Teacher and Advisor Reflects on Decade of SMART Partnership
(Winter 2019) – “I always wonder what my students are going to be like in college. And when they’re 30. And 50. It’s about creating opportunities that set them up for every stage, really,” notes Anthony Sabedra, current teacher at Katherine Delmar Burke School. Anthony had been teaching foreign languages, including Spanish and Italian, for the majority of his professional career, when in 2007, he began advising students in addition to instructing language courses.
In 2009, Anthony became the appointed SMART liaison at Burke’s, a San Francisco all-girls elementary and middle school. “It really takes a village, you know. We’re always working to make sure we take good care of our SMART girls,” Anthony mentions.
Partnership between SMART and schools are vital to the success of each Scholar. Appointed liaisons at each school maintain consistent communication with SMART staff, providing insight into students’ academic standing and social-emotional well-being, voicing needs and concerns.
Anthony’s impressive résumé of language instruction has come to benefit many of SMART’s families in need of translation services. “As a man of color, it really inspires me to see these women of color doing things. And whether or not these students come from privilege, I know they’ll be the ones creating art or making policy. They can do everything.”
Raised in San Francisco by Latino and Italian parents, Anthony received his master’s degree at Cornell University, before returning to his hometown in 2000. His relationship with SMART deepened in 2011 when he became an instructor for our Summer Academic Enrichment Program. Through his involvement with incoming summer cohorts, he was able to establish a relationship with Scholars before they started attending Burkes in the fall, seamlessly becoming their advisor and resource by the time the new school year would start.
In all his time as an educator, advisor, and SMART liaison, Anthony has forged many lasting relationships with Scholars and their families. “We just had one of our SMART graduates, Paola, return to work with us a bit here at Burkes. I met her when she was 12, and she’s now 19. She’s studying at the University of San Francisco and poised for success. I see someone like Paola, at the beginning of her big journey, and think ‘She could be anything she wants.’ An educator, a politician, a surgeon. I see it all for her.”
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