Growing up in Phoenix, AZ, Tony Ruan (BF ‘25) was a proud student in the public school system. Then, in his freshman year, the Red for Ed teacher strike––a 2018-19 nationwide education workers’ strike––came to fruition. Many teachers from his school dressed in red and rallied at the state capitol, demanding salary raises and increased education spending that matched the national average. None of those demands were fully met, but it opened a conversation about teachers’ rights that spurred Tony’s political awakening. It has also informed his studies at Yale, where he majors in Political Science with a concentration in Labor Studies and pursues an Intensive Certificate in Education Studies.
Specifically, Tony’s interests in Education Studies include public school funding and teacher unionization. He’s eager to explore the role of “teachers as activists and advocates,” which he thinks can fuel civic education. Further, Tony enjoys the broader political and ethical questions sparked by public school funding. “[These questions] give us a chance to critically interrogate the political conditions that create and sustain our education system, further calling into question how we prioritize, value, and allocate resources for our schools,” Tony says.
Outside of the classroom, Tony has immersed himself in education policy. He worked in the Yale Policy Institute’s Education Center during his first-year and led as Co-Head the following year, fostering “an incredible partnership” between the Center, the New Haven Federation of Teachers, and the undergraduate student community. Now, he serves as Co-President of the Institute, supporting the year’s Education Center Projects. In the summer of 2022, he also worked at SEIU 1973, the union representing over 4,000 community college faculty and staff in Connecticut.
In the future, Tony hopes to teach in Arizona public schools and complete a PhD studying labor and education politics. His end goal is to become an academic “working primarily in a public-facing role,” contributing to social movements and advocating for local, state, and national issues.