Episode 32: What it Really Takes to Help Students Succeed | Lauren Bond | Educator

Lauren Bond is a powerhouse English professor teaching at San Bernardino College, Moreno Valley College, and the University of Redlands. She’s also a new mom, a wife, a fitness enthusiast, and a lifelong learner who brings her whole self into the classroom. In our conversation, we talk about what it really takes to help students succeed, why teaching writing and reading is more than a job, and how she and her husband approach fitness and adventure as a team. Lauren shares how legislation like AB705 is reshaping education in California, why she believes teaching is one of the best careers out there, and the creative ways she connects with her students far beyond assignments and grades. From running half marathons to tackling mud runs, to helping students discover their own confidence, Lauren’s life is a reminder that education happens everywhere...and that great teachers change more than just test scores.

“What’s really exciting is when students come to the classroom and they get to offer something new that I have not experienced. They get to teach me about new music, a new cool creative project they’re doing. They get to teach me what’s going on in the world that I may not know about because I’m in my little bubble of work and my own life.”

— Lauren Bond

• Show Notes

  San Bernardino College
  Moreno Valley College
  University of Redlands
  Long Beach
  Moreno Valley
  Asthma 
  tough mudders
  spartan beast run
  Rock Climb
  Yoga
  Weight Lifting
  Avid Tutor
  Literature
  anthropology
  Cal State Fullerton
  Social Economics
  Eating Animals the book and the Documentary
  What the Health? Documentary
  One Strange Rock Doc w/ Will Smith on Netflix
  Common Core
  AB705
  Ted Radio Hour NPR Podcast
  Don’t Fear Math - episode Ted Radio Hour on NPR
  Finland Teaching Excellence
  Mediation
  Lightning in a Bottle
  Ram Dass / Richard Alpert
  Harvard
  India

• Transcript

  Follow along using the Transcript

  Chapters:

  00:00 Meet Lauren Bond

  04:20 Finding her calling in education

  10:45 From anthropology to English professor

  18:12 How AB705 is reshaping California classrooms

  26:00 The “Marriage Diet” and taking on fitness as a couple

  33:18 Teaching beyond academics

  42:30 Helping students believe they can succeed

  50:55 Adventures in running, rock climbing, and yoga

  58:15 Learning from her students

  1:03:00 Supporting teachers in your community

   What's really exciting is when students come to the classroom and they get to offer something new that I have not experienced. They get to teach me about new music or new cool creative projects that they're doing, and they get to teach me about what's going on in the world that I may not know about because I'm in my little like bubble of work, in my own life.

  That's Lauren Bond and this is The Powerful Ladies podcast.

  Hey guys, I'm your host, Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast where I invite my favorite humans, the awesome, the up to something, and the extraordinary to come and share their story. I hope that you'll be left, entertained, inspired, and moved to take action towards living your most powerful life.

  Lauren Bond is a good friend of mine, a new mom, and an English professor teaching at the community college and university levels. She's married to Matt, who's also an English professor, and when they got engaged, they made a commitment not just to each other, but also to health and fitness. On this episode, we discussed the realities of being a teacher today.

  If it's true that universities are pushing a liberal agenda, why teaching is one of the best career paths available and what it looks like to take on fitness as a couple. All that, and so much more coming up. But first, hey guys. I'm so excited that you are here today to listen to another episode of The Powerful Ladies podcast.

  It's because of you guys that we are able to exist and survive and make this great content and have these great conversations. One way that you can really help us out is to go to the powerful ladies.com and sign up for our newsletter. You will get great information and tips about once a month to know.

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  Welcome to the Powerful Ladies podcast. Thank you. I'm really excited to be

  here even remotely. I I'm excited to be talking to you about this and just participating in your podcast, which is, I don't know, one of the coolest things that I have heard any of my friends doing. Yeah, thanks for having me.

  It's, I'm blushing. Thank you. Let's start by telling the audience your name and what you're up to.

  Yeah, so my name is Lauren Bond and I am a college professor. I teach. English at several different colleges. I teach at San Bernardino Valley College, Marino Valley College. Both of those are jcs in the Inland Empire.

  And I also teach as an adjunct at the University of Redlands, which is a four year college, private college. So what am I up to today? Aside from preparing for the podcast I've just been grading like mad. It's been really, it's been really nice actually to use this weekend where I had a lot of free time to catch up on grading and spend time prepping and all of that.

  We are pretty much in the middle of the semester now and hitting our busiest point. That's what I've been doing today. So yeah.

  And in addition, you're a wife and a mom to be.

  Yes. Yeah. My, my husband Matthew he's actually out, away right now at a bachelor party out in Bishop in Mammoth.

  And he's also a writing teacher. And I am pregnant, so I'm almost seven months pregnant and this is gonna be our first child. So pretty excited about that whole new adventure.

  I'm excited that you are due the same time as our other friend, Dene and Travis are due. Just because it seems like it was a 1, 2, 3, everyone got pregnant at once and I was like, no way.

  Like they say this happens and it happened without anyone trying.

  Yeah. I have, in addition to Dene I have maybe five or six other friends who are currently pregnant and then one who just gave birth. Something in the water, I don't know. I dunno. Yeah. But yeah, de and I are due. Almost exactly the same day.

  It's it's hard to, for us and for doctors to know exactly what day, but we're essentially due the same exact time. So That's really cool.

  Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is. So let's start at the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Yeah. And where did you grow up?

  I've always been a Southern California girl.

  I was born in Long Beach, but my parents moved to Moreno Valley when I was about two. They too had been moving around their whole lives for various reasons across the us. So when they got together and decided to have kids, they, they didn't want that for me and then eventually for my brother.

  And it is funny because I'm someone who loves traveling, and I say that now. So I probably would've been okay with always moving, but I can't really say that. I had the luxury of, or the privilege to grow up in one town most of my life and have that stability. They decided to buy a home in Moreno Valley when I was very young.

  And my mom is, has been a teacher since she was 22. And my dad he's actually, he is, had a couple of careers and they overlap. So he, at a young age, or I should say as a young man, he became very interested in golf and tried out for the PGA like the actual association. He was never a touring pro, but he has been a teaching pro since his late twenties I believe.

  And then when I was pretty young, he actually started teaching elementary school as well. I'm the child of two teachers. So I think it makes sense that I became a teacher as well. Yep. I'm trying to think of some other things about myself when I was young. I didn't, I was really energetic and I guess that probably is how you could still describe me.

  I always, yeah, I've always had a lot of interest and I played sports when I was young. I played softball for many years and dabbled in some other sports like soccer, even though I don't feel like I was very good at it. I played all throughout middle school, just, like on A YSO, it was just a fun thing to do in the fall, but I definitely had no no hopes of becoming a professional soccer player. Even though, softball, I felt like I was really good at, and I pursued it for a long time. The only reason I stopped playing in high school was because I was also interested in music and was in band.

  And I felt that out of trying to divide my time with being a good student and playing sports and playing music, that I had to choose two out of the three. I just didn't feel like I had the time. So I ended up stop playing softball. And that was a hard decision to make because I ultimately didn't pursue music beyond my sophomore year of high school either.

  And I ended up just focusing on school, which is maybe not a bad thing in and of itself, but, I do, I think I always ended up missing playing softball for the rest of my high school career. And maybe even in college. I think I missed that athletic aspect quite a bit.

  One of the things that I love about you and Matt is the commitment that you guys made when you got engaged about not just getting fit for your wedding, but being committed to a fit lifestyle.

  How did you guys have that conversation and what has that looked like in reality?

  It such a good memory. We yeah, we called it the marriage diet instead of the wedding diet. We were, so Matt and I both met when we were pretty young. I was 20 and he was 22, I think. Or I just turned 23. And yeah, I think we were just at that turning point in our lives where we both had stopped being fit and active.

  He wasn't, he was just starting graduate school. And I was just figuring out or learning that there's more to life than just going to school. I started, going to parties and kickbacks and we became very social, but we felt our health was not a priority. When we got together, we, since we both had interest in being healthy and working out we decided, hey, let's we have our whole lives together.

  Let's do something about that. So he was, he had always been a runner and I never saw myself as much of a runner as I said. And I have a, I do have asthma, which is the excuse I used for a long time. It, it's exercise induced for sure. So it is harder for me at first when I start running specifically to breathe, but.

  He, he and I would go on these late night runs. I, when I say late night, one in the morning kind of runs. We were very much night ELs at the time, and so we would, at the end of the day go for maybe a midnight or a 1:00 AM run together. And he trained me for that. He would hang back and run with me and push me and encourage me.

  And I started to really value what running could do. And I think the one thing that I maybe brought to the relationship in terms of health at that point was cooking, because I've always had an interest in cooking and kind of just trying new things in the kitchen. And I don't think I never, I didn't really have a great diet growing up.

  I had a lot of fast food and was always on the run. But. I knew that it was important to get my nutrition in order. And I think that's where a lot of my creativity occurs in the kitchen. So that, I think that was just a point of us living together on our own recognizing that we needed to take care of ourselves for the long haul.

  And that's where it started. Yeah.

  And you've kept up with it?

  Yeah, we have see that was 11 years ago now, and since then we have run a handful of half marathons. I never thought I would be running a half marathon. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if I ever will have it in me to do a full marathon.

  But I do like training and pushing myself to get to that 13, that 13 mile mark. We've done a handful. Three tough mud. Two or three of those I think. And then a Spart, a Spartan Beast, and we've done a handful of smaller mud runs. I really the mud runs because it's not always, you're not always running just for 13 miles straight or whatever that is.

  You, you are doing a bunch of obstacles and crawling in mud and under barbed wire and jumping into giant bins of ice water. So to me I that challenge. And and we have a handful of other activities we like to do. We rock climb and we do yoga and weight lift. I think that. I think, yeah, I think I could talk about that forever, but even though that's not my career, fitness is definitely just something that we really try to do and we try to exercise and get into that pattern, at least three days a week, if not more.

  Do you guys do a lot of your training and working out together, or are you just more holding each other accountable to make sure that you are keeping to whatever routine you're committed to?

  That's a good question. We've had times where one of us was really into it and the other person was not, and we were going solo.

  But lately, I think our goal generally is to work out together. Usually when we go for runs now we go separately. Like we might start together and warm up and then he takes off. 'cause he is a much faster runner than I am. And yeah. If we're going to be pushing ourselves, we have to go separately.

  But. When we go to the gym we go together, we might be on different machines or lifting different weights of course, but we try to go to the gym together as much as possible. We try to take yoga classes together. And I think it's, I don't know, a big part of it's just holding each other accountable and that's why we like to go together, but we also have very similar schedules.

  Yeah.

  That works out

  well. I think it's nice whenever a couple can incorporate fitness and healthy habits as part of your together time as well, because it's so easy to be busy and then add fitness in as another thing you have to do in the day when you don't get to it.

  And it takes away from family when if you do it together, it can almost be like a, literally a hot date. Of working out together. Yeah.

  Absolutely. Yeah. We can yeah, it's carving time out together doesn't doesn't have to result in just. Going, going to the movies. As much as we like doing that, we, yeah, we can have these dates together to go to the gym and we often will stop at the grocery store afterwards and pick up food to make dinner together and so it's a lot of that sort of couples time. But doing things that we enjoy that we could easily do separately, but we decide not to.

  Yep. So how did you decide to become a professor and why English?

  I wasn't so going back to when I was little. I have this memory of doing this and my mom, I think has pictures and I'm sure she has videos of me lining up all of my animals in my room and I had a little desk and they would be at the desk and I'd be teaching them something.

  Yeah. So we had the same childhood. Yep.

  Yeah, I think I think I, I didn't know it at the time, but I always. I had that approach to life. I think really what it comes down to is no matter what subject it was, I love learning new things and then I like sharing that information with people.

  And it doesn't always have, I don't think it had to be in the format, the traditional classroom format. It just turned out that way. But I, I just really like sharing experiences with people where there's a focus on learning something and then talking about it. So I think that I gravitated toward those kinds of activities.

  And my very first job was as a private tutor when I was in high school. And I taught, I actually tutored in math. Not that. I could tell you very much about math anymore. But I tutored in, I think pre-algebra and geometry and algebra and maybe algebra two. And I would go to classmates houses and, a couple times a week and get paid that way.

  I started in college, I started tutoring as an avid tutor. So I went back to my old high school, which had an AVID program and I, I was certified as an AVID tutor, did a training for that, and I started tutoring. I think maybe I, it just came easy to me, so that's why. I found myself doing that and and then when, but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do for a career.

  And when I met Matt, he had just started a PhD program in English at uc, Riverside. One of his professors who he was really close with was gonna be teaching a class a literature class on James Joyce's Ulysses. And see, I was a junior in college at that time, and I hadn't taken any English classes in college.

  I had, I had tested out of some of the writing courses. So when I spoke to Matt and I spoke to his professor, they really encouraged me, Hey, you have electives. Take an English course. Just take it for fun. And I took that English lit course and I remembered how much I loved reading Yep.

  And how much I just loved fiction and analyzing fiction. And I actually at that point decided to pick up a minor in English just because I liked it. Then when I was getting close to graduating, I still had no idea what I was gonna do. My major was in anthropology, but I didn't really see myself pursuing that any further.

  I didn't, it was interesting to me, but I didn't really see myself becoming an anthropologist. So I was I think I hit that roadblock that a lot of young people hit when they're getting ready to graduate from college. They're like, I have no idea what I'm gonna do. Yeah. So I went to grad school, which is I think pretty common for a lot of people.

  I was like, I'm just gonna study more. I just, I'm not ready to go out into the real world and I'm just gonna take more classes. And I ended up to going to Cal State Fullerton for English. And that's where I learned that I really could see myself. Not teaching literature, but teaching, reading and writing.

  At the college level. And that's by happenstance how I got to where I am today.

  I didn't realize how much we had in common. So for people, for everyone listening, you and I have been friends for about five years now. Yeah. Your husband and my boyfriend literally lived on the same street when they were like five.

  And

  I think Jesse is the oldest person Matt knows out of our current friends actually.

  Yeah. It's crazy how far some of these guys go back. Yeah. And them in particular. I've always i've known you through that and we have a really great social circle and there's a lot of couples and I love that as much as the guys get along, the women do too.

  And we're all just friends together. Absolutely. And I didn't realize until you're sharing your story, how much our stories are aligned in regards to setting up our animals and giving classes and telling them what to do. And and I was a, my minor was anthropology because I love that stuff.

  If

  I didn't realize that. Yeah.

  Yeah. Like I keep debating going back and getting a PhD in it because either that or like a more like social economics approach because I love Yeah. Looking at the patterns of people in particular and where they go and why. And how that impacts them.

  And honestly, it's why I am doing this because I love hearing the examples of like, how people ended up here and how, not just literally where they ended up, but mentally and spiritually and community wise, like how it all comes together and keeps moving. 'cause it's not, there's always the people that break the statistics and those are the people I find most fascinating.

  Like, how did you get out?

  Yeah, like I think the human interest part. Yes. You're right. That's what you're doing with this podcast and that's what you're doing with the other aspects of your project. But that human interest. Is something that, yeah I think that makes so much sense.

  Why that would, you would be drawn to the sort of area,

  and I think that's why I love reading. I I, I do like fiction. But I tend to end up reading more nonfiction or autobiographies and there's just I mean there's, people are fascinating and there's so many great stories out there, whether they came from someone's beautiful mind or they were reality.

  Yeah. Do you find, so you find yourself reading a lot of nonfiction these days?

  Yeah. Yep.

  Yeah, me too.

  I'm actually hungry for good fiction, so I've started going back and going through classics I haven't read. And just like going back into that space. 'cause I, there's a lot of, for me to a nonfiction book, it takes a lot.

  Yeah. I can be a little bit of a butthead in regards to what I like to read, partly 'cause I have a story there's so much to learn. I don't wanna just read, I wanna learn and read.

  So yeah, it, sometimes I feel like reading fiction, if it's a, obviously if it's a really enjoyable story you become immersed in that world.

  Yes. With non, with nonfiction it's more of, there's, I feel like there's more of an option for learning something new, whether it's about a person or an idea or an event. Or like how to grow ourselves, that self-help category, even if that's not the word that I might use. I think that the, that's what kind of I'm drawn to lately as well.

  Obviously there's so many books I recommend we have a whole section on the powerful ladies.com, that's all tools and resources relating to books. We have, of course, everything else under the sun as well, but books is the part that Yeah. I'm passionate about because I love the fact that if you know how to read, you can learn and meet and travel like anywhere you want.

  And there's been quite a few guests I've had in the podcast who don't like reading, and I'm like, what about audio books? They're like, no. And I am like, I'm baffled. Like I have nothing else to say. And I imagine as, yeah, a professor for college students where an English class is a requirement often, and you're probably for people who it's required for are not the people like you and I who were nerding out and reading and liking to do English.

  Yeah. It's for people who maybe struggled in it. So how do you how do you handle that as a person who loves reading when you inter when you meet people that hate English, hate writing, hate reading.

  Yeah. That's a, that's exactly the big question that we have to answer as educators in English specifically.

  There's, I have so many students that have said that they've never read a book, ever. It seems mind blowing because you're supposed to have read books in high school and middle school and elementary school. But I think that a lot of, yeah, a lot of people young people especially, just don't connect with a lot of the required reading.

  So they just don't do it. Or they feel like they, they did it, but they didn't really understand it. So they don't really count that as having read books and Interesting. Yeah. It's and then often we see students who struggle with, of course, the writing aspect because they're not readers. And the only texts that they really see are very short pieces, not always pieces written very eloquently. And so they're just. Skimming the surface of texts and not really diving into the material. The way that, yeah, the way that you and I and other avid readers really have had in terms of experience.

  So really the key is to try to figure out what kind of books can I share with my students that I think they would really like? When I assign books, a lot of what we do is actually nonfiction in college composition courses now. And so I try to choose topics that are what I think are interesting to me, and I'm very passionate about, but also that I think are relatable to a wide variety of people.

  And then I try to find articles and longer texts that I think students will be able to dive into and at least see themselves in some place, or at least they'll be able to learn something from. Because if they don't, if they don't find it interesting, if I can't do that, or at least offer that partially, then the same thing happens.

  And then they don't really connect with the reading and they don't really do it, and they don't really grow as readers and writers ultimately don't pass the course, or they do and they, but they keep on struggling quite a bit.

  What's a book that you've provided that has really gotten the class excited recently?

  Let's see. In my freshman, like 1 0 1 level courses i've chosen, the past couple of years I've chosen to write about the theme of food. Just ooh. Just like it started off as a very broad topic of food because I like food and I like that topic and it's obviously something that everyone has to have and a lot of people everybody has something to say about it.

  I read, I think it was a year ago, but I read a book called Eating Animals by Jonathan s Foer. Okay. And it is a book yes. About eating animals. It's not a book necessarily it's not an argument for vegetarian vegetarianism per se. But ultimately he wrote that book because when he found out he was gonna be a father he was like, what do I feed my son?

  He was always interested in food, but he wasn't really sure or he wasn't always committed to a particular diet or lifestyle. And when he decided he was gonna have to answer these big questions for his child, he decided to investigate our food system and. So the focus of that book is all of the information he learned about the way specifically animals are raised in our country, in the industrialized food system.

  Which is horrifying most of the time.

  Which is horrifying. It's horrifying just to read about it. I let alone watch videos, undercover videos of what, what goes on in our food system. But yeah, just reading about it itself is eyeopening. And so I, that's one of the, one of the few books that I teach in my freshman 1 0 1 class.

  And I let my students know ahead of time, if you're gonna take me for this course, it is about reading and writing, but the topic is food and we are going to be learning things that are really gonna make you see food differently. So that's their, that's the warning before they take the class because, not everybody is ready for that. Or not everybody wants to know what's in their food or how animals specifically are raised or what happens to the environment. But I think a lot of, so many of my students appreciate that and they, I think most of them end up reading the whole book because it is interesting and it's fairly easy to read.

  It's written in the first person and it's journalistic reporting. So even though there was a lot of information and facts and all these statistics about our food system, it is, it's really accessible. I think to people of all levels. Yeah. There's a documentary that just came out, I haven't watched it yet, but there's a documentary called Eating Animals.

  I think it's on Netflix. And it is specifically about that book or the information in the book. So that's my next personal Yeah. Project is to watch that and. Maybe some of the other documentaries that are on Netflix related to food.

  I'm obsessed with them all. I'm excited that you said that there was a new one that came out because I think I've watched them all, whether it's like pro vegan, pro carnivore, keto, yes.

  Anti-fat food, anti-sugar. Why alcohol's bad. Like I have watched all of them because I find it so fascinating. Yeah. Because they're all backed by different versions of science and different versions of reporting. And I'm a firm believer in, watch, get all the information from the different sources and somewhere in the middle is like the truth.

  So it's, I love it. I like, I wish there were more food based documentaries available so I could watch more of that. At least well-made ones. There've been a few that I've started and been like, Nope.

  I think there will be, I think, we'll, I think I agree. I think there will, we will continue to see more and more, but if you, especially if you watched all of them, but yeah, you should watch these animals.

  I say that without having watched it myself, but I'm sure it's good. I'm trying to think, oh, have you seen, what the hell?

  Yes. I love that one.

  Is it okay? Would you recommend it then?

  Oh, yeah. It's one of the best ones. Okay.

  Okay. Yeah that's the one that that's the one that my students have seen and I haven't since I, I really feel like I should, that's my next step.

  I've done some of the reading, but now I need to watch documentaries because I feel. They really helped tell a story differently than the books do or the just articles. They, they really, and they just provide, they provide the images and the faces to the people. And in involved in this sort of research and in the various industries.

  You have all the interviews with the farmers and yes I feel like it's compelling in a different way. And I think that would be really that's gonna be my summer project.

  Yeah. Very cool. I know Jesse gets so frustrated because if I choose between being entertained or learning something, I always choose learning something.

  So if we're gonna sit down together and watch tv, I'm always like a documentary. Can we learn something? Yeah. And he's can't we just watch like a war movie or something else? And then can't

  we just watch like a romantic comedy or something?

  Which I wouldn't necessarily be against, but if I if there's a choice of.

  They have so much information now on whether it's YouTube that we're watching things on, or Netflix of learning something fascinating. Even I love right now the will where Will Smith is narrating the strange Blue Planet I think it's called, or Oh, I'm messing it up, but it's on Netflix.

  It's, he's the host and it's talking about different parts of how the earth works. And from the point of view of astronauts who have seen it Oh. From space and like the impact that's made on their life. But it's also very, it's a very digestible way to learn about a lot of science. Science that we don't talk about a lot. It's called One Strange Rock.

  One Strange Rock. Okay. Yeah. Thank you very much. Oh, and that's on Netflix?

  Yes. It's awesome.

  Okay. That's

  okay.

  I'll check that out. Yeah, that sounds amazing.

  One of the things that I really wanted to talk to you about, because it's a passion of mine, is.

  The education system in the US and what works where it's broken. And you being a professor, especially for freshmen and seeing what is delivered to you what surprises you and where do you see opportunities for improvements

  in the past few years? I've been teaching eight years because this is my eighth year teaching college.

  And the thing that often comes up in conversations with colleagues is, a lot of students aren't prepared. And that, I think that especially happens at the community college level because community college is open to anyone and a lot of students are what we call returning students.

  So they've taken breaks or they've worked or they've, I guess that's about it. They've just taken, some of them have taken huge breaks. They or they never attended college, and now they're in their forties, fifties, or sixties, and they're attending college. So for some of those students, they just feel like it's been ages since they've been students and they don't really, they feel very behind and they and have forgotten a lot of information.

  And then you have other students who, for whatever reason decided to go to community college. It could be because they didn't take all the required courses to get into a four year university to high school. Or they didn't, they just didn't have to grade. But they feel compelled to go to school for various reasons, either because social pressures like you have to go to, you have to go to school or family pressures or they just don't know what else to do.

  So they go to college. And especially the community colleges, we see just students with a variety of abilities, writing abilities initially. And there's always a question of how do we catch, quote unquote catch up? Some of the students who really struggle with writing, with generating ideas they struggle with understanding main ideas in whatever they're reading.

  Their, maybe their grammar is, their sentence structure is difficult to read, and we have to help them articulate better. So the question is what happened? And I think at the college level, we moved away from trying to answer what happened and just what can we do now to make them feel prepared and to help. Students feel confident, more confident as readers and writers and to help them understand how to do academic research at the college level. So I think that now a lot of us are a little less concerned about what happened that's being answered by K through 12 educators with the common core that has taken place the past few years.

  And for people who, dunno, what is Common Core?

  Common Core, and I don't know that much about it myself, but Common Core is a national reform of education that's taken the place of No Child Left Behind. Okay. So it's a lot of changes in the actual required curriculum of kindergarten through high school.

  And it was developed by educators themselves by, it was like. From what I understand, taken upon by elementary school teachers, middle school, high school teachers who wanted to develop curriculum that they thought would actually better prepare students to go to high school, or sorry, to go to college.

  They, I think K through 12 educators were very aware that a lot of the students were graduating very unprepared. And when they got to college, they were really struggling. And at the college level, there was this idea that we're not gonna change our standards. So what happened is a lot of students just really struggled in college and would drop out, or they would just be there for years trying to catch up to meet that, that high standard of college.

  So common core was, that's the answer to what's going wrong at the lower level and how do we better prepare students to get to college and succeed? What we've been doing on the college side is trying to accelerate how should I say this? Try to accelerate what the students are actually doing in the classrooms.

  Because a lot of students are placed in what are called remedial classes. Yeah. Where yeah, they have to do all the catching up. And what we've also found is those students they take all these remedial classes for 2, 3, 3 years or so, and then they have, then they get to take their general ed and by the time they graduate from college some people are in college for a handful of years, like 5, 6, 7 years.

  And that's not really helpful. Again, because a lot of students just end up dropping out because of just how long it's taking and they're discouraged and maybe bored and very bored. Yeah. Because, and. It. Yeah. It's just not motivating to feel like I, I gra I spent all this time in school and now I'm in college and I'm gonna be here forever.

  I don't and they're not really taking classes. They're interested in, they're taking all of those required courses. So I feel like I've lost the thread a little bit. What was the, what was your original question?

  What's surprising you about the students that you see and where do you see there could be improvements in the education system?

  So I think we are seeing a lot of improvement. What's happened recently in California is there was this legislation that was passed called AB 7 0 5, and that legislation basically it requires colleges, community colleges especially, it requires colleges to essentially catch students up. As quickly as possible.

  And that means changing the curriculum. That means having more interesting courses and having more challenging courses right off the bat for students it's meant to get, to prevent students from dropping out those first couple of years because they're stuck in the remedial classes. So I think that is probably one of the largest changes that we're seeing.

  And it's a lot of work, but in, in my actual classroom, I'm seeing huge improvement. So I basically, I will get students who tested fairly low in terms of reading and writing skills, and they come into the classroom and they feel like I, I'm an awful writer. I am a slow reader, or I can't find anything interesting to read.

  I suck at English. Yeah. And I, on the one hand. Know that some of their schools, some of their schools are gonna be a little bit lower and they're gonna struggle in certain areas. But if I can just get them to write a lot and to read a lot, and for us to have high, higher minded conversations about the reading I get more student engagement and then those students start to see themselves like, oh, actually I can write, actually, I do have something to say.

  And they start producing college level freshmen, 1, 1 0 1 level essays, 3, 4, 5, 6 pages. When previously they were only writing a paragraph or two. And I think, yeah, I think the increased motivation and paying attention to what really prevents students from succeeding, there's been a lot of work with that lately at the college level.

  And I feel like we're gonna start seeing the. In the next few years,

  I think in any area, whether it's reading or writing or math, sciences anywhere where you have an idea in your head that you're not good at something or the first material has been presented to you by maybe a less capable teacher or at least one, it didn't match with your learning style.

  It, I would assume the first struggle is just getting you out of that mindset, like what you're doing with your students. Yeah. Because there's what you're saying to yourself about it, and then there's also the disconnect of not knowing how it's going to apply for things that you actually care about.

  I,

  That's the biggest thing, like relatability. And what you just said about mindset, like actually having the mindset that I can do this and I'm not just as. This person who is awful at school or awful at reading or writing. I actually have the ability within myself to do this.

  I just have to learn some of the techniques to do it. Yeah. And then I need to put it to practice. Yeah. I think that's a big, I think that's, you really hit that on the head. I think that's like the main number one strategy as an educator is to get students to see that about themselves.

  I feel really lucky because in my own education experience, when in fourth grade I got tested for a gifted program that they were doing where we were in Philadelphia.

  And yeah, we, I mean it wasn't, it didn't occur to me as any big thing, but anyone who qualified got to go to this special class once a day. And I never understood why every class wasn't taught this way. 'cause it was actually. Yeah, more inclusive because we would pick a topic for the semester and we would do more hands-on things.

  We would do more discussions. We were treated a little bit more like adults. And I'm like, why is every class not like this? There's no reason why this should be for people who scored. So something in a certain quiz. But it was like, all right, inclusive learning where you got to ask questions and argue and they encourage you.

  To challenge the first thing you saw. And they encouraged you to be creative and no question was frowned upon unless it was like, okay, no more. That's like the third question. And that's like really a dirty humor joke we have to move on. But to me it was so cool to see that you could, you got excited about learning about stuff again because it wasn't just sitting there and taking notes and and then from that, like I think back to my next experience of being in college and. Trying to figure out using Excel and like I didn't understand what, like the data set that we were working with. Yeah. So I never under, I never got like how Excel worked. And so I started using it in at work and now like I'm a junkie for spreadsheets because they allow you to do so many things easier and faster and you, and so it blows my mind that the things I hated between statistics and excel classes. Because of how they were taught where no one explained to me like, no one started by what you care about and then showed me how this could apply and make it faster, cooler, better. Yeah. Instead they just said here's a data set about, car sales parts, and you're like, I don't give a fuck about car sales parts.

  Like, why do I care about how these have to sort? Plus you're not in the business, so you don't really know the logic behind why. You're just learning how to move things around a spreadsheet, and that's just so boring. My personal opinion is that there we are often, especially for younger people, like kids, like I worry from my own personal experiences that we don't make it entertaining enough.

  And when, especially when you look at how many sources there are today for learning things there's a lot of competition for keeping people's attention. And I hope that education is staying with that pace.

  I think that's exactly right. It doesn't, there has to be a balance between being entertained and learning.

  Yes. Because you know that it just can't be just a whole litany of concepts and formulas and tools that don't really have context that's provided for you. You're right, good teachers are the ones that can contextualize the material and say, let's look at the big picture first or second. But we need to look at the big picture at some point and see how it like connects to other ideas and things that you've learned.

  And, yeah. We, as learners, we need to be able to recognize how it's related in our own lives. But it helps so much to have, a teacher up there offering you different perspectives and. Helping you really see how they're connected. Like it's just to, here's the information and here are the different patterns that we could put the information in or the different skill sets, and you can see the different uses.

  I felt that way with calculus. I took calculus in high school, and like I said earlier, I was always decent at doing computations. I was good in math, whatever that meant until high, until, taking pre-calculus and calculus in high school, because then I just lost the context.

  I didn't really, I I didn't really understand what I was doing other than just memorizing formulas. And doing computations. And, to this day I feel like, I couldn't tell you what it's used for. I know it's useful and not in my field, but it is a useful thing, but I don't really know what it's for still and.

  I feel like that was the point where I didn't see the point in my life. And I, that was the last math class I ever took.

  I just listened to an amazing TED Radio Hour podcast, Uhhuh, where the topic is don't Fear math. And it's so great because you have these people who love math and they get how it describes the world.

  And one guy called it Uhhuh Math, the notes that plays the sym symphony of the universe.

  Oh, wow. That sounds really cool.

  'Cause things that we think are cool, like all like the fractal images and, oh, what's it called? The, where the flower and the shell, like everything has the same the Fibonacci sequence.

  Yes. The Fibonacci sequence. That's cool. And it's all math. Yeah.

  Yeah. And you, and how you described it just now, it's a way of understanding our universe. That's it's a, that's what math is. I'm like, I know that much. But yeah. That's, I gotta check out this podcast.

  That's,

  it's really good. That sounds really fun. Yeah. I was super, I got sucked in because I remember being, having a time when I loved math and it was, I, it made sense. And I know, I knew how, to your point, I knew how it made sense in my world. And then we started doing algebra. And I kept asking my teacher, what is X? I do not understand what is this X supposed to be? And yeah, I wish in that moment that teacher had transformed it and given a real world example, instead of just saying it's unknown. And I was like, my little brain was going so stuck on why we were solving problems for stuff we don't know, for things that we don't understand.

  I was like, I don't get this. Whereas if she had explained it as this is just the missing piece of the puzzle, it probably would've made sense to me that oh we're missing this piece and that's why we're doing this pro problem. Yeah, and it took me. I struggled that whole year.

  It was the first time I had struggled in math, and the next year I had to take a, like an algebra two or whatever it was. And luckily I had this amazing math teacher that like, got me back on track. But I'll never forget, like raising my hand over and over again and being so annoying. Yes, I understand everything you just said and I could copy it, but I still do not understand what is X.

  Yeah. I'm sure this poor woman like just wanted to go home and have cocktails with their girlfriends versus explain X to

  me. Yeah. I think that's very similar to my experience and I remember liking my math teachers and feeling like they did a good job doing so much. Like I, I always felt intrigued in class and I wanted to keep learning, but I just, yeah.

  I could feel my brain hurting and I could feel it. I could feel that I had all these questions that they weren't really being answered. So I just kept on doing my homework and taking the test and memorizing formulas. But I told myself this is the last thing I'm gonna do math. I continue taking classes because it just I understand the point of statistics.

  I really liked that class, but I just couldn't see the point anymore of taking those other courses and maybe, that's okay. There are other people that can do calculus and Right. And use that. But as someone, as a learner I do feel like that's an area that I would love to go back to.

  Same thing with chemistry. Like there, yes, I feel like I really struggled in that course too, and don't really quite understand the chemical world, which is everything. And I don't know, those are classes I would like to take now and may, maybe my brain would better understand them, and maybe I would have a teacher that also could contextualize the material a little bit better for me.

  Or even just have the context yourself in some things. Yeah. So you get asked the questions differently because I think it's so hard when you don't know what you don't know to even ask the questions. To make the connections between what's on the board and where your head's at, because yeah, it looks like a foreign language sometimes.

  And if you don't have one word that you know how to translate, you're like I guess I'll ask the next guy yeah, I'll just sit here. Yeah. Oh maybe we'll get to point at pictures soon and I'll, it'll make sense. Yeah. The other thing that I find really interesting is how in the US we underpay all of our teachers across the board.

  And Oh yeah. They're such an influence and factor in not just current generations, but how the US is going to look in generations from now. And I find it so interesting how other countries like Finland who are really well known for, making it be very competitive to be a teacher and paid like I don't get it why we think in the US that like teaching should almost be a volunteer career path.

  Yeah.

  Yeah. It's, and I know it varies from state to state. And the one thing that is very helpful is that we still have unions that help fight for teachers to get better pay and more benefits and smaller class sizes because. That also means that we, we spend less time if we have smaller class sizes, we spend less time grading and doing classroom management, and we're essentially getting paid more for what we're doing in that sense too.

  Without the unions, we would have none of that, but even it shouldn't take a union fighting so hard to just get what is, what seems to be deserved, yeah. And yeah, that's the thing is I've seen on Facebook and, I've seen those little, those like little worksheets that get passed around about like how much a teacher is actually paid, which is hardly anything.

  If you factor in all of the work outside of the classroom and, we don't, yeah, we technically a lot of teachers get summers off and holidays and weekend, but first of all. We're working on the weekends, and most of the time if we aren't teaching a summer school class, we are using the summer to prepare for the whole school year.

  And we're using the summer to go to conferences and to read and do professional development work so that we become better educators do research. So we really don't, yeah. We have to, if we're gonna stay at, keep abreast and on all of the material so that we don't just stick, get stuck in our own, our old ways.

  We have to always be learning new things, and that happens year round and we're not getting paid for that. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. I don't it does feel like the only thing we can do is just keep standing up for. What we're doing and saying, Hey we need to be, we need to put more into education.

  And public education is paid for by states, paid for by our, through our taxes and all that. But we could allocate more money to education and we should, the US is not number one when it comes to education. Yeah. As you said. We're, and it's not consistent countrywide. There are some states and some districts that are able to devote more money, more resources in providing, in paying their teachers and having better equipped classrooms and smaller class sizes.

  And some districts and some states really don't have that. So even education across the country is extremely varied. And some, some children, some students get really bad education to the US and that, that needs to be taken care of. We need, we just need, we do need to put more money into education for sure.

  And I think that there's also the misconception that as a teacher, you're just there to provide material. But the reality is that as a teacher, you're, you are teaching students, you're part counselor, you're part cheerleader, like when you, teachers are people that are approved through our culture to go to with your problems and to to tell big things to, like a teacher is a safe person that you're allowed to tell if shit's going on in your life. And I don't think that stops at, regardless of what age you're teaching. And I don't think we put into effect that teaching isn't just going to work and doing your job and coming home.

  It's being committed to these people. Having opportunities and having their best life and getting it. And not just like passing people, but like having each individual get it before they move on. And it's yeah. It's so much more work in the sense that besides all the prep work and saying on top of things and being, an expert in your field, you also need to be able to walk into a classroom and leave anything that you've got going on in your life outside.

  'Cause you have to just be like a clean slate for them and Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. You don't need to do that as an accountant or as a CEO.

  Maybe, yeah. I don't think it's not the same. I think that if you're, if anyone's gonna be good at their job, they do have to lay that stuff out.

  Yeah. But you're right. Because being a teacher. Dealing with humans in, in that field is so much different than some other fields. Yeah. When we walk into the classroom, we can't we have to be fully present to yeah. Not just deliver the material and to execute all the lessons for that day.

  And in, in a, in the correct pacing, we have to answer questions that students have, and then we have things, address all of the things that students have going on in their lives that prevent them from us, usually succeeding in the classroom. Like all of that stuff comes up. You can tell this, you can tell that something's going on.

  If a student is not turning work in or not attending class often or on time and I want to talk to that student like, Hey, what's going on? And you almost always, there's something to uncover and. It doesn't even have to be uncovered. They just come out and tell you what's going on.

  So yeah, you're right. We do act as like counselors and mentors and friends, and I think that's why I really like teaching at the college level, because I feel the least restricted in having that one-on-one kind of relationship with my students. That, that goes beyond just English teacher and student taking that class.

  But I feel like I can be more than that to my students and teaching at the college level, I really, I'm dealing with people again that are like 18. Some students are younger, like 15 or 16, but they're either 18 and they go, I know I've had students that are in their seventies. Yeah. So I get to form those friendships and relationships with people.

  But it is a lot more work as an educator than just, yeah. Prepping and grading and teaching in the classroom, it's so much more,

  Completely. When you, every year must be so exciting for you to meet a whole new batch of students. What, as you're seeing these new, fresh races coming in, what leaves you feeling optimistic about where the world is going?

  Yeah that's the really cool thing is it's not even every year. It's every semester. So even every 15 weeks or 20 weeks I have a bunch of new students. If I teach, if I'm teaching for four to five classes a semester, that's, on average 120 new students every few months.

  Wow. Yeah. And some students are repeat students. I often and Matt experiences as well it's nice to have. The same student who took you last year or the previous semester, take your next class. But for the most part, we just get to meet so many cool people. And I maybe because I'm a person that likes variety, I like that.

  And because I'm someone who likes people I like getting to know new people and then carrying that friendship or that relationship on past that semester. So what's really exciting is when students come to the classroom and they get to offer something new that I have not experienced, they get to teach me about new music or new cool creative projects that they're doing.

  And they get to teach me about what's going on in the world that I may not know about because I'm in my little bubble of work and my own life. So that's something that is really. Nice and is an advantage of just meeting so many people from all walks of like life, from different parts of the country, international students people of all ages and backgrounds and religions and ethnicities.

  So it's, I don't know it's pretty cool.

  Obvious when people think about, revolutions and protest movements and like culture changing. They always seem to start at the university space. I think partly because that's where, dialogues encourage, and people are actually having debates every day.

  Yeah. And you're also getting a mix of, knowledge and hope and aspirations, like all combined. It's like a good it's a good mixing pot of all the rest parts of the recipe. You need to get people to want to take action and want to change things. How has, how have you seen the women's movement and Me Too and the other, concerns of the moment showing up on your campuses maybe versus what we've seen on the media?

  That's interesting because. For one, I'm an adjunct, so I don't unfortunately get to spend as much time on one campus as I would like. Because I am bouncing around from campus to campus. So I am a little, sometimes out, out of the loop in terms of campus events and organizations.

  And I think also because I teach at two of the schools, I teach at our community colleges, there is a little less organized activism Yep. Than we would see at a four year university. That being said, I think I see a lot of the activist mindset come out in just dialogue with students. So they, students will be writing about it, they'll be writing about a particular topic or a personal event that has happened to them.

  And you get to see. Their mindset about, or their perspective about things like Me Too or Black Lives Matter and their understanding of the organizations and the movements and their part in it. Again, I don't know that a lot of my students are very active, like in these sort of big group organizations, but you see it play out more in their lives.

  And I don't know that's something that I wonder if that is because it's a community college that I'm generally at. And because a lot of these students also work quite a bit, they work multiple jobs, they have families, they have kids. So they have less time to organize and be part of that.

  But it's certainly a conversation that we're having quite a bit. I know a lot of English teachers. They choose topics in their classrooms that are more activist oriented on the surface. They talk a lot about gender and and race and equality and things like that. And I stay away from those topics on the surface in my class.

  Almost because I feel like it's hard for me to wrap my mind around or I can't choose just one to talk about, Sure. It's a little unwieldy for me. But there's plenty of room in our conversations about other things to talk about those topics, like when we talk about food in my freshman 1 0 1 writing courses, we talk about workers' rights, we talk about immigration just because so many people that are in our food indu are, industrial agricultural industries are immigrant.

  Legal and otherwise. And we talk about, the poor treatment of workers and the lack of pay and the lack of repercussions for co for companies that hire illegal immigrants. All the repercussions are on the people themselves, the employees, and not on the companies. We talk about environmentalism.

  So I think we, we cover a lot of that by talking about other topics. Yeah. And students are in interested and I think the younger generation really does have a pretty strong sense of what needs to happen. Sort of what are, what is privilege, what in inequities do we see in our society, and how can we maybe fix them?

  I feel like we're, I feel like that comes up quite a bit in our conversation.

  And I imagine, when you're in, first we do not give community colleges enough credit for what they provide, as a resource to our communities, not only for having more affordable education, but accessible education for Right.

  The whole variety of people that, that, you've been mentioning. And I think that, I'm glad that the conversation seems to be changing Now. I don't know if it's changing everywhere because, I grew up in the northeast in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, where, you know, going to a four year degree was what everybody did, or college and everyone was shooting to get into a premier institution, if not Ivy League, like it was. That's just what you did. And education was like the thing. So if you're out in Boston, it's very common to meet someone and be like, cool, where'd you go to school? Because that's what every everyone did. And so it gives you a reference point for what are they about and where do they come from?

  And when I moved to California, it was the first time that I had experienced a work environment where everyone had not gone to college. And I was like, what? This still happens? Yeah. How did you get a job? Yeah just because I was brought up through the thinking that like you had to go to college to get a job.

  With how much it's cost and how it's putting so many people into debt now and then they don't even end up using that degree. I really think that there's so much more opportunity for people to take advantage of a community college experience. To figure out more what you want to have an affordable education and not feel the pressure of experimenting with education and knowing that you're spending so much money on it because everyone doesn't need to go to college anymore to have the life that they want.

  But the reason I was going on a tangent about this is that there's so many people today that are saying not, maybe not so many. So there are some loud voices that are saying how college and universities are this, like cesspool of forced li liberalism. Yeah. Yeah. And I always am just like, what?

  I don't think that's accurate. And maybe I'm naive and maybe I don't know anything, but I feel like if everyone, if most people who are going into politics have gone to school we couldn't be producing. An equal number of diverse opinions. If everyone was going, if every college was a CPO of liberalism.

  Liberalism. I don't know if I can't say that word. That's a

  great, yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, if people are going to going through school and coming out with a variety of opinions and perspectives, then it just doesn't make sense that college is just, created by and for the liberal elite and that we're educators are brainwashing, young, but the youth to vote Democrat or become some sort of, come out as like liberal in terms of political affiliation.

  I think that there is some truth to when you go to college, you, there's complete truth. And when you go to college. You are exposed to a variety of ideas. Yeah. And sometimes that means that people, often that means people change and they no longer think through the way that they used to.

  That's the goal,

  right? Regardless of where you end up, that's the goal just to have Yeah. New ideas put into your frame of reference.

  And to be able to be a critical thinker and evaluator of life and of society, and of the problems that we encounter and we use college not just as a way to get that degree so you can get hired, but it to expand our minds.

  That's what education is really about. So I think that is sometimes a talking point that you mentioned of some people who don't really stop and think about what college is really meant to do. Yeah. Certainly there are gonna be a lot of liberal professors, especially in the humanities.

  I know plenty of, I'm fairly liberal and I know plenty of other educators that personally have varied liberal ideas. And I think that does seep into the classrooms sometimes. And maybe it can get away from some professors, but I don't also, I also don't think it's our job to be completely neutral.

  When I'm teaching I try to stay away from like the political debate. Yeah. Kind of politics in general. But there are some key issues that I think are important that we have to talk about. And I try to let students find their own voice rather than imparting my beliefs on them. But my job also is to provide correct information and to help people. Locate that information. So if people are mis misguided in their viewpoints because of the wrong information, then I do think it's my job to point that out. But it isn't my job to tell 'em how to or what to think but it is my job to tell them how to think or to teach them how to think.

  Yeah. And to create a space where having dialogue about differing opinions is okay. It blows my mind. We have to do

  that.

  Yes. And I don't understand why we don't think, like having the debate isn't the issue. That's what we should be doing. So instead of having the discussions and the debates and allowing people to have different opinions and not make them wrong for it, but instead allow people to articulate them, we're just not having the conversations.

  And I'm like, I don't get this. This is the opposite of what democracy is supposed to be. Yeah,

  We have to have those conversations and I, that is happening. I, beyond teaching English 1 0 1, I also teach usually like the next level English course as well, which is usually like a critical thinking course.

  That's where we do dive into more contemporary issues and students have the opportunity to talk about really those deep, more controversial issues. And to write about them. And again, it's about facilitating that, that dialogue and helping people find their voice and rec and examine what they believe and why that is.

  It isn't to say that their beliefs are wrong, but it is to say, Hey let's take a step back and examine what beliefs do we help hold and why, and do we have. Information that actually supports those beliefs. Or are they just unfounded opinions and can we let go of them if we're presented with new information?

  And that dialogue, that discussion has to happen and it goes so much more beyond a political conversation, even though so many topics do come up in politics.

  I think that's just natural because politics all ties back to the things we care about and the way the world works and the way that our communities interact. So I think it's impossible to not have political conversations when politics is all of us.

  Like it's, yeah. It's how we choose to govern ourselves. And so you're right. That's, that it is very important to just surviving in, in today's world.

  Yeah. When you're not with Matt and doing, keeping healthy and you're not greeting papers or going to school what else are you doing that gets you excited and is for your own personal fun and development?

  I feel like that takes up so much of my time. What you just yeah. I really one thing that I used to do a handful of years ago with Matt is we got really into meditating and using that as a practice to help become more present in our daily lives. So that's not something that I am currently doing, but it is something that I would like to get back into. Not because I feel that I lack focus or presence right now, but I just. Know the value in taking some time out every day to meditate and to just sit and to have be thoughtless.

  To clear my mind. And that's just just like exercising daily or almost every day and eating healthy. That's just another practice that is super beneficial to my life. So that's something that I like to do to get back into, and I keep telling myself that and but I have yet to carve out time to do that when I really, it's really easy to do actually.

  Yeah. I'm trying to think of some other things. I'm also starting to read more again. I admit that with all of the other stuff that I do with work and reading I put that on the back burner sometimes, and. So listening to more podcasts and starting to just pick up books again in the evening instead of just watching TV or something.

  Those are the things that I'm finding, I'm finding myself going back to once again. Yeah. And I think now because I'm pregnant, I'm also spending a lot of time researching and talking to women, who have, who, not just women but parents, but talking to my friends who have kids and learning a lot about being a parent because that's all new to me and I have this human that is about to a new human, that's about to enter our lives.

  So I think I'm spending a lot of time doing that lately too. It's just like preparing myself to be a parent.

  Has being pregnant changed your perspective on things in the world or of yourself?

  Getting pregnant has really calmed me down quite a bit. I've been really appreciating sleeping a lot more.

  Yeah. And feeling very balanced. Because I know balances is everything and balances of, how do I say that? Balance is just super crucial to living a healthy, happy life. But now that I am not just taking care of myself but another human, I think that's really solidified that for me.

  And I feel much calmer and I feel generally just softer. And I feel like I, I know it may not be clear on this podcast, but I feel like in general I talk a lot less and I try to listen to other people a little bit more. So that's I feel like my demeanor has changed a little bit.

  For not the worst for sure. Yeah. In terms of perspective, I don't know if, I don't feel like my perspective has changed much yet, but I know it will, and I don't know what, I don't know what that will look like, but I know it will once I have a kid. Yeah. I once, once I I have a human being out and about in the world that I have to take care of and, to share that experience with my husband too. It will. I'm, we're really looking forward to it. Yeah, I, we know that there's a lot to be learned and that it's just this whole new adventure for us, but what that's gonna look like, I don't know yet.

  I think you guys are gonna be awesome parents oh, thank you.

  Yeah, of course. You're generous and aware and compassionate as it is that I imagine it's exactly how you would be with them. So I'm excited to see you as parents. I'm excited to meet the baby and have more little humans that we get to spoil.

  I really appreciate that. Yeah, I'm, we're excited.

  And and that's what the cool thing is, Matt and I were never sure if we were gonna have kids, we met when we were young. We definitely it was, it's definitely not a priority. And when I met Matt, he was. I'm pretty sure he didn't wanna have kids, and I was okay with that. I was like I wanna be with you.

  And I have so many other things in my life that I wanna do. It's not even a concern of mine. But now we're at this point where we did decide to have to start a family and to bring a child into this world. And I think it can be really easy to become very pessimistic about doing that, there, there can be very easy to just focus on all of the scary things and the actual, real problems that still exist today and new problems that are being created as we speak. But at the same time, I feel like I have, we have the support of our families and we have so like a group of friends that are just like you, very supportive and loving and devoted to changing the world for the better.

  That I can't imagine. That raising a, raising a child in that environment is gonna do anything except great things. Yeah. And I don't know what, I don't know. We're gonna have a son. I don't know what he is gonna be like exactly, but I just feel confident that he's gonna be surrounded by people that are the best kind of people to be around.

  And that he will have such good role models beyond me and Matt, beyond us that he could look to that really, that helped guide him. And so that's what I'm excited about. Yeah, in addition to just meeting him and getting to know his personality, like seeing how everyone takes to him, which I think will be wonderful.

  We've been asking every guest where they fit on the powerful lady scale, zero being average, everyday human, and 10 being super powerful lady. How do you feel today and how do you feel on average?

  Wow. It's funny because I don't feel like I, okay. I feel like I walked through life, very confident in my skin, very comfortable in my skin.

  Now, I wasn't always like that. I had a lot of anxieties growing up. I'll give you the long answer. I wasn't diagnosed with OCD, but I'm sure that I was on some sort of spectrum when it came to having obsessive compulsive disorder. And I really suffered from sleeplessness and restlessness and existential anxiety.

  And when things didn't go my way, I really struggled. Because I was just like perfectionist. And something happened I think a handful of things happened in my life. Especially right around 18 to 19, to 20 and I no longer feel imprisoned by my type A OCD behavior.

  Whatever you wanna call it. I feel like I, I can channel it for things that are very good for me and for others. So I feel very comfortable in my skin and I think there's a lot of power that can come from being happy and feeling comfortable and feeling safe and able to socialize and communicate with others and to stand up for myself.

  I don't know how to answer your question of a scale of zero to 10. I feel like in terms of what I do with my life, it's not always big and spectacular. I don't always find myself doing these huge sort. Projects. I don't ever see myself as getting famous. But I think that within the people that I know in my life, I feel like I you're famous in our group.

  Yeah. Famous in within our group. Yeah. I feel like people can come to me and talk to me about anything and that I come off as open and always willing to try to help when I can. So yeah. I don't know that it doesn't really answer your question directly, but I do feel powerful and I, in the sense that I feel very empowered by the people around me.

  Yeah. And don't feel like I have to struggle so much as this exist, and that, to me, that means a lot now.

  Yeah. No, that's great. I think that it's really interesting to see how people respond to that question, because everyone has been different. Uhhuh and I, what I want people to get is that being powerful doesn't mean anything grand or, yeah.

  And, celebrity status or any of that stuff. Living a powerful life means that you're living a life that you're proud of, that you feel satisfied in, and that you feel like you are the one in the driver's seat versus something, or someone else. And

  that's a great definition. I really like that.

  Good. Lauren Vaughn stamped, approved.

  Yeah. I guess it's, with that definition, I'd say yes. I feel very powerful. I really like that. I think it's so important. That's beautifully said.

  Yeah. Because my, my mission with powerful ladies is to make I can't go extinct. And yeah, there's, I am always inspired by the people who are doing so many amazing things for their family and friends at communities that don't get talked about.

  And we spend so much time talking about knuckleheads who Yeah. Are either creating like a whirlwind of negativity or they're actually not doing anything. And I'm like, why are they the ones making any money? Like the system dumb. Like I would rather, be celebrating the people who are leaving the world a better place and doing it anonymously on the, in the big scale, because those are the people who actually leave a bigger mark behind and who are setting up whole communities to win.

  But that makes so much sense. Maybe we choose to focus on these other people that, like you said, create this whirlwind of negativity or aren't, are just not doing much of anything. May maybe there's a reason that we dwell on that. Maybe because we see potential in people and when they fail to meet that we get frustrated and then it becomes like a focus of ours. Yeah. But you're absolutely right. In instead choosing to focus on the people that really make a difference and that are positive and loving and open-minded those are the people that we should highlight.

  And that's absolutely what you're doing with this podcast. And what other, I think a lot of other people are doing too. Yes. There are some cool photography projects that focus on just, cool humans and there's a lot of po positive, there's a lot of evidence of positive change

  Out in the world. If we just can look for it.

  Yes. Look for it and share it. Yeah. Yeah. So who are women or people in general that have been big influences on you and carved out who you are today?

  In, in line with what we're saying. A lot of just women specifically. But honestly, like you said, people just women in my life that I am really just proud of what they're doing.

  A a lot of my friends are at this point in their lives where they are, they're branching out, they are starting businesses and they are they are, or they're going back to school while they're raising. A child by the, by themselves. I have a handful of women in my life that I can think of that are just really killing it out there and are doing it with a good attitude and not always with a lot of resources either.

  So I think I probably say that I draw a lot of my inspiration from just the women that I meet in my life that are like my friends. And who encourage me to do more with with what I'm doing as well. And it's not limited to just women. My, my husband Matthew is someone who is just always from the day that I met him, just such an intriguing person.

  And he, I feel I think the reason that he's such a good partner is that he always encourages me. To be a better person and to do the right thing and to be as like strong and as healthy as I can be and not to use excuses when I struggle with something. He certainly is a source of inspiration for me as well.

  And yeah I read a lot and I, and yeah. And so when I read a lot, I really take on those ideas and integrate them into my own lives. But I'd say the people that really touch me the most are just the people, like my circle of friends that I really just, I'm happy to have in my life.

  Me too.

  I feel so lucky and honored that I have had the privilege of having so many amazing people. Yeah. Cross paths with me at all the different phases of my life, and especially where I'm at right now and. I want everyone to know that they can find their people. It, sometimes it takes more work than other places, but

  yes.

  Yeah,

  they're there. And I've also gone through phases where I felt really alone and frustrated that I couldn't connect with the people that were around me. And then it just makes it that much sweeter when it's easy.

  I think you're Yeah, that's very true. There have been moments in my life where I don't, or I don't think I had, I wasn't happy because I was in this very isolated space because I didn't feel like the people that I was with, even if they weren't, bad people, they just weren't my people.

  And that's a learning experience for sure. And you have to learn within, learn for yourself who your people are and to learn to walk away when it's not right. Yeah. Yep. And it will happen. You will meet and if I think if one is open, they will very quickly meet people that they really connect with and can learn from.

  And sometimes you can connect with someone and not learn very much from them. And sometimes you can learn a lot from someone that you just don't wanna be around Really. Yeah. Fact. And so I think it's important to just recognize that and be appreciative for what you can take from that situation or not take, but what you can, how you can grow from a situation in interacting with certain people.

  But also learned that, you will find your, those people out there that, that really help you grow and you help them and it's fun and you guys click on a lot of different levels. And you can be there for one another, one times are hard. So I think it happens and we can find that in a partner, we can find that in a group of friends, siblings our parents.

  That's one thing that I really rediscovered is as an adult, learning who my parents are. And of course they're constantly changing just like I am, but I'm always really thankful that I was raised by parents that really let me figure out myself. And now as an adult, it's really nice to go back to them and be closer to them in a way that I, maybe wasn't when I was in my late teens or early twenties when I was figuring myself out, they let me do that.

  They let me go and just do my own thing and they were always really just supportive and confident that I would find my way and now I can go back and spend time with them. And that's not, parents are the same way. And I think we're. We're both pretty lucky to have people like them in our lives.

  Yes. There are a few questions that have come up a couple times from people. Yeah. Following powerful ladies or even guests that we've had that I'd love to get your opinion on. The first is similar to what we were just talking about. So if someone is struggling with finding their people and maybe they've moved to a new place, what do you recommend for being an adult and finding new friends?

  Oh, man. That, that is a hard one. Because at first on the surface I feel like people just walked into my life. And that's how I found them. But actually that's not the only way that happens. I think being really present and open to new experience. And I wanna, I don't wanna use the word social because that's.

  Social and extroverted is not what I mean. Yeah. But putting yourself out there and being really who you are, but also being very open and mindful about how you come off to others, all of that will attract people to you that could potentially be friends.

  Like what does that look like in, in actions?

  What

  does that look like? Yeah. You have to go out and do things too. I think I am a kind of, I am a pretty extroverted person. Matthew is maybe not so much, but he still is very, he still very much puts himself out there. And that means going going out and trying new things.

  Like one, one big thing that we started doing is a handful of years ago, and this is because of your boyfriend Jesse as we went to festivals and Jessie had invited me and Matt to go to Lightning the bottle back in 2011, and we didn't, and we were we just, it just didn't seem like our kind of thing.

  And then the following year, Jessie invited us again and we're like, yeah, let's, sure, let's try it. What do we don't know what we're getting ourselves into, but Right. Let go. Yeah. We like music. Sure, let's go. And you just, it was a whole new world of people that are very friendly and open. The kind of people where you, like you meet someone and instead of going into shake their hand, they could you a hug and that could be invasive for some people I recognize. But it was really eye-opening for me. And it, it just being in, in the presence of really open, wild wildly creative people really. Open something up in me. So I found that we just, we loved going to festivals because it always, it gave us a chance to just meet lots of people.

  And some people we, we don't ever talk to ever again. But a handful of our friends are people that we met at festivals and we still to this day hang out outside of that, that setting. And I think another way to do it is to use social media as, I don't do this as much, but I think people could use social media to meet new people and expose themselves to new ideas, the very least.

  And I'm trying to think of some other ways that you can push yourself out there. I think just, even just when you're out and about, if you go to the grocery store and not just being on your phone or in your own head going about your day, but actually like talking to the cashiers and paying attention to people that are selling, like girls selling Girl Scout cookies.

  And I think that it's always surprising what kind of conversations you can have with quote unquote strangers if you are just. Willing to slow down a little bit and make eye contact and talk to them and not just be stuck in whatever you're it is you're doing. Which is usually, I feel like, unfortunately on our phones now.

  Yeah. Whenever I go out and I do a lot of eating by myself when I'm traveling, I always go to, oh yeah. I always go to a place that has a bar and then I sit at the bar and I make friends with the bartenders. And then I make friends with the people who are around me. And even if I never talk to them again or if it's one in my neighborhood and you start becoming friendly with them, it's just a way to have conversation versus sitting by yourself.

  And especially if you're new to a neighborhood, it's a cool way to just you can ask them all these questions. 'cause they're like a hairstylist. They know all these secrets. Yeah. About the people that come in and the community and what's going on. I feel like there's like a safety in it, in confessing to a bartender that, or your server I'm new here, what should I do?

  What's going on? And they're usually down to tell you because I imagine they'd rather have that conversation than just keep asking people if they want more water.

  Yeah, no that's definitely, I think like a huge thing that one can do. Like you said, if you, even if you're out eating by yourself like that, that if anything that's like the perfect opportunity to meet new people or to learn about a community, especially if you're new, like you said, talking to the bartender, the server. I think about a handful of people. When Matt and I moved to Redlands from Riverside eight, about eight years ago at the time our friends were generally some people that we were, that we went to college with and we moved and we knew no one in Redland.

  At all. And it was exciting. Some of our friends had moved, had already moved. Our college friends had already moved to, other parts of the state. So we needed to meet new people anyway. So when we moved to Redland that's when it all happened. I would say we met one group of friends because we went to a wine bar and they were super crowded.

  And this one couple they said, Hey, why don't you guys sit with us? And they're pretty much the same age as us. And they grew up in the area or in the town, and we hadn't, and that was maybe five or six years ago, they invited us to their wedding within a few months. And to this day, we're still, good friends with them.

  And then we've met a lot of their local friends that way. And then another. Sort of core group of our friends we met because of one person who started talking to us at a rock climbing gym. And we had, now we're into rock climbing and we're really close with those people and that whole group.

  And and then a third group was actually a former student of mine. And she's also a rock climber. But she took me and then she took Matthew and and then when she was no longer a student, we started, just catching up with her and met all of her friends that way. It, sometimes it just happens in unlikely places, but if we're off our phones and if we are willing to talk to random people, even if just about something kind of surface level, you never know where it's gonna take you.

  I agree.

  And it might, you might not go anywhere and you may not be friends with those people very long. But I don't know. I feel like. We, I feel like it can happen if you just look up and stay open to that sort of experience.

  The second question I would love to get your feedback on is going back to where we started, and if someone doesn't think that they're a good reader, or maybe they're a slow reader or they just, can't focus on reading, how do you recommend they start if it's something that they would like to expand their abilities in?

  I think the, it just takes practice. You become a stronger reader, for instance, by just reading a lot. So you have to find something that is intriguing to you to read. If that is, I think I'd recommend you just choose a topic that is something you'd like to learn more about.

  I think fiction is not something a lot of people are interested in, and so I wouldn't always recommend my favorite, my favorite books that I read that are fiction because it's a little bit harder to customize, I think. And again, some people just don't, I think, always see the benefit of reading fiction.

  They're just like, it just seems worthless when I don't think that's the case for me. But I think a lot more people can relate to nonfiction. And what I usually do is if I meet someone, usually a student who's asking for recommendations Hey, I wanna read more, but I'm not sure what, I just ask 'em what they're interested in and then go from there.

  So I think that's key to just becoming a better reader is to just do it, just to do it more. It's the same way if you're gonna get better at soccer, you need to practice. Yeah. You may, it may take a long time to get good, but just doing it I think is, that's the hard work that is involved in just becoming better at something.

  And so that's how you become a better reader. That's how you become a better writer, is to sit down and just write. It doesn't have to be pure goal to just get your ideas out. And of course there's a benefit of working with someone, like taking your essay to a tutor and saying, does this make sense?

  And having the tutor recommend moving things around or asking, having a conversation. The tutor can ask the writer questions like, what do you mean by this? You need to state it more clearly. There are definitely tools that coaches are can offer and coaches are very important, but I think a lot of it is just putting the work in yourself at you will get better eventually.

  And for everyone who's listening, what are some final things that you want them to be able to take away and to know?

  Okay, so when I was preparing to talk to you for this podcast, I, one, one question that I had thought about was, what's one favorite quote? Or something like that.

  And it's interesting because even though I spend so much time with words, I'm not really one to remember key quotations. I think I could probably honestly say I would not be a great actor. And trying to remember lines. Maybe I could, if I put my mind to it. But generally what, when I hear little, like saying I tend to internalize the meaning and and integrate the idea into my life.

  But there is one that I do live by that I remember and I think about, and it's just a very short line said by M Doss. And he is, you're familiar with Rom Doss, I think, 'cause I gave you that, you

  gave me a book, my birthday,

  Deborah, by him. But he is he is a Westerner who used to work for Harvard.

  He was a psychiatrist, psychologist by training. And he was famous because he, when he went by the name Richard Alpert, when he was working at Harvard, he worked with Timothy Leary and they did a bunch of acid trials in the sixties. But he went to India, he got all, he got fired and they got that whole thing blew up.

  And Romoff or Richard Alpert. Decided he, he needed to search for something more meaningful in his life. And he went to India and he found a guru and he came back and he's very much responsible for bringing a lot of, a lot of Hindu, but a lot of kind of Indian wisdom to the west and yoga and that sort of thing. And he just has he's someone that I would, and Matt, I think would consider like our informal guru, like somebody who we've read a lot of books by and we listen to, he has a podcast. We listen to a lot of his lectures, and one thing he says is this, treat everyone you meet, like God in drag.

  And yeah, I think it's a really good way. It certainly makes sense to me to live my life by, because it just, it's just a recipe for how you should treat people. Because when you meet people, you just. It's really easy to just see that surface, right? That costume that people are wearing what their job is, how they hold themselves, are they a man or a woman or how are they what are, what's their age?

  Like what's, what roles in life do they play? We try to understand all of that by just like looking at someone and getting to know them very briefly. But we, there's so much more to humans and to individuals and it's really hard to ever understand another human being. And it can just take, lifetimes to understand ourselves, let alone someone else.

  So if we treat every single person we meet as if they're God, as if they're this sort of complex entity that is all knowing and just full of everything the universe has to offer. I think it would change the way that we treat people. So I totally agree. Yeah. It's just, I don't know, it's just a kind of a cool concept.

  I never really thought about that way until I heard him say it that way.

  If you believe that everyone is as has the full abilities of the universe inside of them as much as they have their ego inside of them, then Yeah. Like it's the same content, like we are stardust, God is in you.

  Yeah. It's all saying the same message of within every person is the possibility to create greatness. And if you can see their light, it changes everything because it's so easy to not wanna see the light in people that frustrate you or, do things to hurt you or you think are idiots. Yeah.

  But if you can see the light inside of them, you can see the God inside of them. It changes everything because you start looking for something different,

  Yeah. You start, you and then I Exactly. Said. And I think that it also allows us to be more, maybe pious isn't the answer, but, or the word.

  Yeah. But it stops us in our tracks. If we see that, if we can stop and see that in someone, then we are restricting our own ego reaction temporarily. Yes. The way that we, you know, the way that we would kneel before God, if we met him or her it if we see each person as meeting as a chance to meet God, then it, I think it would change our behavior and just help us get out of our ego.

  A little bit more. And then to recognize that in ourselves too.

  Yes. Yeah. I think that is such a beautiful way to wrap up this podcast. Thank you so much for being a guest. I have loved our conversation. I love you and Matt, and I am so excited I get to see you in a few weeks, and I'm just, I know.

  I'm very excited for that too.

  Yeah. I'm, thank you just for being a yes to me and to powerful ladies.

  Thank you so much for this opportunity and for inviting me to do this and, I it's such a cool project and just a really cool opportunity. And I am, yeah, I'm really thankful for you, to be in my life as well.

  Yeah. This has been great. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

  Teachers are one of the most important people in our communities. Our whole life is about learning, whether we see it that way or not. And to have people dedicated to enhancing our experience, committed to our development, and excited to share their knowledge is critical. Not just to our own life experience, but the wellbeing of the whole community.

  Lauren is one of those ideal teachers. She cares about her students as whole people. I hope this episode has left you thinking more about what you can do to support the teachers in your life. Opportunities. You have to be a teacher yourself. And why it's important that collectively, we remember to have our teachers thriving.

  If you wanna connect, follow, or support Lauren, you can email her at Bond, laurenKelly@gmail.com with the exact spelling available in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. If you'd like to support the work that we're doing here at Powerful Ladies, there's a couple of ways you can do that. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Google Play, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

  Leave a review on any of these platforms. Share the show with all the powerful ladies and gentlemen in your life. Join our Patreon account. Check out the website, the powerful ladies.com to hear more inspiring stories. Get practical tools to be your most powerful. Get 15% off your first order in The Powerful Ladies Shop, or donate to the Powerful Ladies one Day of Giving campaign.

  And of course, follow us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies for show notes and to get the links to the books, podcasts, and people we talk about. Go to the powerful ladies.com. I'd like to thank our producer, composer, and audio engineer Jordan Duffy. She's one of the first female audio engineers in the podcasting world, if not the first.

  And she also happens to be the best. We're very lucky to have her. She's a powerful lady in her own right, in addition to taking over the podcasting world. She's a singer songwriter working on our next album, and she's one of my sisters. So it's amazing to be creating this with her and I'm so thankful that she finds time in her crazy busy schedule to make this happen.

  It's a testament to her belief in what we're creating through Powerful Ladies, and I'm honored that she shares my vision. Thank you all so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. I can't wait for you to hear it. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life.

  Go be awesome and up to something you love.

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Email her at bondlaurenkelley@gmail.com

Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud