Momentum Isn’t Just Mass * Velocity
Hello! My name is Austin Fix and I am currently a junior at Rice University studying Mechanical Engineering. I started working with Momentum a little over two months ago when the work-study that I am involved in, America Reads, announced a partnership with Momentum Education. My role with Momentum is 11th-grade coordinator, so I will be mentoring high school juniors and guiding them through the college admissions process until they graduate high school and I graduate college next year.
Thus far, my experience with Momentum has been incredibly fulfilling and rewarding. As a white male who comes from a privileged New England background, I feel like I owe it to my community to give back. Up until I started working with Momentum, I did this through tutoring for Mathnasium in high school and at the Nehemiah Center before COVID. While this was definitely rewarding in itself, my work for Momentum has felt like it has made a much larger impact. So far, I have helped students prepare for the SAT, find scholarships and summer opportunities, and understand how to finance a college education. Momentum’s main goal is to ensure that 100% of Leadership Academy students complete the program and ultimately find a job after completing postsecondary education, and I’m confident that we are currently on the right path to achieve this goal.
In addition to being a gratifying job, working with Momentum has also been great because of the amazing team that I work with. One of the cornerstones of Momentum is that we are a family first and a workplace second. As such, I know I can always count on my teammates to be there for myself and many of my mentees if we ever need anything. Furthermore, everybody at Momentum will always do whatever they can to help, which is why they are working at Momentum in the first place. All in all, I’m grateful for the opportunity to be able to make a difference in our students’ lives and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us. I’d say we’ve definitely got plenty of momentum in the right direction!
