When Lizette Zarate looks at students in USC’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) program, she sees herself almost 20 years ago — an academically gifted young girl who was getting an education that she otherwise wouldn’t have received in her inner-city Los Angeles community.
“It completely changed my life,” said Zarate, who attended a Catholic school in her neighborhood before enrolling in NAI in 1995. She is now a curriculum and instruction specialist for the program.
“I received a private-school education at a public school [Foshay Learning Center],” said Zarate, a classmate of Jonathan Ruiz. “In the process, I was building my cultural and social capital with exposure to field trips, museums, and different parts of L.A., and engaging in meaningful discussions. NAI pushed me to excel, finish well, and be competitive when I applied to college.”
After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from USC in 2002, her first job was coordinating a literacy program at a Los Angeles high school. There, Zarate said, “many students were reading at an elementary-school level and couldn’t write even a paragraph.” At the same time, through volunteer work at the upscale Harvard-Westlake private school, she saw “kids being groomed to be leaders‚” — the other end of the educational spectrum.
“That’s when I decided that I wanted to dedicate my work to improving the education of urban students, ultimately offering opportunities for them to learn and go to college,” she said. “To give them what I was given.”
Zarate went on to hold several administrative positions with after-school programs before landing back at NAI. She also obtained a master’s degree in education from Loyola Marymount University, and soon expects to complete a doctorate in the field, with a concentration in leadership for social justice.
“The missed education of urban students is a civil-rights issue,” she said. “I want to provide opportunities to level the playing field. When the position opened up with NAI, my dream came true because I’m serving the community I’m passionate about in a program that transforms lives. Being a part of that means the world to me.”