for one night of the year, they are able to give out $124,000 to students who are in need who are looking to continue their educational journeys.
It hits so close to home because many years ago, I was one of those students. As I was preparing to graduate high school, my district’s Educational Foundation held a similar awards night. I was fortunate enough to receive a scholarship which, in addition to being a National Merit Scholar, afforded me more opportunities as I attended university the next fall. And so, I know what these kids are feeling – the relief, excitement, trepidation, and more. And I know how meaningful it is, to be recognized for your efforts, and to be tangibly given more opportunities and more freedom because of it.
This year’s awards ceremony was just over a week ago as I’m writing this. As the students were called one by one, receiving their awards and telling us all about themselves – their favorite classes, their strongest memories, and their future they’re building for themselves – I was once again reminded of what my role is in this world. I use my passions – technology, math, spreadsheets, governance and policy, and more – to do good. To create a world where everyone can learn, grow, and connect with each other. So, when I’m asked what my most impressive achievements are, the answer is clear: my most impressive achievements will always be measured by the impact they create, the people they touch, and the lives they improve.
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