Barash - Write Out Loud: 12 tools for telling your story and getting into a great college

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Copyright 2014 by Carol Barash. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-182829-1
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To Jed

I n 1997, at the age of 25, I started the SEED Foundation with my business partner, Eric Adler, whom I quickly came to admire for his masterful storytelling. The day I met Eric, he shared a story that sticks with me to this day.

Eric had been a high school physics teacher at a private college-prep school. While nearly every child who attended was from an affluent neighborhood, there was one student in his class from a low-income community who was attending on scholarship. Eric saw what this student had to go through each day just to get a good education. For example, while the rest of the students got to school thanks to a 15-minute ride from Mom or Dad, this student had to take two different buses, resulting in a commute of more than one and a half hours. The differences only began there. It was after seeing the hurdles that this student needed to overcome that Eric came up with the idea (around the same time that I did) of starting a public boarding school for students like this boy.

It wasnt just that Eric realized a student like this would benefit from a school like SEED and told me so. It was the way he told me. He could have told me in a few short and general sentences, but he captivated me with details of the students life and struggles. Plus, he did it all with emotion. He emphasized words and lingered on parts of the story he thought were important.

Eric continued to tell this story. He told it to everyone with the same conviction as he had told it to me. He told it to legislators who were responsible for changing laws that would allow us to open our schools. He told it to potential donors we depended on to fund our schools. He shaped the story based on the listener he was trying to reach, but at its core it was the same compelling story about a boy, the struggles he fought to overcome, and how a place like SEED could make the difference.

I learned quickly from Eric and started telling stories of my own. At this point, I was completely out of my comfort zone. I was a scientist, not a storyteller. However, I had no choice; we had a school to open, and the most powerful way to spread our message was through stories. So, I told people my personal story.

I told people that our family immigrated to the United States. Both my parents believed very strongly that education was the great equalizer. With an education, you could be who you wanted to be and do what you wanted to do. My family was not wealthy. In fact, my grandfather saved every rupee he earned for his childrens college education. In addition to my familys story, I told people of my belief that every child should have access to a quality education regardless of his or her background, socioeconomic status, or race.

Together, through our stories, Eric and I began to convince legislators, potential donors, and future employees to support our mission. They were inspired by our vision, they believed in our mission, and they saw that financially we had a sustainable operating model. Legislators changed laws to allow for public boarding schools in Washington, DC, donors contributed funds to build the school, and people started applying to join our team. One year later, together we opened the nations first urban public boarding school.

By this point, I had learned to tell my story well and with conviction. By the time I met Carol Barash in 2008 (on Princetons Annual Giving Committee), the story had expanded. It was no longer the story of two young guys trying to start a public boarding school. It was now a story about challenging society to think more broadly and more hopefully about the way that we educate our children. SEED was sending students from some of the most challenging areas of our nations capital to the best colleges in the country. With each graduate success story, the SEED School model was challenging society to move from a conversation of Can we do it? to We know we