RIC Graduate Student Named 2018 Schwarzman Scholar and 2019 Gates Cambridge Scholar

“He is a shining example of the tenacious spirit and extraordinary talent I see in so many of our students at Rhode Island College,” said RIC President Frank D. Sánchez. “His thought leadership, global perspective and cultural activism will surely make important differences in public policy and in education for the foreseeable future.” 

Kokler, who will be graduating with an individualized M.Ed. in secondary education from Rhode Island College in May, will begin a fully funded, one-year M.A. degree program in global affairs, with a concentration in public policy, at Schwarzman College in Beijing in August. Then in the fall of 2019 he will begin a fully funded, two-year M.Phil. degree program in education at the University of Cambridge in England.

Kolker graduated summa cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in ethics, politics and economics in 2014. He worked for a social enterprise in Port-au-Prince, a waste pickers’ union in Delhi and a think tank in Washington before joining Teach for America (TFA) in 2015. 

TFA’s mission is to end educational inequity. One of the ways they go about doing this is by filling teaching positions at low-income schools that might not be filled otherwise, he said.

A native of Arlington, Virginia, Kolker chose Central Falls High School in Rhode Island to get his feet wet as a first-time educator. TFA corps members commit to teaching for two years and earn a teaching certificate at the end of the first year. While taking teaching certification courses in the evening, taught by RIC professors, Kolker earned his teaching certification and then went on to earn an M.Ed. at RIC.

Kolker described the TFA experience as “utterly transformative.” Fluent in Spanish, Kolker’s first year as a Central Falls High School math teacher consisted of teaching only special education classes.

The 25-year-old stated, “It was both the most challenging thing I’d ever taken on and it’s an experience that taught me the most. it challenged a lot of assumptions I had about what kinds of systemic changes in education are needed. I’ve learned to be a pretty competent math teacher, but more than that, I’ve been very inspired by a lot of the students and the families that I work with.”

“In my first year, I had students who worked two jobs, slept three hours and arrived at school early every day,” he said. “I’d get emails from students when there was a snow storm, saying, ‘Mr. Kolker, I got the text message and the phone call from the school district that school is canceled today but I walked to school just to be sure I wasn’t going to miss school, and I’m emailing you at the front door just to triple​ check if school is actually closed.’”

“The same students came in the day after the presidential election, asking questions like, “Am I going to be deported? Are my parents going to be deported? Are Latinos going to be allowed to go to high school in America anymore?’ They were really terrified and confused and angry,” Kolker said.

To give young people in Central Falls a public voice, Kolker decided to organize a youth trip to the 2017 Women’s March on Washington and to galvanize the Central Falls community to help fund the trip.

“I basically started sharing the stories of these students,” he said, “and the money poured in. The Providence Journal caught wind of the proje​ct and interviewed a few of the students and more money started flowing in. Ultimately we raised $10,000, not to mention about $40,000 of in-kind donations.”

Forty-two students from Central Falls and four other high schools along with six adults headed for Arlington, Virginia, Kolker’s hometown, where they were met with camera crews and a ceremonial dinner by the Arlington community. At the dinner, the student speeches were met with standing ovations. The following day, they joined the march on Washington.

“I came back exhausted but also changed,” said Kolker.

As an educator, ​the experience highlighted the importance of experiential learning, he said. Kolker modified his curricula to include real-world math projects, such as a Data Fair where students research a project that they care about, collect primary data, input the data on Google sheets (similar to Excel sheets) and present the data to school board members or to those who work in the mayor’s office.

“I think humans primarily learn from the experiences they have. You could certainly learn from the experience of reading a book or solving a problem or writing a paper but it’s very limited,” Kolker said.

The young teacher co-founded an after-school course on human rights and created a course titled “How to Change the World.” As he embarks on new challenges abroad, Kolker said he feels sadness in leaving his students yet looks forward to developing research on education and public policy from a global perspective and in an environment of intellectual engagement, professional development and cultural exchange.

As a 2018 Schwarzman Scholar, Kolker will spend a year immersed in an international community of thinkers, innovators and senior leaders in business, politics and society. All Schwarzman Scholars pursue a master’s in global affairs, with concentrations in either public policy, business and economics or international studies. The goal is to learn from one another while building their individual leadership capacities.

As a 2019 Gates Cambridge Scholar, Kolker will focus on comparing educational programs around the world – what our educational system is doing well, what could be done better and what changes are needed. He will also research ways to prepare young people to become citizens – participants in their democracy – and to feel a sense of belonging to a larger community.

About the Gates Cambridge Scholarship

Established in 2000 with a $210 million endowment gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gates Cambridge Scholarship was created to enable outstanding graduate students from outside the United Kingdom to pursue full-time graduate studies in any subject at the University Cambridge. Out of nearly 800 applicants from across the country, 35 were ultimately chosen this year. The program aims to build a global network of future leaders committed to improving the lives of others.

About the Schwarzman Scholarship

Established in 2016 with a $100 million endowment gift by Chairman, CEO and Co-founder of Blackstone Stephen Schwarzman, the Schwarzman Scholars program is built on the belief that whether in politics, business or science, the success of future leaders around the world will depend upon an understanding of China’s role in global trends. The program gives the world’s best and brightest students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and professional networks. The 2018 class consists of 142 students from 39 countries.