Testimonials

Former Student

Hello there Ms. Fazio-Born,

I hope you remember your old student (R) Robinson from your class in the Secondary School for Research in John Jay? It's been a long time since we've last communicated. I was always fascinated by your teaching style and interesting lessons and that's what I loved most about being in your class. To be brief, I truly admired you. You'll always be one of the best teachers I've ever had the pleasure of being taught by. I Hope all is well with you, and maybe you'll remember my name. I hope this message reaches you soon, take care.

Sincerely, your old student

-(R) Robinson

Graduate Advisor:

Letter of recommendation for: Jeni Fazio-Born

Ms. Fazio-Born approaches the subject of minority dropout risk with a commitment to social justice and equality in learning. At this time, Ms. Fazio-Born has developed an analytical model for the study of her subject population that is unique to the field and promises to yield significant findings in terms of the challenges of dropouts beyond school. Her ideas are original and thought provoking laying stress upon a social conception of dropouts rather than an institutional conception. Ms. Fazio-Born is a strong analytical and theoretical thinker, formulating her own urban ecological map to account for the changing reality of these youth.

Ms. Fazio-Born’s research employs a strong interdisciplinary approach. She comes to the Graduate School of Education with a Master’s in Political Sociology from the New School of Social Research, which she has drawn upon in formulating her research design and model. Her analysis is fresh and vital, moving between deeply personal experience, national and international processes of development and change. Her work on minority dropouts promises to make an important contribution to an area of educational research in considerable need of greater attention. Having shared with me prospective article topics, it is only a short time before Ms. Fazio-Born begins to produce substantive work in these areas as an academic committed to the subject populations of her studies.

One of her finer attributes is her mature and firm commitment to the commonweal which she is pursuing through her efforts to probe excessive poor and minority dropout rates in depth and from a perspective that promises to provide an enriched understanding of community and the organizational processes of inclusion. Ms. Fazio-Born is deeply committed to social change. Ultimately, her work seeks to move forward conversations addressing existing community-based frameworks for dropout intervention in an effort to raise success rates and curb the present flow of talented youth out of the educational system. Critical to her project, she seeks to prioritize the young people’s own accounts of their experience.

John Hurst, Ph.D., Graduate Advisor

Professor of Education