We recently connected with Cassandra Macias and have shared our conversation below.

Cassandra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I created this space for children and families like myself. I remember being back in my undergraduate years longing to have someone truly help me navigate the complexities of being a first generation college student. I had resources on my campus, but it just didn’t feel like they truly felt me and could help me. They could support, influence and encourage me, but now I know I could only really help myself. During this time there was a disconnect. However, I pushed on, I would study hours on hours at one my favorite places, a coffee shop called Medici in Austin, Texas. This coffee shop was right next to my campus, the University of Texas at Austin and the perfect spot for me to have a slight change in scenery, but was close enough to campus where I wouldn’t waste time going to and from. I would see countless students get private tutoring on the very classes I was struggling in. It was not fun to experience, but it fueled this fire in me to keep going and to keep finding a way to make it through. I graduated and made it through and it was obvious that throughout my college journey I struggled so much because there were many gaps in my knowledge from my more formative years. So a few years after receiving my bachelors degree I decided to go back to school and earn a masters degree in Bilingual Education at Southern Methodist University. I learned so much more about myself especially how to study and fill those gaps in my knowledge. Shortly after receiving that degree I decided to create this, my baby, Dedici Community.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I get asked often “what’s your experience?” and I never know how exactly to answer because I have had so many experiences working with children and families.

So here’s a little story time-
In college, I would come back home to Dallas and work with children 4-12 years old leading summer camp programming for the City of Dallas. In Austin, I would volunteer and tutor elementary aged children at a local non-profit. Through some of my coursework at the University of Texas at Austin I was doing early childhood research at the lab school. Once I graduated with my bachelors degree I started doing C.L.A.S.S. research for Southern Methodist University with Dallas ISD’s bilingual education department. I was going into almost every bilingual pre-k 4 through 2nd grade classroom in the district seeing the interactions and connections between the educators and students as well as the students with each other. At the same time I was working in the evenings for After-School All-Stars a nonprofit that extends learning for low-income middle school students. This is where I really realized I wanted to go into education. I then was accepted to be a Teach for America Corp member and began teaching and crazy-ily enough began teaching in 2020! | taught 3rd grade for 2 years in DISD. In 2023 | earned a masters degree in Bilingual Education at SMU. Additionally, I worked at a lab school that focused on social and emotional health where I taught 4th grade for 3 years.

The name Dedici Community came from my love for the coffee shop Medici and the meaning behind it. Medici is the last name of an influential Italian family that flourished during the Italian renaissance through their art, culture and political influence. I then added my own twist by the merging the word Medici with Dedication.
Dedication came from my dedication to doing this work and one of my favorite songs, Dedication by Nispey Hussle (feat. Kendrick Lamar).
I want to help, encourage and uplift children and families like myself to keep going even when it’s hard. May I encourage you all to use your super power of knowledge to open doors for your families. I not only want to be a resource, but a catalyst for you all.

Through all these experiences I have gained so much knowledge and experience to support students and families from a variety of age ranges and life experiences. Through it all one thing is for sure, I enjoy making deep connections to see students confidence and love for learning grow.

Image Credits
Bianca Del Bosque