Caring, Character, and Community
Caring, Character, and Community
Caring, Character, & Community
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Caring, Character, & Community

Semester 1, Part 3, Episode 1: Ayele Shakur on Leadership in Times of Crisis

In this ninth episode of the Caring, Character, and Community podcast, and the first of our community-based-organization series, Hardin Coleman interviews Ayele Shakur, Executive Director of BUILD, speaks to the importance of giving space to youth to find their place in their community by learning how to create an enterprise.

To watch this episode instead, please click here:

Ayele Shakur - Interview Video


BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development

Center for Character and Social Responsibility

“Caring, Character, and Community” Podcast Series

To prepare the next generation to become caring and effectively engaged citizens requires a multi-faceted approach. It includes a focus on personal development, professional development, program development and implementation, and on systems change. As part of the CCSR’s focus on personal and professional development of educators, parents, and community leaders, we are pleased to announce our upcoming podcast, “Caring, Character, and Community.”

 Season One of this series will focus on how leaders integrate the ethic of caring, their own and others’ character development, and a commitment to serving the needs of others to guide and inform their leadership in times of crisis. Part One will focus on PK-12 leaders, Part Two will focus on Higher Education Leaders, and Part Three will focus on leaders of youth-serving, community-based leaders. Each part will include 4 podcasts and an interactive webinar, during which listeners can participate in a Q&A with the leaders who have shared their stories in the podcasts. 


Part Three, Episode One: Ayele Shakur

Ayele Shakur brings almost three decades of experience as an innovator in urban education. Prior to coming to BUILD, she served as the President and CEO of the Boston Learning Center for 15 years. Under her leadership, the Center expanded from serving 100 students annually in Boston to 700 students across the state. Ayele joined BUILD in 2011 as Boston’s Founding Regional Executive Director.

A veteran classroom teacher, Ayele taught for eleven years in the Los Angeles area and in the Boston Public Schools, and co-authored the book Boost School Performance – A Parent’s Guide to Better Grades Fast. Ayele is the recipient of the 2012 Boston Celtics Heroes Among Us Award, and the 2007 Nan Bennett Kay Great Friend to Kids Award presented by the Boston Children’s Museum. In 2014, she was appointed as Chair of the Education Committee for the Boston NAACP, and held this post for three years. In 2015, she was appointed by the Boston School Committee to co-chair the Opportunity and Achievement Gaps Task Force for the Boston Public Schools. She was honored with the 2017 Barr Fellowship, which recognizes outstanding nonprofit leaders in Boston, and in 2018 became part of the GK100 Most Influential Black Bostonians. She is a motivational speaker and a blogger for the Huffington Post.

A native of Boston, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Boston University and a Master’s degree from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.


Welcome to Season One of “Caring, Character, and Community,” a podcast from the BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development Center for Character and Social Responsibility. In this season, we will focus on learning from leaders about how they integrate the ethic of caring, a focus on their own and others’ character development, and a commitment to serving the needs of their community, in order to guide and inform their leadership in times of crisis. 

Part One: PK-12

September 7, 2021 CCC Season One, Part One, Episode One: Karen Bohlin, Principal of Practical Wisdom Group,  discusses the importance of developing a caring and compassionate framework, a compass, for guiding a leader’s and community’s response to crisis.

September 14, 2021 CCC Season One, Part One, Episode Two: Brenda Cassellius, Superintendent of the Boston Public Schools shares with us how centering on the needs of children, with commitment to caring, helps organize the efforts of adults in the community to help children flourish-- even, and especially, in times of crisis.

September 21, 2021 CCC Season One, Part One,  Episode Three: Julie Lawton, Chief Academic Officer of YueCheng Education in Beijing PRC shares the a story of how creating a school that is centered on caring and compassion facilitates positive outcomes in times of crisis

September 28, 2021 CCC Season One, Part One, Episode Four: Dana Weeks, Head of Germantown Friends School, discusses the importance of integrity and trust in building and sustaining a caring school community that helps children to flourish.

Part Two: Higher Education

October 14, 2021 CCC Season One, Part Two, Episode One: Nicholas Covino, President of William James College, shares with us the importance of showing up — being present and available to one’s community — as foundational to effective leadership in crisis.  He discusses the challenges this commitment can pose to one’s sense of well being, and how gratifying this level of commitment can be.

October 21, 2021 CCC Season One, Part Two, Episode Two: Kenneth Elmore, Associate Provost and Dean of Students at Boston University, discusses being guided by compassion, along with attention to detail and a willingness to actively navigate the tension between upholding community values and also holding space for disagreement and thoughtful discourse. When it comes to caring for one’s many community members in the higher education space, it is important to highlight opportunities to see and harness “unity of feeling,” where groups with different goals can find common ground in their core values.

October 28, 2021 CCC Season One, Part Two, Episode Three: Pam Eddinger, President of Bunker Hill Community College, shares with us the importance of meeting the needs of community college students with both deep care and great expectation.

November 4, 2021 CCC Season One, Part Two, Episode Four: Don Pope-Davis, Dean of The Ohio State University’s College of Education and Human Ecology, shares the challenges of transforming a school to be centered on using its research and teaching mission to meet the needs of local communities, particularly those that have been historically marginalized, while also creating a community that is caring and supports the personal and professional development of all its members. 

November 11, 2021 CCC Season One, Part Three, Episode One, Ayele Shakur, Executive Director of BUILD speaks to the importance of giving space to youth to find their place in their community by learning how to create an enterprise.


Thanks to Lizzie Barcay for the editorial and production work.

Music:

Bluesy Vibes by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Music provided by FreeMusic109 https://youtube.com/FreeMusic109’’'

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Caring, Character, and Community
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Hardin L.K. Coleman
Lizzie Barcay