The Sunshine Lesson

When it comes to getting buy-in on big ideas, sometimes you need more than just a bright idea. You need champions and collaborators—and people to believe in you.

It was 2015 and I was teaching at East Columbus High School, near the southeastern edge of North Carolina.

As a career and technical education (CTE) teacher, it was an uphill battle to get kids to enroll in these classes, even though many of them would go on to technical careers. For that reason, it was important for me to integrate as many meaningful real-world?learning opportunities into our classrooms as possible.

At the time, the solar industry was rapidly growing in the area. As more farmers and small businesses began to utilize solar energy, more jobs were being created and it was all positively impacting the local economy.

I’m a firm believer in being open to opportunity. I saw the solar boom as a way to harness this growth into a real-life connection for students.

If people trust you and believe in the work you’re doing, they will join you. The result may not serve them the same way it serves you, but your passion can inspire them to work towards what you want, too.

Along with another teacher, I applied for a grant that would bring a solar program to our school. The journey to securing this program would teach me an important lesson about how to take on a bigger project than I ever had before, and how to navigate roadblocks and convince skeptical partners.

How powerful is a solar panel?

In the rural town of Lake Waccamaw, athletics is king. Fortune and fame go to the football team first. Working in CTE gave me flexibility, but it did not give me funding.

I had found success in the past with securing smaller grants for initiatives like a maker space with a 3D printer, and a community garden. However, those were small-scale projects with small-scale grants. For this solar panel program, I would need to raise $30,000.

To make this happen, I was willing to put in the work. I just needed buy-in.

I made the case to my principal, and while he was on board with the idea, when it came to the fundraising opportunities, athletics came out on top again as the competing priority. While it was disheartening to hear my principal say, “Your idea is important, but I’d rather do this,” I remained all in. I had to pivot. And I still needed that buy-in and support.?

But this was about a lot more than just solar panels. I saw this as a chance to bridge the gap and provide students with a pathway to relevant learning experience in a rapidly growing industry—all of which was happening in our own backyard.

Brain drain was an issue, with many students leaving for bigger cities and better opportunities soon after graduation. But the town was evolving, too, as more farmers installed solar panels and looked for new ways to make a living. I couldn’t always find kids an internship, but I could give them a way to see themselves making a difference where they grew up. In this instance, the connections were already here for them to see. This was a project that would not only allow students to explore workforce opportunities in a growing and successful industry, but strengthen school-community partnerships along the way.

We did it!

I had a good track record with the school and Board of Education, having received full support from them in the past. We had worked effectively together on other initiatives because I was always trying to develop programming that had our students’ best interests in mind. They knew me, and they knew that I wouldn’t be bringing something before them unless it was a solid opportunity. This solar program was a solid opportunity—and something I was willing to work for.

With the eventual support of the Board, I reached out to community partners and created a buzz around the idea. In the end, the county decided to give us the funds and support the grant. Even our principal had an opportunity to redeem himself, advocating on behalf of the grant throughout the process.

When I stood at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, it was a testament to the principal, the school, and the county: they believed in me and my students.

As it is with any new project or program, there was still much to do. We had only primed the pump for the real work to happen. While we had basic ideas for implementation, we still needed to think about the integration of the curriculum into our direct course work, and what it would take to really move the full scope of this project forward, including student involvement, monitoring, and collecting the data. As Sophocles famously said, “Success is dependent on effort.” And we still had a lot of effort to put in to make this project a success.

Lessons in leadership

Here’s what I learned. If people trust you and believe in the work you’re doing, they will join you. The result may not serve them the same way it serves you, but your passion can inspire them to work towards what you want, too.

What propelled this project forward was the excitement surrounding it. Once I had secured my champions and we overcame the financial roadblocks, our school community was excited to bring this initiative forward. This program brought prestige to the school and allowed our rural district to pave the way and be innovative, while providing our students with a real-world connection they could see.

This experience gave me confidence and showed me that I had the skills to lead as an educator and a broader community partner.

My belief in the power of those journeys also gave me the courage to work towards bigger things later in my position as the teacher advisor to North Carolina’s Governor Roy Cooper. I was proud to have the opportunity to do transformative work regarding teacher diversity through Governor Cooper’s office, and just as I had experienced before, I was staring down at some lofty goals. But I knew it could be done. I knew we could bring statewide partners around an issue of importance, and we could raise the funds to do it. There were roadblocks to work around, but we had the tools, the experience, and the champions to make it happen.

For the most important work, you need persistence and the willingness to start somewhere without knowing beforehand how you will get to your goal.

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LaTanya Pattillo is Director, Policy and Advocacy at NWEA. Previously, LaTanya served as Teacher Advisor to NC Governor Roy Cooper, engaging with educators and other stakeholders to share the Governor’s educational priorities and to inform education policy across the state. A former Business Ed teacher, media assistant, and parent volunteer, LaTanya was the 2015-2016 Columbus County Schools Teacher of the Year.