Deeper Learning 2023

Erick Espin is a history teacher at Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS). Currently in his 20th year of teaching, Erick has been at WHEELS since 2010. Extremely grateful for all of his students and community, Erick designs curriculum to tie the study of historical content to relatable, contemporary issues. Born and raised in Washington Heights/Inwood in New York city, he has vivid memories of New York from childhood and by the time he was an adult, crime was dropping, streets were cleaner, and gentrification was taking shape. The city was changing for the better but not necessarily with its poorer and residents of color in mind. Erick has now spent his entire adult and professional life living in and serving the communities he calls home. He is learning each day how to use history to leverage the agency of the community to no longer accept ‘less than’ as its normal.

Minh-Trâm Nguyễn seeks to provide conditions for BIPOC young people and adults to claim fulfillment, ease, abundance, and joy, living in alignment with their deepest soul purpose amidst systemic affronts to their full humanity.  Her leadership approach is inspired by experiences as a Vietnamese refugee, daughter, activist, teacher, mentor, parent, spouse, friend, ally, and informed by interdisciplinary research and praxis.  She convened and led a Design Team representing the Four Directions to open EnCompass Academy in 2004 with a belief that education Starts with Self, is Guided by Family, Engaged in Community, and Rooted in Ancestors. Currently in her “Principal 3.0” version, and 18 years in, Ms. Nguyễn is continually working out the ‘bugs and fixes’ necessary to lead a whole-child school that is liberatory, affirming, and transformational within the structures of a large urban school district.