3:30

Welcome and Housekeeping

3:40-5:00/5:15 PM

Micky Bondo, Portland School Board Vice Chair and  In Her Presence Co-Executive Director
Micky will be presenting on:

• Forms of immigration
• How immigrants value education
• Immigrant parents as educators
• Duel-generation of learning
• Why we need diverse books
• How to empower immigrant children through literature and your teaching

Lastly, she will share the experience of In Her Presence parents reading and answering your questions on the books Wherever I Go and Feast for Joseph.

Micky Bondo was born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Educated and trained in Belgium with a master’s degree in Biochemistry, she also holds two Associate’s Degrees in Business Administration and Education. Ms. Bondo arrived in the U.S. in 1996 and later moved to Portland in 2009.

Since arriving in Portland, Ms. Bondo, who is fluent in English, French and Lingala, has served as a medical interpreter, assisted the City of Portland Public Schools Multilingual and Multicultural Center, and currently serves as a parent lead for Portland Empowered, which champions under-represented students and parents voices across the Portland Public schools.

In addition, she co-founded and runs a nonprofit called “In Her Presence,” an organization she co-founded that focuses on empowering immigrant women. Ms. Bondo is where she is the program’s director.

Ms. Bondo also serves on the board of Opportunity Alliance and is involved with United Way’s Thrive2027 Council and Goal 1 Cabinet, which focuses is on quality early learning experiences beginning at birth, so that all children are reading at grade level by the end of third grade.

The mother of five children, Ms. Bondo has navigated and supported three of her children through the Portland Public Schools as a parent partner, mentor for Make It Happen! and as a Deering High School PTO parent.

Ms. Bondo’s belief is: “Public Education is a platform for all students from different social status and racial profiles to thrive and access high quality education by exposing them to opportunities that will open doors to break the cycle of poverty and build a better ecosystem where students from diverse backgrounds will prevail.”

Ms. Bondo has served as the District 1 representative to the Portland Board of Public Education since 2018.

Please be sure to watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk, “The danger of a single story,” and read the four-page handout, Dual Generation Strategy Initiative, to be prepared for Micky Bondo’s presentation.

5:25 Exit Ticket