Level Up in Leadership 
Masters of Educational Leadership Students Attend Conference with Powell Foundation Grant Funding 

 

Aspiring principals attended a conference to gain leadership skills from experienced principals, all thanks to a Powell Foundation Grant. 

Getting one’s start in any career can be challenging, as there are pitfalls and distractions that, without the benefits of experience, are impossible to anticipate. That’s why a recent trip to the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Aspiring Principal Conference in Austin was so valuable for the 12 Masters of Educational Leadership (MEDL) program students who attended, led by Dr. Lizette Navarrete-Burks, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and supported by Dr. Abdelnasser Hussein, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, who served as an additional faculty sponsor. 

The graduate student attendance fees were paid for by a Powell Foundation Grant (awarded to UHD in 2023). The three-day conference allowed MEDL students to focus on professional competencies like “instituting frameworks for informed decision-making, understanding legal issues in secondary schools, and best practices for equitable leadership,” said Dr. Navarette-Burks. Many experienced principals were in attendance as well, so UHD’s contingent of aspiring principals was able to ask questions and discuss potential pitfalls, so as to learn from and avoid, as much as possible, the kinds of mistakes that plague the uninitiated administrator. 

Co-Principal Investigators on the Powell Foundation Grant are Dr. Diane Miller, Associate Professor of Literacy Education, Urban Education and Assistant Chair for Graduate Studies; Dr. Abdelnasser Hussein, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, Urban Education; and Dr. Lizette Navarrete-Burks, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, Urban Education. 

Dr. Navarrete-Burks said that MEDL students who attended were able to tap into a leadership support network that will help them to not only prepare for their future careers as administrators but also help them once they are on the job. “Developing a mentorship community is critical for success as a leader,” she said. “The practicing leaders at the conference are in the shoes of where our students aspire to be, and they helped our students understand that they are not, and won’t be, alone.” 

The impact of the grant and subsequent conference attendance is perhaps best evidenced by the feedback Dr. Navarrete-Burks gathered from those that traveled to Austin. For example, she asked attendees to rate, on a scale of 1-5, their ability to envision themselves as leaders prior to the conference. The average was 2.75.  

After the conference, that number shot up to 4.0. 

The survey also allowed students to provide anonymous written feedback on the conference, and that, perhaps more than the data, is the best evidence of the Powell Foundation Grant’s positive effect on UHD graduate students.  

“Interacting with assistant principals from all over the state made the prospect of being a future administrator more tangible,” said one student. Another (quite poignantly) said the following: “My most important takeaway from this conference is that I left feeling inspired.”