What? Graduate School?

Yup. I'm in grad school for my Masters of Education (MAEd) with a specialty in how autobiographical writing impacts urban high school kids politically, socially and emotionally. Cool, eh? Actually, it's the kids who are cool.

Several years ago I decided to volunteer (in whatever spare time I could muster between TV gigs) for an amazing writing program for kids of all ages called 826LA. The program was created by Dave Eggers, the author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, who's now my official hero. Once I signed up at 826LA, I was happily tossed into Marshall High (along with other fabulous tutors) to help 9th graders write autobiographical stories. I was partnered with a beautiful 14-year-old who had a story to tell – her mother had been murdered on Mother’s Day. She wanted to write about it. Four weeks later, after several coaching sessions, she had written a beautiful narrative; I couldn’t believe how far she had progressed. When I saw her on that last day, she ran up to me and gave me a hug saying, "Thank you so much. That made me feel so much better." I've never been the same since.

Since that auspicious beginning, I have helped publish three books of 9th graders’ writing and this year I’ll start on my fourth. I hope to graduate in July of 2009 after completing a documentary on the writings of the 2008/09 freshman class of The Los Angeles School of Global Studies along with a thesis on the subject.

I attend a low-residency program at Goddard College in Plainfield, VT. The guys from Phish went there…cool.