Michelle Williams is the family engagement specialist at SEED DC. She embodies SEED’s community focus through her work building deep connections between students’ networks of support at home and at SEED. Williams’ SEED journey started as a temporary assignment, but has turned into 20-plus years of service.
Why did you choose to join the SEED Community? [or: How did your SEED journey begin?]
If I said that I first chose to come to SEED because I knew about its mission or that I saw them on Oprah, that wouldn’t be true. The truth is, I had just lost my job, and I was planning to stay home with my young children and return to school. Instead, after just two weeks of unemployment, I got a call from Ms. Poole, who at the time was the director of the Office of Admissions and Parent & Community Relations. She asked me if I would come in to work a temporary job for 3-4 months. I said yes because it would be helping a friend. That was 20 years ago. This has been the longest temp job I’ve ever had!
As to why I have stayed, there isn’t one specific reason. SEED just grows on you. I like being part of something that has made such an impact on the lives of so many students and families. And now, after 20 years, I do believe in the mission.
Why do you believe SEED’s mission matters to the families we serve?
Think about it: “To provide an outstanding, intensive educational program that prepares children, both academically and socially, for success in college.” This is the very core of who we are. It is our identity. It is our culture. It is our purpose. It is the very foundation upon which we stand to serve every scholar and partner with every family that walks in our doors. Believing in the mission is how we continue to build community and align ourselves toward the same goals, within our network, respective schools, departments, classes, houses.
Believing in the mission matters. It is vital to our success. “We are the SEED.”
What are some of the key milestones that you have been a part of in your time at SEED?
In 20 years, I have witnessed 20 graduations, two successful Middle States accreditations, the shift from middle & high school to high school only, and three new SEED campuses I’ve seen graduates become husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, teachers, doctors, receive advanced degrees. Some of the graduates have even become my coworkers.
I never imagined that my temporary assignment would last for 20 years, but I’m glad it did. Like I said earlier, SEED just kind of “grows on you”. I can only hope that I have had as much impact on SEED as SEED has been on me.