Diversity Training
GSE Grad Michelle Zak Excels at Finding Common Ground Among Differences
Growing up as the daughter of Russian immigrants has its challenges, particularly when you were born and raised in America, don’t speak with an atypical accent, and thus find that educators and other students often take your uniqueness for granted. But Long Island native and Touro Graduate School of Education and Special Education Class of 2013 grad Michelle Zak channeled that experience into an ambition to help others. Now, after nearly a decade of work in and out of the classroom between both Touro and her undergrad years at Binghamton University, the aspiring teacher has a mission to reach kids from all backgrounds without letting cultural differences impede.
“I had to dive into American society on my own,” she recalls. “My parents incorporated it, but they go back and forth. And that basically shaped who I am and why I’m always so interested in diversity.”
It’s why the Jericho High School alum purposely sought out fieldwork across different parts of New York City while earning her Master’s at Touro, including a semester of Social Studies instruction at a junior high school in Rego Park, Queens. “I’ve never been one of those students who wanted to stick to their one niche,” she adds. I was always about learning something new.”
That last insight might also explain the sheer topical variety of Zak’s pursuits. Whether executing lesson plans at the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, planning tutorials in Math and English at Roslyn High School or collaborating with instructors at the aforementioned JHS 157 in Rego Park to help develop an interdisciplinary unit, the 27-year-old has never settled on understanding a singular knowledge base, let alone type of child. The combination of that well-rounded intelligence and empathy is what she hopes will set her apart in the job hunt.
“In Rego Park, I understood a lot of the kids, because most of their students other than the white and African-American kids, are Russian,” she explains. “I clearly related to them, so they felt comfortable coming to me and talking about their situations at home about their parents not understanding how to help them with homework or being able to communicate with their teachers.”
Zak would even assist as a translator at parent-teacher conferences, and began implementing art projects to help students express themselves, like visually comparing branches of government to the hierarchy of a football team. “Teachers get afraid sometimes” when it comes to reaching a wide range of disciples, Zak observes. Her suggestion is simple: “Really getting to know them,” she offers. “The first week of school is so important, no matter what grade level you’re teaching. It’s so important to do an introductory activity, whether it’s out-loud or a written assignment. How are you going to connect with your students throughout the year if you don’t know their situation or what they’re all about?”
As for Zak herself, she’s on the cusp of discovering where her future lies, and as of this story’s publication is in the midst of interviews with charter schools from New York to Baltimore. “My character, my upbringing shaped who I am, and that’s kind of what they’re looking for,” she says. And wherever Zak winds up, her journey till now from Long Island to Binghamton and then Touro is a vivid demonstration of how nothing should stand between one’s desire to nourish others’ passion for learning, whatever their lineage might be. Or, as she puts its, “If you’re ready to be assertive and get somewhere, then you’ll get there.”
