Celebrating Stories with Leadership Journeys

Partnering with Big Picture Learning to bring Leadership Journeys to the Aurora Institute Symposium 2024 for the first time brought joy to the Aurora Team. The work of transforming education demands a lot from each of us and celebrating the stories of educational leaders of color in community creates a valuable space of connection, joy, reflection, and nourishment. We are also delighted in welcoming CompetencyWorks co-founder Chris Sturgis to #Aurora24 and love that she’s sharing her reflections in recent and upcoming blog posts. Chris shared this reflection about Leadership Journeys with us and we share it with all of you here. 

Three words capture all I have to say about Leadership Journeys at the Aurora Institute Symposium: Don’t miss it.

Designed and hosted by Carlos Moreno, Co-Executive Director of Big Picture Learning, Leadership Journeys was “a celebration of educators and leaders of color, fueled by dance, music, storytelling, and community.” It felt like a gift – a precious gift – offered by those sharing their stories: Dr. Bettina Love, speaker and author; Rhonda Broussard, Founder and CEO of Beloved Community; and Virgel Hammonds, CEO of the Aurora Institute. I’ll carry the evening – the stories, the love, the courage, the vulnerability, the music, the joy of dancing with a crew of people all making the world a better place – in my heart forever.

I can’t tell you any more. We all promised to create a safe space: no pictures, no videos, no sharing other people’s stories.

But what I can do is give a huge shoutout to Carlos Moreno. Not once but twice during the Symposium, I witnessed him sculpting a new culture for Aurora and, hopefully, for our field. At its core is a big, bold love. It’s a culture where we lower our professional armor and bring our full humanity to everything we do. It’s a culture where we listen deeply to each other’s stories, cheer each other on, and take the time to celebrate. It’s a culture that will nourish us even on the darkest of days.

So amp up the love, everyone. Take the time today to tell someone how they are making a difference in your life. 

Chris Sturgis has spent her professional life building national collaborative efforts to bring about improvements in the education system. Over a decade ago, she co-founded CompetencyWorks and this blog, the go-to source about competency education. In 2018, she was awarded Outstanding Individual Contribution to Personalized Learning Award by iNACOL (now Aurora).