Daniela Rubio

Stanford opened a world of opportunities for me. I have always been interested in how education problems are addressed by different nations, and have had the chance to participate in many education projects in the past, but none have been as challenging and rigorous as the IEAPA MA program at SUSE.

I come from an interdisciplinary background where I had previously experimented sharing experiences in an intercultural arena. Some of those experiences include participating in two World Scout Jamborees (Holland 1995 and Chile 1999), spending a year in Ireland as a Spanish Assistant in 2001-2002, and attending a cross-cultural program in Australia in 2004, which entailed volunteering in a local public school. I also led a student organization from 2003-2004 that focused on community development in Mexico as part of my community service requirements while finishing my B.A. in International Relations at Tec de Monterrey (ITESM).

After graduating first in class and with honors in 2006, I was faced with one of the biggest challenges most Mexicans from my generation face nowadays: finding a job that matches what you were prepared to do. Rather than continuing with my professional career in education, I decided to experiment in the field of Market Intelligence. There, I increased my quantitative and qualitative research skills and had hands-on experiences in both the private and public sectors in Latin America. Two years later, I came to Stanford with the financial support of the Claudio X. Gonzalez Fellowship. My world vision changed and expanded, and I was forever changed.

While at Stanford, I met professors and a cohort of students who challenged my ideas on a daily basis. Feeling outside of my comfort zone quite a few times made me grow intellectually and personally and eventually I started to think outside the box. Not only did I acquire advanced quantitative and qualitative research skills, but I developed a strong theoretical foundation needed to influence policy in any educational scenario.

I now divide my time as a researcher for a private company focusing on multicultural groups (Hispanics specifically) and co-founding an educational start-up - “Enseña por México” (Teach for Mexico), which will launch its work with the first generation of students in the 2012 academic year. I am very excited for this nonprofit organization, as it will be part of a global effort and network (Teach for All) to improve the lives of children by providing them with quality education.