Stephanie Hernandez
I met Stephanie through our mutual friend and colleague, Courtney. There are so many incredibly impressive things in Stephanie’s journey, being a school Principal at the age of 26 is only one of them. She currently is a Senior Manager of Strategic Planning and Vision, as well as a Surge Institute Alum, among various other things.
I ask her about what she sees as her origin story and what has led her to the strongest current focus of her life: mothering and female identity. She talks about the role of faith she absorbed from her family, and especially her mother, about growing up bi-cultural, dealing with injustices first-hand. As immigrants, her parents did not have the same life opportunities as Stephanie - they did the best she could with what was available to them, while experiencing traumas. In some ways, it is the quintessential and equally unique immigrant story: parents striving to give their children what they did not have, and this also motivated Stephanie to have a career and personal and financial independence.
She never expected to have a career in Education, not having teachers who served her well (to the extent they would confuse her with other students regularly), struggling in college and needing remedial classes and feeling out of place in a predominantly White institution (PWI). In college she was pre-med, interested in epidemiology and public health for the Latine community. It was when a TFA recruiter came to her history class, then things shifted and she found herself at De Diego Elementary in Chicago’s vibrant Humboldt Park community. Each day was different, challenging in the best possible way, and she felt love and pride in being able to help shape the students’ lives and the community; however, she learned more from the young people and community. She was there for several years before spending about 7 years as an elementary and high school principal in Chicago charter schools, and then returning to the school district as part of the Empowered Schools team, a team that developed teacher leaders and principals on implementing a culture of distributed leadership in their schools.
She pauses to say, rather emphasize, take your time off - especially in education. Work will always be there and we are more effective when we are rested and feeling whole. This drive got her to a certain place in her life, but once she became a mother, it started a difficult and necessary journey towards another way of being. Her new identity required her to rethink her value being her career, her self-worth coming from productivity – she acknowledges that taking time off felt difficult. As a mother herself, her dreams mean creating a world where she could center her daughter in everything and doing her part to create a more equitable and just world, especially for girls of Color. To do this, she reflects daily on what decolonized parenting would look like so her daughter can be who she is authentically.
Outside of work, what brings her joy is both introspection and hearing the stories of others, the ones which are not the dominant narrative. As an advocate of pleasure activism, she believes in celebrating all the little things. When looking at the future, she wants to get better at pouring herself into other areas of her life. Through the Surge fellowship, she has a safe community which cultivates healing, wellness, and dreaming/acting on what a decolonized society could be for young people of Color. Find your people, she says, the ones who help you remain at peace, balanced, grounded, and inspired.