Sage Salvo
Fellowship Year: 2020 Summer Fellow
Fellowship Location: Washington, D.C.
Fellowship Placement: EdOps
What I did before EP:
I’ve always taught as I’ve learned, coached as I’ve played, and shared as I’ve succeeded. Particularly, I’ve coached education entrepreneurs as an Alumni Coach with 4.0 Schools and an Alumni Ambassador with Camelback Ventures. In addition, since starting my own startup, I’ve taught Entrepreneurship and Innovation as an Adjunct Professor at Montgomery College, Prince George’s Community College, Georgetown University, and Howard University. As a graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School, I was a Course Assistant twice. For me, mentoring and coaching have become an integral part of my career and my development.
Professionally, I’ve developed a digital platform to facilitate the mass collaboration between music artists and classrooms for literacy instruction. I founded Words Liive, Inc. in 2020 (and previously as an afterschool program). Prior to becoming an EP Fellow, I was a 2018 AT&T Aspire Accelerator Entrepreneur, 2018 LeanLab Fellow, 2017 Clinton Global Initiative – Social Entrepreneur, 2017 4.0 Schools Fellow, and 2017 Camelback Ventures Fellow.
Academically, I’m a 2017 graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School where I earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA) with a focus on Social Innovation. In 2019 and 2017, I was selected by the US Delegation of Entrepreneurs to represent the U.S. at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, and in Hyderabad, India, respectively.
What I did during the Fellowship:
During my summer, I led the annual budgeting process in partnership with school leadership, served as schools’ primary contact during annual financial audits and 990 preparation, analyzed, modeled, and solved problems on a wide range of business issues, and liaised with the schools’ Boards, the state education authority (SEA), and the charter authorizers as needed.
But the most value-added responsibilities that I had were helping craft the company’s DEI policies! I helped lead a company’s DEI strategy internally and supported DEI work within our client charter school administrative team. In collaboration with an EP Alum, I co-led a small, hand-selected group at the company to build out our DEI policies.
I appreciate the network I’ve gained, including industry leaders and EP Alumni.
What I learned from the Fellowship:
I became an EP Fellow because I endeavored to employ my finance, program management, and edtech skills in impactful positions within the education sector. EP turned my summer into a master class on diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, reaffirming my commitment to a career in K-12.
I learned that changing hearts, perspectives, and attitudes is essentially at the heart of any impactful DEI strategy. It’s also the hardest thing to do! Empathy became the central theme and prevailing ideology of our strategies.
