Aaminah Norris began her Education Pioneers fellowship in the Summer of 2009. Her placement in Alameda Unified School District as Project Manager required her to assist the Superintendent and Executive Staff in the development of a five-year strategic plan to offset a multi-million dollar budget shortfall. Aaminah created a strategic planning process to generate sustainable funding and address AUSD concerns including student achievement, under enrollment, and community engagement. Aaminah is pursuing her M.Ed. at the University of California, Berkeley, her concentration area is Language, Literacy, Society and Culture. Her interest is in literacy for social justice, equity, and access for underrepresented students both in and out of school contexts. The correlation between social justice curriculum, quality teaching, and student achievement is of primary importance to her. This interest stems both from the trajectory of her 15 year career in education and youth development both in schooling and out of school contexts, and her passionate belief that education is a civil right. Prior to study at CAL Aaminah's work experience included school site administration, classroom instruction, not for profit program management, fundraising and development.