The MCIULearns Podcast
The MCIU Learns podcast is where education leaders, innovators, and experts share insights and best practices to elevate learning and empower schools. Each episode features thought-provoking conversations with thought leaders, presenters, and program directors from Montgomery County Intermediate Unit (MCIU) and beyond. Whether we’re discussing cutting-edge programs, professional development strategies, or the latest trends in education, our goal is to inspire and build capacity in educators, administrators, and all those passionate about improving student outcomes.
The MCIULearns Podcast
The Future Speaks: Voices for Education Take Action in 2025
Three high school students from Lower Moreland share their experiences participating in Voices for Education, a new MCIU student program connecting students directly with state legislators to discuss educational policy and advocacy.
Voices for Education is looking to expand our reach next year as we work to empower student advocates and connect them with policymakers who can help create meaningful change.
What jumped out to me was that you can want things from each party and you can be civil about it, and you can still fight for your cause.
Speaker 2:Hello Montgomery County and welcome to the MCIU Learns podcast. My name is Brandon Langer and I'm the Director of Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at Montgomery County Intermediate Unit in Norristown, pennsylvania, and this is our conversation with ed leaders, thought leaders, people in the space of education working to improve outcomes on behalf of students and with students and teachers. I am really excited today because we launched a new initiative this year called Voices for Education, and I am joined today by three amazing young women who are going to be sharing their experience with Voices for Education. So we'll start here with Arwa. Introduce yourself, maybe your year in school and what school district you're from.
Speaker 3:Introduce yourself, maybe your year in school, and what school district you're from. Hello, my name is Arwa Muniruddin. I am a freshman at Lower Moreland High School and I am also the class secretary.
Speaker 4:Hi, I'm Vika Grinberg. I'm a senior at Lower Moreland High School and I am hopefully going to college next year.
Speaker 1:Hi everyone. My name is Anne Tran. I am a sophomore at Lower Moreland High School.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So we got Lower Moreland well represented today and you were all here in at our first meeting in person in January when we launched. And I think I'm going to start here with Vika and ask you a question just about what you what? Why did you sign up for this? What, when your staff or someone came to you and said, hey, you want to be a part of this. What stood out to you about Voices for Education?
Speaker 4:We're actually like heard here and the issue we don't have the same meeting every time. We cover different issues and plus we actually have like today we had state reps and so we're actually talking to people who make legislature. Meanwhile, in our other group, we weren't really doing much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm curious, you know, in terms of you're a freshman, you know this is obviously the first time we're doing this, but from your perspective, what's your biggest takeaway? We had state reps here today. We've been meeting in small groups. What have you enjoyed so far?
Speaker 3:I think we always hear, like okay, your voice will be heard, but we don't really understand that that is the truth. But this made it clear, like especially when the senators were talking and saying that they really got into advocacy at a younger age, even the middle school age you realize that that is something that is truly attainable as children and young members of society.
Speaker 2:And what year are you? I'm a sophomore You're a sophomore, so second year in school. Curious if any of that speaks to you or kind of what you've, what your takeaways from today and our early sessions have been.
Speaker 1:My takeaway is I think that going to these meetings, I was like I'm able to be heard by real people who actually have an effect on my education and I'm able to tell them what I think is important, what I think my peers need, and I feel like, um, students really don't have that opportunity, especially because, like there's such a like, I feel like a lot of my friends have like a stigma around like representatives and how they don't listen to students because they're just kids.
Speaker 2:But I feel like here we really have the opportunity to get listened to and to be able to say what's on our mind and what we want well, I think the hard part too, when you're young and you're in school is most of the school is not voting age and sometimes there's a perception that young people won't be heard because you're not yet you know checking a name on the ballot when we go to vote.
Speaker 2:But one of my takeaways today is, in hearing some of the passionate speeches from the reps and senators, is that that's actually not true. I think they very much value what students say. The hard part I remember when I was in college and kind of realizing, is how slow change actually is. You know how hard it is actually to make meaningful change. And in our virtual session last time, if you remember, there was a guest speaker from California who shared about mental wellness in a nonprofit that she had started, a program that she had started. That was one that stood out for me. You know, based on our meetings today, what has been the thing that stands out the most like in terms of segment. We've done conversation you had with a peer from another school. I'm kind of curious. We'll start here with Arwa. You know what's the thing that stands out to you in your mind?
Speaker 3:As students, we're noticing very clear issues with mental health, and although we say, yeah, we're going to advocate for mental health, it doesn't really happen, and I myself have noticed an immense increase in the number of suicides that have occurred, especially within the last five years. This is a trend with people from many other school districts and just about every single person I talked to did agree and they also believe that we need to find ways to help people who need it and we need to have a more proper system for intervention when needed, and our identification of the warning signs needs to be a lot quicker. And, finally, the quality of places for rehabilitation needs to improve a little bit, just to make it a little bit easier for people to heal and in order to eliminate the stigma around mental health.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, vika, a thought.
Speaker 4:I think that, again with the state reps and the senators that we had today, that it really puts into perspective that they're just people. And they brought up a good point, which I've been bringing up a lot at these meetings, which is that you don't have to vote for the people who are currently in office. They are elected. You do hire and fire them. It really is that simple If you don't like them, you don't have to vote for them.
Speaker 4:So, really like, if they're not responding to your emails which Madeline Dean is our rep and I email her all the time and she always responds, so I will be voting for her. I'm 18, so I'm a voting age um, if they don't respond, you don't have to vote for them. If they're not covering the issues that you want them to cover, you don't have to vote for them. You can get rid of them if you don't want them. There they're not voted in by 100 of the people, so sometimes even a few votes tilts the percentage and just seeing them in person, like seeing them talk. They're very passionate about what they do, which is a good thing. Um, cause, not everyone's that passionate about their jobs. Some people are just doing jobs to do them and not. I know that not every state rep is that passionate about their jobs as well, so it's just nice that we got the opportunity to talk to them.
Speaker 2:They're very friendly people, so yeah, which is interesting cause we don't necessarily have that view of politicians.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I can even say that too, in my work with the intermediate unit, we get to go work with them a lot. We do a lot of events with our state reps and legislators, and I will agree with you, by and large, montgomery County has a great passionate set of representatives and senators, particularly as it pertains to supporting education. Anne, I'm curious for you what stands out from our first three meetings that we've had.
Speaker 1:So what stands out to me is that, like, I feel like right now as a country, we are pretty divided, but after speaking to the senators and the representatives, I feel like, even though we're divided, there's still, like, so many people fighting for our cause and fighting for what we need, and I feel like people, people like draw a very clear line between the two sides and I, and it's like if you're either this or this, but I feel like both sides have some aspects that one person, like one person, could want things from both sides, and they don't have to necessarily be a democrat or republican. What jumped out to me was that you can want things from each party and you can be civil about it and you can still fight for your cause.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 4:I mean, I feel like it's a newer trend that we're so divided and back where when Kennedy was president Roosevelt, fdr, it was very common for the two sides to talk to each other, to pass bills together, and now we're so divided that it's really hard to get anything through the House and the Senate and even if the House passes it, the Senate shoots it down. So yeah, it's just nice to see people that are like actually friends and they're talking to each other, like Joe sure what's his last?
Speaker 2:name Cerisi.
Speaker 4:Cerisi isn't our representative, but he was really nice to me. He gave me a lot of good advice. So even though he doesn't represent me, I know that he still has my interests in mind, and I know that they're communicating with each other because it's not like a Republican Democrat issue. It's that we're we've gotten so far on the political scale from each other that there it's impossible for them to talk to each other anymore.
Speaker 2:And I agree with a lot of what you just said. I'm going to challenge you on one piece of it, because I think there's a perception that we're more divided than we've ever been when there's a reality of our history where, you know, people of different races couldn't sit at the same table and there's a time of our history where you know you referenced Kennedy, I mean somebody shot the poor man, you know. I mean like clearly we have had issues politically over time. The thing that seems to have changed from my perspective and again, I'm obviously older than the three of you, but what's changed in my time is just watching how quickly we get information. So, back long ago, you'd hear about something months after it happened because it moved through horses and carriages carrying mail right. Then there's a time where the TV came out, where you'd hear about it on the evening news or on the morning paper. Well, now you hear about it within minutes or seconds of a major event happening and then, to your point, ann, you're dead on. We feel like we have to choose one or the other, when there's still more to be learned in many cases, and still we need to.
Speaker 2:I hope with nothing else as you guys finish out this year and go through our program. You understand that there is a spectrum to understanding an issue. It is not as cut and dry as just this or just this, and I love that the three of you have all referenced something of passion for yourself, but also referenced something you've learned about the process Mainly what you just said about how passionate the reps are and how much they care about what they're doing, and that's really, to me, what our time together is all about. Final question what is something you hope to, either through this program, our opportunity to go to the Capitol in June and talk with reps about or, longer term in your life, what's an issue of importance? I'm going to start with you again. I know you mentioned and we can go back to mental health if you'd like, but just why is that important to you mentioned?
Speaker 3:and we can go back to mental health if you'd like, but just why is that important to you? So mental health is I've watched it affect my friends, I've watched it affect their families, and it's not just one of those things where it hurts one person, it does, it shakes a whole community, maybe even the whole world, and so that's one issue that I think needs to be resolved before well, as soon as possible, simply put. And the other issue is the gap between neurodivergent students and what's considered the standard in education. Having elementary school age students get what they need will just contribute to a more productive society and more educated individuals.
Speaker 2:Yep, absolutely, because that's where it starts. Same thing happens with literacy skills, right. We focus on when they start manifesting, which is late elementary, middle and high. The time to address that is in kindergarten, first, second grade, right? So that's, you're dead on, anne, something that you hope to either advocate for in June or take forward with you.
Speaker 1:Well, what I hope to take forward with me is that talking to the reps today gave me like a new sense of confidence that I can talk to these people and actually be listened to. Before this, I was kind of unsure of if I reached out to them they would respond back to me, or if something I cared about was actually worth mentioning to these people, if, like if, it would get done if it was put in their hands. And now, after talking to them and after talking to you guys and seeing how hard you guys work with them and work by yourselves, I'm glad to say that I'm able to be confident in what I want to change, and telling other people and advocating about what I want to change Awesome, I love it.
Speaker 4:I think it's really important to be able to iterate your opinions correctly and eloquently. I got voted most opinionated for senior superlative and it's not necessarily a bad thing. But when people told me that they voted me most opinionated not because I was outwardly opinionated but because I didn't let my opinions be disrespected I felt sort of like a sense of pride. And because we're going to Harrisburg, we are going to have to iterate our opinions to people who might not necessarily like them, and it's a skill to be able to pressure someone politely into an answer if they might not, even if they might not agree with you.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I really appreciate the three of you sitting down to talk. I really appreciate you joining us for the first year of this program. I know that for two of you hopefully you continue and we're going to have a great trip to the Capitol but thanks for sitting down to share your views and the work you're doing back in your district. You know, again, it's a process. There are things I'll be advocating for for the next 50 years of my life. Right, I mean, that's just how it works. There are some things that we can affect and change in the more near future, but ultimately it starts with and he said I believe that I can do this. So kudos to all of you for stepping up for this for this first year and thanks for joining. Thank you, Bye, Thank you.