Mikva Challenge
Kayla Cruz is an accomplished professional with extensive experience in program administration and support, currently serving as the National Program Administrative Manager and Executive Assistant at Mikva Challenge since January 2019. Prior roles include Teaching Assistant at the Center for Talent Development and School Manager at Elevate K-12, where responsibilities involved overseeing tutoring programs and ensuring student success. Additionally, Cruz has experience leading STEM enrichment activities as an After School Program Activity Leader at Discovery Center Museum, managing membership and volunteer engagement as Affiliate Coordinator for NAMI Northern Illinois, and producing original content as a Fashion Writer and Editor for YourNextEnsemble.com. Educational achievements include a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an Associate of Arts in Social Sciences from City Colleges of Chicago-Harold Washington College.
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Mikva Challenge
Mikva Challenge develops youth to be informed, empowered, and active citizens and community leaders. We do this by engaging youth in action civics, an authentic and transformative learning process built on youth voice and youth expertise. Core Values: Our values challenge the status quo. Traditional schooling emphasizes adult lectures and students as passive learners. Mikva Challenges adheres to the following core values when implementing our mission: We believe that by providing high quality programming in under-resourced communities and schools, we can eliminate the civic achievement gap. We believe that if youth voice is included in decision-making that policy makers will make more informed decisions. We believe that the best way to learn democracy is to do democracy. We believe action civics is an essential tool to help young people develop the skills, knowledge, and attitudes to be informed, empowered, and active citizens. We believe youth are not apathetic, and that by inviting them into the political process they will become powerful and thoughtful citizens. We believe that Mikva Challenge always needs to be nonpartisan to allow young people to formulate their own opinions and choose the candidates and issues they want to support. Vision: Mikva Challenge envisions a world where: Citizens are informed, empowered, and active Youth voice is valued in decision making Civic leaders reflect the nation’s diversity Action civics is prioritized in education