Commit to your passion
Angela Morgan
Angela Morgan (AB ’09, MA ’12) helps improve classrooms across America.
At a glance
Angela works for the KIPP Foundation, where she serves a network of 210 charter schools across the United States.
As data solutions architect, she works with school districts to ensure school leaders and teachers have access to relevant and timely data to monitor student outcomes and make instructional decisions.
Angela gives to SPIA’s applied politics program to help students prepare for their careers in government, campaigns, issue advocacy and public opinion research.
Her scholarship at UGA helped her complete her master’s degree. This financial support also motivates Angela to give.
“Politics is at play in our everyday lives in ways that we don’t even know.”
Angela Morgan
Angela Morgan (AB ’09, MA ’12) earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA). Today, she works in education – supporting charter schools across the nation. Although her career might not seem like the typical path for a political science major, for Angela, access to high-quality education for all is an important policy issue that increasingly plays out in our local, state and national politics.
“When people talk about politics, they tend to think about the presidency and they think a little bit about Congress,” Angela said. “But politics is at play in our everyday lives in ways that we don’t even know.”
Angela works for the KIPP Foundation, which serves 88,000 students in 209 KIPP schools across 20 states and the District of Columbia. Her ultimate goal is to see more students, especially those from educationally underserved areas, graduate from high school, earn college degrees and lead choice-filled lives. As a data solutions architect, she works with district and school leadership to ensure the effective use of data and technology systems that give teachers and leaders access to the data needed to drive gains in student achievement.
Angela’s career has spanned academics, politics and education – all of which have fueled her passion for education policy and reform. She credits much of her success to her experiences at SPIA and to the scholarship that enabled her to complete her graduate studies. Her passion for giving to UGA stems from the support she received as a student. Just as she has advocated for improved education policies through her career, she also wants to be an advocate for students by helping them afford their UGA educations.
Angela gives to SPIA to allow students within the applied politics program to engage in real-world political applications. Her recurring gifts to the Applied Politics Program Support Fund help fund programs that prepare students for jobs in electoral politics, advocacy and lobbying, polling and political data analysis. The applied politics program also exposes students to daily happenings in the world of politics, a must for those hoping to make a career in the field.
“I learned so much from my time as a SPIA undergrad and graduate student,” Angela said. “There’s not a day, especially now, in which something that I learned doesn’t apply to my work with schools and districts across the country.”
Through her work with the KIPP Foundation, Angela tries to ensure that school leaders and teachers have access to timely data and are adequately trained on the best ways to use data to improve student outcomes.
In addition to receiving the HOPE Scholarship for her undergraduate studies at UGA, Angela received the Charles S. Bullock Graduate Scholarship during her second year of graduate school. The scholarship reaffirmed her choice to pursue her master’s degree, made her journey more affordable, and served as validation for all her hard work.
“I didn’t have the resources to fully fund my undergraduate studies, so I definitely didn’t have the resources to fund a graduate education,” Angela said. “That scholarship was meaningful because it solidified my choice.”
“I knew that it was that bit of help that would get me over the finish line.”
Through her work with the KIPP Foundation, Angela tries to ensure that school leaders and teachers have access to timely data and are adequately trained on the best ways to use data to improve student outcomes.
“Education is a political issue, and I wanted to understand that issue from the inside,” Angela said. “I want to impact my community by using my technical skills to support charter schools in using data to make better choices on behalf of students.”
“There are students in our schools who, if they were not there, would have a very slim chance of attending college. I attribute KIPP’s ability to get results for kids on the importance placed on effective data use.”
–written by Josh Mixon ’19
What’s your cause? 100 percent of undesignated gifts to the Georgia Fund go to scholarships, allowing talented students in your field to pursue their education and discover how they can make an impact on the world.
