Recently in collaboration with City High School and the
Belin Blank Center at the University of Iowa we have started a new effort
called Project Achieve. This program is
for high achieving minority students that are under-represented in Advanced
Placement (AP) and upper level courses. City
High is farther into the process than we are having met with their students a few more times. I have the fortune of working with City High
Principal @jbacon23, City High Guidance Counselor Linda Hoel, @SouthEastjhic
Guidance Counselor @BrianPIngram, and my wife @Drkkdegner, who is the
administrator for Iowa's Online AP Academy, on this project.
I remember @casas_jimmy telling me about a conversation he
had with 2013 NASSP Principal of the Year @TrevorLTGreene and when Trevor said,
“everyone deserves to be part of something great.” This has stuck with me and I am always
considering this perspective when thinking about all of our students. We are hoping to work with this group of
students and show them that they our great and can and should be part of something
great.
Our first meeting @SouthEastjhic included hosting @drkkdegner,
some University of Iowa students from National Society of Black Engineers
(NESBE) and City High Senior Soumba Traore.
She talked to the group about her experience in taking upper level
courses at the high school and why she believes it is important they do
so. She talked about owing it to her
family and wanting to make them proud.
The best part of the luncheon that day is how she connected with these 7th
and 8th grade students and gave them an example of somebody that is
doing it and living it. I was so
impressed by the passion and resolve she showed these students and the time she
spent talking to them after the meeting. One of the long term goals is to hook the junior high students in with a high school mentor that continues the message Soumba started.
You could see a visible change in how these students exited
the library (no it wasn’t from the pizza) after hearing from these different
groups of people. They were beaming with
pride knowing that they are being recognized for the work they are doing. It is
amazing what happens when you just tell students you believe in them and they
can do it! Never forget the impact these conversations can have.
Finally, I was reminded by reading a post by @danpbutler
this morning that we don’t always have to have everything figured out to get
started either. In terms of this project
we are not sure of how it will all come together but we did know that we needed
to get started on this important work. I am truly excited to see how this project
takes off and the impact that is could have for the long term.
