Faces Of New Bedford #155: Josh Amaral

Meet Josh Amaral, New Bedford School Committee member and Assistant Director of Fuel Assistance and Planning at PACE. Josh spent his entire life in New Bedford, graduating from New Bedford High School in 2011.

Upon graduation, he attended UMass Dartmouth majoring in Political Science with the thought of one day pursuing law school. In his last year at UMass, he began his campaign for School Committee, hoping to make a positive change in the direction that the department was heading at the time. After being elected to the School Committee, he was elected by the community to the PACE Board of Directors, and later took a full time role with the agency as Assistant Director of Fuel Assistance and Planning.

After being elected to the School Committee, Josh and his peers began working diligently to bring reform to the school department. Since working with the committee, he has helped usher in a more professionalized and systemized structure to the school department. They’ve developed better budget management practices and have focused on meeting the needs of the students.

His hope for the future of the department is to bring back the prestige that New Bedford High School once held. Although the school’s conditions and performance have been improving in the last few years, he knows there is still much to be done. Josh hopes to introduce more vocational aspects to the school, allowing students who may not see themselves jumping head first into college the ability to gain skills that will get them employment directly out of high school.

“Work hard, dream big, and give back.” – Qualcomm founder and New Bedford native Irwin Jacobs quoted recently at the ribbon-cutting of the Irwin Jacobs Elementary School.

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Faces of New Bedford is a project by Colton Simmons. If you are interested in booking a shoot or getting prints from the series email all inquiries to colton@coltonsimmons.com.

Read more of the Faces of New Bedford series here.