Name: Sonya Benavides
Position: Assistant Director of Implementation
What led you to your current position? I started working at Seneca in 2009 in a residential and intensive day treatment setting. Over the years, I transitioned to different programs, held different roles, and found my way to the All-In! team in 2012. After going back to school, I worked as a UE Coach and solidified my path towards educational leadership. I had the privilege of working as a school leader at a TK-8 school in Oakland for the last five years. In that work, I was reminded of the importance in doing for adults what we want them to do with our young people. A desire to continue working with adults to create spaces for dialogue, creativity and continuous learning is what led me to my current role. I am a systems thinker and have always put energy towards designing towards a larger vision of what schooling and mental health programming can be. I am extremely passionate about educational justice and feel grateful to work with such amazing people who are actively working towards reimagining what school is.
Fun Fact/Quote: For a person who loves quotes, picking one is a hard task. Here is one that feels alive for me right now given the current context: "History is full of instances where people, against enormous odds, have come together to struggle for liberty and justice, and have won- not often enough, of course, but enough to suggest how much more is possible. The essential ingredients of these struggles for justice are human beings who, if only for a moment, if only while beset with fears, step out of line and do something, however small. And even the smallest, most unheroic of acts adds to the store of kindling that may be ignited by some surprising circumstance into tumultuous change." - Howard Zinn
What does your average day look like? Most of my workload is project based and largely focused on program improvement and implementation. What that means on the day to day is flexible time for staff engagement and project design. There is also a high rate of time in the office for meetings with program staff across our regions, the Strategic Initiatives team, and program leadership. My average day is a combination of face-to-face (now Zoom) connection and planning time, and time alone working on projects.
Why do you do this work? This work has always been deeply personal for me. I am inspired to do this work because of the stories of perseverance and character of those I grew up around, and the experiences I had as a young person noticing and feeling the opportunity gap play out in front of me. Since then I have been committed to bringing awareness to issues of equity and nudging systems in a different direction. Ultimately, I stay in this work to shape a more equitable world for my son and generations to come.
Position: Assistant Director of Implementation
What led you to your current position? I started working at Seneca in 2009 in a residential and intensive day treatment setting. Over the years, I transitioned to different programs, held different roles, and found my way to the All-In! team in 2012. After going back to school, I worked as a UE Coach and solidified my path towards educational leadership. I had the privilege of working as a school leader at a TK-8 school in Oakland for the last five years. In that work, I was reminded of the importance in doing for adults what we want them to do with our young people. A desire to continue working with adults to create spaces for dialogue, creativity and continuous learning is what led me to my current role. I am a systems thinker and have always put energy towards designing towards a larger vision of what schooling and mental health programming can be. I am extremely passionate about educational justice and feel grateful to work with such amazing people who are actively working towards reimagining what school is.
Fun Fact/Quote: For a person who loves quotes, picking one is a hard task. Here is one that feels alive for me right now given the current context: "History is full of instances where people, against enormous odds, have come together to struggle for liberty and justice, and have won- not often enough, of course, but enough to suggest how much more is possible. The essential ingredients of these struggles for justice are human beings who, if only for a moment, if only while beset with fears, step out of line and do something, however small. And even the smallest, most unheroic of acts adds to the store of kindling that may be ignited by some surprising circumstance into tumultuous change." - Howard Zinn
What does your average day look like? Most of my workload is project based and largely focused on program improvement and implementation. What that means on the day to day is flexible time for staff engagement and project design. There is also a high rate of time in the office for meetings with program staff across our regions, the Strategic Initiatives team, and program leadership. My average day is a combination of face-to-face (now Zoom) connection and planning time, and time alone working on projects.
Why do you do this work? This work has always been deeply personal for me. I am inspired to do this work because of the stories of perseverance and character of those I grew up around, and the experiences I had as a young person noticing and feeling the opportunity gap play out in front of me. Since then I have been committed to bringing awareness to issues of equity and nudging systems in a different direction. Ultimately, I stay in this work to shape a more equitable world for my son and generations to come.
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