Raishawn Swensen
Placed at Washington Association for the Education of Young Children
What excites you about being part of the Pathwaves Fellowship? What are you hoping to gain from the experience?
I am most excited about learning from a group of amazing people of color who want to share and create a safe space for us all to be ourselves as we learn in fellowship. I am also excited to build community and build strong networks in the policy sector for ECE. Something I am hoping to gain is stronger leadership and networking skills. Most importantly I want to create confidence in myself to be a strong leader and to lead in love.
Share a little about your journey and why you are excited about early childhood policy work.
My journey began when I became a mom and found myself lacking a supportive community. I stepped into a preschool classroom as a lead teacher with zero experience, just thinking, “I’m here to earn a paycheck.” But that mindset quickly changed! I realized how passionate I was about supporting children, families, and educators. I wanted to empower all of us to learn from one another and create a safe environment. By enhancing education for teachers, we can improve outcomes for children and forge strong partnerships with caregivers, ensuring we all trust each other to do what’s best for every child in our communities. I’m genuinely excited to support and learn how to create policies that promote these goals!
What are you looking forward to doing at your placement site?
I’m really excited about my placement site! I can’t wait to dive into the different committees and discover how public policy plays a role in everything. I’m also looking forward to collaborating with WAEYC to develop training sessions for educators and families about public policy. It’s going to be a great experience!
What are two things that most people don’t know about you?
Things most people don’t know about Raishawn are: That I wrote and published a children’s book with my daughter!! And the other I think would have to be that I won most likely to be a comedian almost every year from middle school to high school.
