Thank You For Being Such A Vital Part Of Our Team, Anna Treesara! We Look Forward To Sharing More About You So Others Can Get To Know You Better!
Tell us a bit about your backstory and what led you down your current life path.
I was born and raised in the city of Chicago, am a child of Thai immigrants, and have always been passionate about education and accessibility. The options presented to me were teacher, doctor, and lawyer, and I couldn’t help but be drawn to teacher, feeling this overwhelming desire to use my skill sets to make some sort of lasting impact in the world. However, as I ventured into the real world post-college, I felt increasingly disillusioned by the limitations of the classroom walls and was compelled to discover what opportunities existed beyond those walls. As a result, I found myself transitioning into various environments where I could make a larger impact in education, including workforce development, education technology, education research, and founding my own tutoring and career coaching company.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career?
My parents were the catalyst for my career in education. Their immigration journey and the adversity they faced have always been my guiding inspiration. My mom loves to tell the story of how I came home in 1st grade after learning my long and short vowels. I spent the time teaching her about these vowels, thus helping her improve her overall pronunciation and understanding of the English language. While I’m no longer a traditional classroom teacher, it was this pivotal moment that has led me to a lifelong career in education.
What is one thing you are proud of achieving in your life and career?
I’m very proud of founding my own tutoring company and seeing it evolve over the years. After graduating college and spending several years in the classroom and then at a nonprofit focused on workforce development, I found myself wanting to create something for myself. Thus, Tutoring Tree, LLC was born in November 2019, and while it predominantly started off as a company that provided tutoring services, it has now evolved to include career coaching and consulting services, specifically supporting teachers/educators transitioning out of the classroom as well as coaching managers on leadership and people operations best practices. I love being able to leverage my experiences in order to help others discover new paths for themselves.
What do you like to do in your free time?
In my free time, I love to read! I even have my own book club called Brunchin’ Bookworms where we eat at different restaurants all over the city and discuss the books we’ve read. We switch between fiction and nonfiction every month, and since starting this book club back in October 2018, we’ve only managed to repeat a restaurant once!
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? What is it and why did it resonate with you?
Unleashed is one of my favorite leadership books that is really rooted in how to uplift and empower others around you. A phrase that is constantly repeated throughout the book is, “It’s NOT about you.” A lot of what I read in this leadership book guides the way I lead and manage others to this day.
The road to success is difficult and requires tremendous dedication. What advice would you give to a young person who aspires to follow in your footsteps and emulate your success?
Failures and support networks are truly essential to discover the path to success. Our society doesn’t do a great job of showing how valuable failures actually are. One of my favorite phrases is, “Fail forward.” Essentially, when you fail, that is not a setback. Rather, that is an opportunity to move forward given the lessons learned from the failure. Whether it was when I first transitioned out of teaching or decided to start my own company, I had to fail a few times and figure out what did NOT work so that I could eventually figure out what DID work. Being able to zoom out, reflect on this, as well as tap into my support networks was key so that I could continue moving forward toward success. Do not underestimate the power of human connections.
Please share your favorite Life Lesson quote. How is it relevant to your life?
One of my favorite quotes is “Practice makes progress.” I consider myself a perfectionist in recovery. It has taken me several life failures, both personally and professionally, to understand that I can’t be perfect, but I can continue putting forth the best effort possible, and that will ultimately result in progress forward.
Why did you choose to be a Board Member of Educate. Radiate. Elevate.? *
I chose to become a Board Member of Educate. Radiate. Elevate. because of my lifelong dedication to education. As a former teacher, I have always been drawn to opportunities to create a lasting positive impact in education, thus leading me to work in various environments including workforce development, education technology, education research, and founding my own tutoring and career coaching company. While I’ve appreciated and enjoyed my professional journey in education thus far, I continue to want to broaden my reach whenever possible and see several opportunities to do so through becoming a Board Member of E.R.E.
What about the Educate. Radiate. Elevate.’s Purpose, Mission, and Core Values speaks most to you and why? *
As a child of Thai immigrants, I have always recognized the power of education. However, in order for education to be powerful, it also needs to be accessible, which is what I feel E.R.E. tries to do and speaks to in the Purpose, Mission, and Core Values. Specifically, as explicitly stated in the mission, E.R.E. aims “to minimize the disproportionate learning losses for low-income students of color to provide economic, social, and emotional stability for the youth served, their families, and their community.” This greatly resonates with me given my background and experience, and I’m honored to have the opportunity to be a part of such an important mission.
What are the essential skills one must have to grow and scale a nonprofit like Educate. Radiate. Elevate.? What qualities do you value the most when building out teams and resources?
The essential skills one must have to grow and scale a nonprofit like E.R.E. include being organized/efficient, being empathetic, and being a good leader. When building out teams and resources, I highly value the ability to think in a systems-oriented way while also balancing this out with empathetic leadership. In order to successfully grow an organization, both are two important pieces of the puzzle.
