By Yoshi Chiang
How does one go from being a pre-med double major in college with an eye on consulting work to pursuing a career in urban education? The choice was an easy one for Anderson alumnus Hrag Hamalian (FEMBA ’14.)
Through research he conducted for a professor at Boston College, Hamalian saw dismal education data associated with urban schools throughout the country. Owing much of his success to public education, he found it difficult to ignore the statistics and opted to correct his own course and become a corps member of the Teach for America program, teaching ninth-grade biology at Locke High School in Watts, one of the most violent and underperforming schools in the country. Though he realized that the majority of that school’s teachers and administrators worked to make a difference, and while he saw great teaching happening in classrooms, Hamalian became frustrated enough with the educational options provided to his students that he left Locke at age 23 and opened his own school, with a focus on putting low-income students on the path to college.
Following completion of a master’s in education from Loyola Marymount and a competitive year-long fellowship program called Building Excellent Schools, Hamalian applied the basics he learned about charter school startups to found Valor Academy Middle School, a fifth through eighth grade charter school. Its mission was to ensure that the low-income students in the Southern California communities of Panorama City, North Hollywood and Arleta would have the opportunity to attend college and pursue their dreams. The outcome: “Valor has become one of the highest performing middle schools in the LAUSD, irrespective of income or demographics, and has won a number of accolades for our unique approach to education,” Hamalian says. He was also awarded the Gold Award for the alumnus of the decade at Boston College, his alma mater, as a result of his work at Valor.
A Unique Perspective
Hamalian believes that a background in education and business is critical to managing schools adeptly and focusing resources on serving students in the most efficient manner. That prompted his interest in attending Anderson’s FEMBA program.
It was during this academic pursuit that he broadened his own organization’s impact, merging with another charter school organization called Bright Star Schools, which enabled him to launch a second school, Valor Academy High School. His counterpart in the merger, executive director of Bright Star Schools Ari Engelberg, is also an Anderson alumnus and co-founder of Stamps.com. The two met years ago at a conference that assessed how schools were using data to lead to organizational and educational improvements.
Throughout the years they had worked on various projects together and provided each other support with crucial challenges. “We also attempted to create an umbrella organization together that would allow independent charter school organizations to help each other operate more efficiently and remain sustainable,” he explains. “When that effort presented more complications than solutions, we decided to serve as an example of effective merging in charter schools and brought our two organizations together.
“Aside from the obvious advantages in operating as a larger entity — including being able to build a back office that supports accounting, finance, marketing, enrollment, facilities and more — our schools have been able to collaborate and push each other in the academic and cultural realms to reach new levels of success.”
And the future? “We’re trying to build more than just great schools,” Hamalian says. “We are trying to be innovative, try new things, and lead new initiatives, as education is a constantly evolving landscape.
“In the communities we serve, school is more than just the place you go to get an education. We hope to eventually provide K-12 programs that provide wraparound services to families. Though we’ve made long strides in this direction, we still have a long way to go.”
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