We were lucky to catch up with Nick Garcia recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nick, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Is there a lesson you learned in school that’s stuck with you and has meaningfully impacted your journey?

I graduated from a high school in the Rio Grande Valley that a Johns Hopkins study would later label a “dropout factory.” I was lucky to be tracked into “advanced” courses, lucky to have had parents who attended college themselves, and luckier still to have had teachers who challenged and believed in me. Sometimes I tell people that I peaked in high school because I was president of several clubs and applied to all the Ivy League schools I knew of—except for Harvard, because I couldn’t imagine a world where I’d get in. As it turns out, I was accepted to every school I applied to, and found myself on stage during senior awards ceremony hearing them announce that I had been awarded over $1M in scholarship money. One of my teachers was a brilliant, funny, and caring educator who taught me and my ‘advanced track’ classmates for four semesters in a row. Ms. G was the sponsor of the National Honor Society, of which I was the president. As I was deciding which university to attend, leaning toward Yale or Columbia, she pulled me aside and said, ‘Nick, I don’t think you should choose any of those out-of-state schools.’ She was worried that I wouldn’t be prepared, or might struggle with the demands, or be out of my element immersed in a totally different culture. She said some other words, maybe to soften the blow, maybe to provide rationale, but I can’t recall taking in any information beyond this: Maybe, despite these acceptance letters that say so, I wasn’t actually good enough. Later that month, I decided to go to Austin College in Sherman, Texas because that’s where my older brother was attending and I loved my time while I was there.

Unknotting this ‘nagging-preoccupation-with-the-feeling-of-not-being-good-enough’ has been an important part of my own growth as a leader. Ms. G didn’t cause it, or even tip the scales, but as an educator for almost 20 years now, I revisit this moment to remember the multiple lessons my unknotting exercise regularly gifts to me: 1. Teachers are prophets, with the power to speak the future into existence. 2. Teachers are sowers, planting seeds that one day will grow, knowing they hold future promise. 3. It is my responsibility to find strength and laughter in the struggle. 4. Hope is a discipline.

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?

Teach For America (TFA) is a leadership development organization for those who want to create a more just world alongside young people in their communities. We are a network of nearly 70,000 leaders who started in the classroom and remain in lifelong pursuit of the vision that one day all children will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education. While TFA is a single national non-profit, we operate in 50 unique regional sites across the country. I’m very proud to be the executive director for our San Antonio region. It’s fitting that I lead the “About Me” section with TFA, as I’m a rare millennial who has stayed with one organization for his entire career. I joined TFA in 2005 as an upper elementary school teacher at PS 156 in Brownsville, Brooklyn. I am especially proud of the progress my students made, and I loved finding creative ways to celebrate their growth, though I believe I grew the most—my time with the students at PS 156 having transformed my life’s work. I joined TFA staff in 2007 and spent the next twelve years shaping the strategy and supports for new educators in the Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio, eventually stepping into the executive director role for San Antonio in 2019. Annually, TFA San Antonio serves 20,000 students. We support 500 alumni of our program, the vast majority in education roles, about 100 teachers during their initial two-year commitment, and 120 tutors who add capacity to select partner campuses supporting social development, math, and literacy growth via high dosage tutoring. At TFA, we believe that the issue of educational inequity demands the sustained attention of our nation’s most promising future leaders. Nearly 20 years since joining the organization, I am most proud of the hundreds of educators whose development I have supported across the state of Texas, and the commitment to students that they carry with them every day. My partner, Dianne and I are proud San Antonio Independent School District parents of twin fourth graders. And we are glad to have had both TFA corps members and alums as their children’s teachers and administrators.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I highly recommend Brené Brown’s “Daring Greatly” and “The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership” by Dethmer, Chapman & Klemp. Brene’s work has been a wonderful tool for my own growth and an incredible team building read. Specifically, her writing on more intentionally leading through your values has been a game changer for how I show up as a leader. Humor and humility are two of my most deeply held values and not a day goes by that I don’t intentionally bring these into my work – much more effectively now, thanks to “Daring Greatly.” Conscious Leadership is a framework that consistently calls me to question how I am responding to any given situation and pushes me to choose thoughts and actions that center creativity, curiosity, and humor. It’s a whole paradigm and I encourage everyone to start with their short, animated intro video “Locating Yourself,” just a few clicks away.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson I had to unlearn was believing that I wasn’t good enough. Despite doing well academically and earning scholarships and acceptance letters, I still felt inadequate.

Over time, I learned to embrace my journey and find value in my experiences. This shift has been crucial in my development as a leader, enabling me to determine my values and lead authentically through them. I’ve been able to share this mindset as a manager and leader in TFA. It’s a perspective we instill in our corps members as a vital way to connect with students today—by demonstrating that each student possesses a wealth of knowledge and experiences that are both valuable and essential in shaping the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.teachforamerica.org/san-antonio
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tfa_sa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeachForAmericaSanAntonio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-garcia-73613b124/