From Poverty to Purpose: Why I Launched a Business in Family and Community Engagement

by Marcela Andrés, Guest Blogger

🌌 Looking Up at the Stars 

I didn’t grow up dreaming about education. As a little girl, my dream was to become an astronaut. I’d stare at the stars, wondering if another world existed beyond the one I was living in - one where my mom didn’t have to work three jobs, where we weren’t piecing meals together with WIC checks or food labeled with bright orange stickers.

My mom, a single mother and immigrant, poured everything she had into giving me a better future. She worked by day, studied by night, and made sure we knew education was our way forward. One day she told me, “I will break my back to make sure you get an education.” Thankfully, she didn’t have to - and I did get an education.

Austin, Texas with Mama

💼 Detour Into Finance 

I earned my first degree in Business Administration from St. Edward’s University. I was drawn to finance - not just because I admired the women in sharp suits, but because I believed financial success could help rewrite our story. By 25, I had bought my first home and was thriving in insurance and real estate. To be clear, growing up poor, money seemed to be what brought happiness. I was so wrong!

Life did what it does - it nudged me toward my purpose.

🇲🇽 A Life-Changing Move

In 2008, I moved to Torreón, Coahuila, for what was supposed to be just three years. When I was driving around in the community, I saw both wealth and poverty around me and it made me reflect on the reasons my family eventually immigrated. This “pause” in my career brought me to a bilingual school first as a tutor, then as a classroom teacher at Colegio Inglés Torreón.

I fell in love with teaching -  and with the families who reminded me of my own. And to my students, you taught me one of my life’s biggest lessons - the power of a high-quality teacher makes a difference.

Because I didn’t want to lose momentum in my finance career,  I started working on my MBA at the Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila. For the first time, the majority of my classmates looked and spoke like me in a higher education setting. They were all so brilliant and working across different industries, some accountants, engineers, executives, and one was a teacher - fittingly, her name is Lucero, which in English means Light.

When I returned to the U.S. in 2011, I had a choice: return to a lucrative career or help open schools in communities like the one I grew up in. Both offers were on the table and I knew my time in Mexico had a reason.  I prayed hard, and I mean hard, even asking God a few times if He was sure because financially it didn’t make sense to pursue a career in education.  I even asked if He’d seen my financial projections with the new insurance agency I was poised to launch.

But in a moment I know God was directly speaking to me, I overheard my mother say, “muchas veces nos enfocamos a mejorar nuestras propias vidas y se nos olvida mirar haci atras y ayudar a los que vienen.” Which translates to:

“Many times we are focused on improving our own lives, but we forget to look back and lend a hand to those who are behind us.”

My life went from poverty to prosperity because my educators, family, and community members worked together so I could succeed.

I chose purpose over profit.

🏫 Schools, Families & The Spark 

Opening and operating four schools was no small task - but it brought me closer to my calling. I worked hand-in-hand with families, supporting them in ways that felt deeply familiar. I saw my mother in so many of them - loving, resourceful, and resilient, even if they didn’t engage in the “traditional” ways schools expected.

I had the privilege of working alongside four exceptional school leaders: Katie Hayes Antelo, Laura Farber, Matthew Frank and Nicole Seltman. Through their example, I learned firsthand the critical role that strong leadership and operational excellence play in driving academic achievement. They also demonstrated, day in and day out, that families must be engaged as true partners at every stage of the educational journey. Together, we ensured that every school event was thoughtfully designed, not only to communicate essential information to families but also to make certain they felt valued, seen, and respected as integral members of our school community.

In my role, I was honored to collaborate with school leaders, families, and community members. I witnessed the transformative power of authentic partnership, where trust, mutual respect, and shared responsibility created the conditions for student success. This experience reinforced for me the very formula that helped my own family break the cycle of poverty: education powered by humanity-centered partnerships with families and communities.

My curiosity and commitment to lifelong learning led me to seek out more of this “magic”-and I discovered an entire field dedicated to family and community engagement. This field recognizes that meaningful, two-way collaboration between schools, families, and communities is essential for student achievement and well-being, especially for those from historically marginalized backgrounds. Through this work, I have come to understand that when families are key partners, schools become stronger, and students thrive.

🎓 From Harvard to DE 

Researching frameworks and reading article after article, I continually encountered the work of Dr. Dr. Karen Mapp, Professor of Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, whose research and leadership in family and community engagement are world-renowned. Her scholarship and practical frameworks have shaped national conversations on how schools and communities can partner to support student achievement. This influence was pivotal in my decision to apply to Harvard, as I was eager to learn directly from a leader whose work bridges research and practice so effectively. Immersing myself in Dr. Mapp’s course, I absorbed her insights on building authentic partnerships with families, understanding the systemic barriers to engagement, and leveraging community strengths. Her approach expanded my skills by providing both a theoretical foundation and practical strategies for cultivating meaningful, equity-driven family-school partnerships.

During Dr. Mapp's class, I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Stephany Cuevas, now Assistant Professor of Education at Chapman University, whose expertise centers on Latinx family engagement in higher education contexts. Sharing a similar background, I was naturally drawn to Dr. Cuevas, who not only served as an inspiring role model but also set a high standard of excellence.

The flexibility of my master’s program allowed me to further customize my learning across Harvard’s schools. I studied with Robert Livingston, Lecturer in Social Psychology at Harvard Kennedy School, whose research on unconscious bias and organizational diversity taught me the impact of systemic inequities and how they show up in organizations, including schools. From Todd Rogers, Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a leading behavioral scientist, I learned how behavioral insights can be harnessed to design interventions that empower families to support student success, such as improving attendance and homework completion. Marshall Ganz, Rita E. Hauser Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing, and Civil Society at Harvard Kennedy School, illuminated the power of narrative and community organizing in building collective action for change and helping learn some of the most profound lessons on community work.

Professor Paul Reville, Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and former Massachusetts Secretary of Education, provided a comprehensive view of state policy and its impact on educational equity and reform. Additionally, I had the opportunity to learn from Dr. Karen Brennan, the Timothy E. Wirth Professor of Practice in Learning Technologies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and director of the Creative Computing Lab. Dr. Brennan’s expertise lies in the design of learning experiences in K–12 computer science, with a focus on constructionist learning that cultivates learner agency and creativity through designing, personalizing, sharing, and reflecting (T550 for life!!) . Finally, Dr. Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a distinguished sociologist, introduced me to the Ecological Systems Theory by Urie Bronfenbrenner and the methodology of portraiture, both of which enriched my understanding of the complex interplay between individuals, families, schools, and communities.

Learning from these distinguished scholars not only deepened my theoretical knowledge but also equipped me with actionable frameworks and tools. Their collective expertise expanded my capacity to design, implement, and evaluate family and community engagement initiatives that are inclusive, culturally responsive, and grounded in both research and lived experience. I'll be sharing in more depth about my learning in future editions so stay tuned!

Later, I was recruited to lead a statewide family engagement program for a Texas nonprofit, Raise Your Hand Texas. A huge thank you to Mr. Charles Butt, owner of H-E-B for personally writing me a letter uplifting the important role families have in their children’s education and giving me the opportunity of a lifetime to design a state-wide family engagement program, Raising Family Partnerships, for Texas.  In every interaction I had with him, he made it a point to ask me about my work with families, for which I am forever grateful. And to all of the amazing leaders who opened their schools and communities, I'm so proud of all the work we did together.

And drum roll….in 2019, I launched designEDengagement, PBC, a culmination of my lived experience, my academic training, my research, and the deep work I’ve done in community. At DE, we don’t just design programs and learning experiences - we codify pathways from poverty to purpose. I’ll tell you more about our work in the next newsletter :)

💛 Inspiration Along the Way 

• Mrs. Tavasoli and Teachers, my childhood teachers, whose care and connection never left me.  Thank you for seeing in me what I didn’t see in myself and sharing knowledge to expand my growing mind.

  
  

• Graciela, our neighbor who, despite a language barrier, helped in every way she could. I am forever grateful for you.

  
  

• My community, whose joy and pain I carry, and who still inspire my work.
  

• Today’s children, who are navigating a heavy world - I feel responsible to help level the playing field for them. And am grateful that this word is not done alone.

  
  
  
  

💼 Entrepreneurship Isn’t Easy 

Running a business is hard. I've self-funded, stumbled through the unknown, and lacked models in my own family. But every challenge has been worth it. Why? Because I’m building dreams in community - and that makes all the difference.

🔥 What Keeps Me Going?

I stay grounded by knowing our work matters. I get messages - sometimes from God, sometimes from strangers - that affirm our impact. And this year, that affirmation came through recognitions like: ✨Celebrating 6 years in business!!! ✨ Female Founders 500 ✨ 100 Women to Know in America ✨ Enterprising Women ✨

These awards don’t belong to me alone. They’re for all of us. They’re proof that partnerships grounded in humanity work.

100 Women to Know in America, Scottsdale, AZ 2025

📩 Coming Up Next

In the next edition, I’ll take you behind the scenes of what DE actually does and share some key systems-level lessons we’ve learned from working with schools, districts, and states across the country. (Yes, I’m a systems nerd!)

Thank you for reading, for being part of this journey, and for letting me keep it real. Drop me a comment - let me know what resonated.

Let’s keep building dreams. Together. –Marcela

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This inspiring journey is cross-posted with permission. It was originally published by Marcela on May 8, 2025 here.

Marcela Andrés is the President and CEO of designEDengagement, PBC and the author of Purposeful Educator Connections: Five Principles to Strengthen Relationships with Students (Routledge, 2023). Her educational career was initiated in Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico, where she served as a 3rd and 4th-grade educator at a bilingual elementary school. Marcela has a passion for the transformative potential of connections, working to create an educational ecosystem where every student succeeds. Learn more at marcleaandres.com and reach out to her at marcela@designEDengagement.com.

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