Peter Le ’21

KIPP STAR Harlem College Prep Elementary School, New York, NY

This summer, I had the opportunity to intern at KIPP STAR Harlem College Prep Elementary School in New York City. It was an incredible experience which left me thinking about a lot of different things, but a little background first: I have always been gravitating towards educational work, though perhaps subconsciously since I never actively planned on going into that sector. Since high school, I was involved in leading my school’s volunteer program at the local daycare center for underprivileged families. Meanwhile, in college, I tutored at the local middle school and joined Matriculate, an advising program that supports high-achieving, low-income students applying to elite colleges in the U.S. I signed up for these programs never thinking much about their impact on my future career choices, but I ultimately found them to be incredibly meaningful and self-rewarding. So, when I saw the internship opening at KIPP, I decided to give it a try because I realized that all my past experiences had invariably lead me to explore this opportunity.

Thuy is representing KIPP Star at our nation’s capital.
Thuy is representing KIPP Star at our nation’s capital.

As a School Operations Intern, I worked directly under the Director of School Operations. On a daily basis, a fellow Williams intern, Michelle ’21, and I performed a lot of different projects and tasks that ultimately ensured the smooth running of the school. We both started in the beginning of June, when 
school was still in session, so we assisted teachers and staff with anything they needed to properly do 
their job, while also preparing (this was one of the main themes of the internship) for the end of the school year and the summer. We helped put together summer homework packets and distributed them 
during parental meetings, organized closets for new/returning materials, and kept track of KIPP’s children 
library. Listening to the parents during the meetings, I was able to get a glimpse into KIPP from the perspective of parents. Most were incredibly happy to see that their kids, especially against the backdrop of their original environment, learned respect and discipline and had adults who really cared about them.

One of the biggest events that we had to plan and organize was the year-end Carnival. Even though the carnival was in the end of June, preparations and planning started even before we came. We had meetings with the Operations team, faculty, and parent volunteers because this was a huge effort with many moving parts, and it was important that everyone was on the same page. As KIPP STAR was coexisting in a school complex with three other bigger schools, which were also having their events on or around the same day, we had to reach out and coordinate with the operations team with the other school to lock down our spaces and divide up flows of people. The event itself was a great success, and the kids’ smiles showed it. Even though the carnival ultimately looked modest and only lasted about two hours, I was able to see how much painstaking work and forethought was necessary for the event to run smoothly. Thinking back, my experience working on the carnival was a pretty good analogy for what (school) operations is like: a lot of grueling under-the-hood work to deliver what to most others looks like how things “naturally” runs day-to-day.

After the school year ended, despite being much quieter, the Operations team went headlong into renovations and prepping for the next school year. KIPP STAR was expanding to add a 4th grade (it used to be K-3), thus the whole school layout was about to change. We had new closets to fill, classrooms to build, materials to order, etc. Even small tasks could last weeks because materials and new renovations kept trickling in. At this point, it was very important that we were keeping track of everything and were able to pick up projects we left off days, sometimes weeks, later. This was where I was glad to have my intern partners, who would do a sort of informational ping-pong with me and helped us both keep track of what we were doing. Towards of the end of my internships, we finished prepping and I had a chance to look back at how far we’ve come from the middle and start of the summer. I assured you that it was quite incredible how much things had changed over 5-6 weeks.

KIPPsters having fun during our Field Day.
KIPPsters having fun during our Field Day.

By the end of my internship, the school had come to feel like a familiar home, and the people working there, my new friends. From the staff to the teachers, to even the interns, almost everyone embodied what it means to work for KIPP. They were all young professionals who chose to teach, specifically at KIPP, because their ambition was bigger than just themselves. They wanted to make an impact on those who needed help, and it was awe-inspiring to see them channel this into their job every day. I had a chance to listen to their stories and why they chose to work for KIPP STAR (it was a relatively new school). And perhaps what I heard most often was that they wanted to really make a difference on the ground, not just in the abstract or top-down manner.

During and after this internship, I was able to reflect deeply on the meaning of my work and connect it to my previous experiences with education in general. As the job was inextricably linked with service, I also spent a lot of time thinking about what service and non-profit work means to me. First off, I realized what immense privilege I have merely to do this kind of work. Of course, anyone can extend a hand to help others, but to dedicate myself to this work, I had personally to feel that I was financially secured. This comes from the paradox that jobs doing the most societal good often pays the least. Closely related to the idea of privilege, I had also been continually bothered by the power and socio-economic imbalance between me and the demographic that I was helping. But when I was actually performing the tasks, I realized that, while being acutely aware of this imbalance is good, letting this awareness become so bothersome that it stands in the way of doing my work would just worsen the gap. I just have to keep doing what I need to do while being aware of all the dynamics at play.

Ultimately, this internship has made me seriously consider education and non-profit as a career track, and I will definitely take more classes at Williams about social justice and policy issues, as well as classes on the ethics of “doing good.” It has also given me serious training on practical skills like leadership, organization, and long-term planning. Simply said, it taught me that everything is not what it seems on the surface, and that there is always enormous background work necessary for anything to operate normally. In the end, I would like to personally thank the Williams ’68 Center for Career Exploration and Mr. Jeffrey Hines ’77 for this life-changing opportunity. I have truly learned the importance of education, service, and most importantly, closet organization.