When Frances Misano was 10 years old, she got nominated for an educational prep program that would change the course of her life.

And by that, I don't just mean her two Harvard

degrees or her fancy places of employment. No, I mean an ethos about the role of education and the role

of luck in shaping opportunity and the lack of equity in both that would propel her to her job as

a newly named president and incoming CEO of New School's Venture Fund,

where she provides dream capital to those who are working to imagine a more equitable education

system in this country.

Frances, growing up, what were the messages you were getting about education?

I grew up in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

So for me, growing up, it was a strange place because we did have this, like, really iconic set of places nearby.

And, yeah, the neighborhood itself was actually very much a working class low-income neighborhood. And there was then this gated community called Seagate. And I happened to

live two blocks away from Seagate. And so I felt like the community of Coney Island was sending me

all kinds of messages. And those messages were, you grew up on the

wrong side of that gated community. You grew up on the wrong side of that fence, right? There wasn't a ton of

careers and educational opportunities right in Coney Island. And so what I found is that at home,

my parents had to create this environment that fortified me and my sister, right?

The whole reason why we moved to Coney Island was because there was hud housing available.

My parents could actually afford to buy a house with a patch of grass and live in a community,

and they really wanted that for us.

My dad worked at EPS for 35 years.

He was a box order.

He literally took a box on a conveyor belt and said,

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