When the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, Pedro A. Rivera, visited Cabrini University on Tuesday, Oct. 25, he told students, “We’re preparing you for a world that does not yet exist.”
Rivera came to campus to share his expertise on leadership and education, serving as an Executive in Residence—a program sponsored by the Nerney Leadership Institute at Cabrini.
“You are going to be leaders in a world that we can only imagine,” Rivera said to students about grasping leadership and career skills in a constantly changing world. Still, the foundational skills of becoming a leader remain the same—commitment, believing that you can, listening to what others feel is important, and nonverbal behavior are a few of these skills Rivera discussed.
Born and raised in North Philadelphia, Rivera is the first member of his family to graduate from college. After graduating, he went into education, serving as a classroom teacher, a staff member with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, an assistant principal and principal, and the Executive Director for the School District of Philadelphia before moving his career to Lancaster, PA, to serve as Superintendent of the School District there.
In September 2014, Rivera was honored by the White House as a Champion of Change for his efforts to transform urban education. And in January 2015, Governor Tom Wolf nominated Rivera to serve as the Secretary of Education, which was confirmed by the State Senate in June of that year.
After his campuswide presentation, Rivera sat down with Cabrini’s Dean of the School of Education Beverly Bryde, EdD, to discuss Cabrini's impact on education in Pennsylvania.