In 2007, Ofonedu-Ime Goodwyn was two years out of Columbia Law School, working long days and earning six figures at Wall Street law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan.

But when his high-school mentor asked Goodwyn to come back to the Quaker boarding school and serve as director of student activities, the real estate attorney jumped at the chance. His mother and two of his four siblings are educators, and child advocacy has always been at the front of his mind.