Marenda Kyle: Future Educator, WLP Service Award

Women’s Leadership Project service award winner Marenda Kyle has always expressed a passion for education and women’s rights. Last year, she moved to Los Angeles from Bethesda, Maryland. Although she has only been in the program for a year, she participated in nearly every student campus outreach, workshop and field trip. During WLP’s women’s history month assembly she presented on the life of one of her role models; civil rights activist Diane Nash, an important yet little known founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) who was jailed for civil disobedience.

Marenda will attend CSUN in the fall and was recently awarded a $1000 scholarship for achievement by Delta Sigma Theta. She wants to focus on Early Childhood Development and pursue a Master’s in Education. She has had extensive experience volunteering at early childhood learning centers and teaching preschool students. Despite having had a few strong adult mentors at Gardena, her overall impression is that many adults in public schools have negative/low expectations for youth of color which lead them to underachieve. As an educator she hopes to play a role in redressing these issues. She believes that “giving back to the community” is of the utmost importance in helping other women of color succeed.