Abigail Daniel, Joanne Park, Angela Park
Level the Field is a 501c3 youth-led charitable organization created to help students in underserved communities overcome psychological and socioeconomic obstacles that hurt their academic success and their life chances. Sisters Joanne and Angela Park established the organization and also serve as its co-presidents. Along with treasurer Abigail Daniel and student officers from another high school and the University of Virginia, Level the Field now has an international reach. Joanne, Angela and Abigail want to help students build resilience in an academic environment that often focuses primarily on external validation of success. In Joanne’s words, “We want students to feel intrinsic passion and worth.”
Joanne and Angela created Level the Field after moving to Fairfax County from Denver, Colorado, where they had attended a Title-1 school. The move opened their eyes to the challenges that students from poor communities can face, especially compared with students in better off locales. This realization motivated them to empower underserved students with encouragement, tutoring, and mentoring by peers and older students.
Through the organization’s Better Together Mentorship program, Level the Field has used social media to match middle and high school youth to college students who have been screened for their ability and interest in helping younger students. The older students can help with the college application process or be a big brother/sister to talk about challenges with schoolwork, stresses in relationships, or self-esteem. Level the Field has recently expanded with contacts in Iraq, Canada and Mexico. It also organizes panel discussions, including a recent panel in which four academic experts shared their insights about student success, focusing on issues particularly relevant to young people in underserved communities.
Level the Field’s Reach for the Stars program is a free tutoring program targeted toward low-income elementary school students who want to explore their interests in English, computer science or math.
In addition, Level the Field recently published a children’s book, Red-y, Set, DNA, that addresses the needs of elementary school students. The book tells the story of a red alpaca to introduce introductory science concepts to students who may lack confidence in STEM subjects. Within one week of publishing, the book reached Amazon’s #3 Best-Sellers in the Science for Kids category, and has now been listed as the #1 New Release in the same category. Proceeds and donations are dedicated to Title-1 elementary schools throughout the country. Joanne, Angela and Abigail think the STEM focus is especially important because they know that students from some communities can feel they are not able to succeed in school subjects or professions based on science and math. Joanne says, “The book tries to make STEM subjects fun and interesting, not intimidating.”