KIPP Delta Collegiate High School is ranked 2nd within Arkansas. Students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement® coursework and exams. The AP® participation rate at KIPP Delta Collegiate High School is 91 percent. The student body makeup is 41 percent male and 59 percent female, and the total minority enrollment is 96 percent. KIPP Delta Collegiate High School is the only high school in the Kipp:Delta College Prep School.

Medal Awarded Gold

National Rank #408 

State Rank #2 

Charter Rank #52

I am so proud to work at this school! Interestingly enough, the High School I graduated from was ranked #489 Nationally, showing that this low-income high-minority charter school in Arkansas can be just as effective as my high-income public school in Massachusetts! This just shows me that hard work and dedicated teachers can close the achievement gap. Truly inspiring. 

Privilege: As most people who are close to me know, I spend a lot of time grappling with and thinking about my privilege as an educated, upper-middle class, white woman from a two-parent household. I have a hard time accepting what I have been given because of the luck of my birth, and knowing that others were not so lucky and are treated unjustly because of nothing they can control.  

How this will affect my future: I think because of this guilt, I will spend my lifetime indebted to those who were not so lucky. My mom told me the other night that she had expected me to leave TFA and work at a large corporation, which shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did. I realized I could not envision a future where I am not working towards justice in a tangible way. Knowing that there is such unfairness in the education of young people, I don’t think I could live with myself knowing that I was born with the ability to have a hand in fixing it, and not using that God-Given talent to do the work. I don’t think I could ever work at a company or for an institution that wasn’t working towards equality in some way. So many times in my corps commitment I have come back to the notion that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. In a nation founded on justice and equality, there are so many communities and populations who are underserved and marginalized. How could one live with oneself if they know that this exists, know they have the skill set to make a difference in right-ing this, and not? 

I think also that the tangibility piece is especially important to me. In college, I confronted this because I was not interested in going on Mission Trips, but instead in going on Habitat trips. I alway stated that it was because when you leave a H4H build, you can see with your own eyes the exact impact of what you have done. This aspect for me is a requirement for the work that I intend to do. In teaching, I can see exactly what my students have learned based on their graded assessments. I know that I have taught them something new. However, in a future line of work, I am wary that I will not see the benefits and results of the work I am doing firsthand. 

In conclusion: I think this struggle with guilt and privilege is something I will continue with throughout my life. I will reflect on this and elaborate as my thoughts develop based on experiences. 

To look back at the pictures of graduation twelve months ago seems absolutely unreal. The last months of college were filled with carefree joy, without responsibility or burdens. It is amazing to me that so much has changed since then. The entire lens of which I view everything has dramatically shifted in the past year. Living in the rural, poverty-struck Mississippi Delta has changed my entire perception of privilege, my future aspirations, political views and my patience.

When asked about my life now, my typical elevator speech is this. “Teaching is a challenge. I don’t love it, but I am proud of it. I love my kids, I like Helena, and I know I am supposed to be here” Those all still ring true. I am proud of the individuals who work hard to secure a future of opportunity for the children I love so much. I am proud to live and encourage the values of KIPP. I love the children. Not at all moments, not without frustration, and not without disappointments, but at the end of the day, I care for these babies as if they were my own. I know their eating preferences, their sibling’s names, their strengths and weaknesses in the classroom down to the objective,  I know their friendship history. They are my family, and I want them to have every privilege and opportunity the world can offer them. I never want them to be judged by their background in a negative way, because their endurance and strength is greater than my own. Every child in every classroom of this country deserves a teacher that passionately cares about them, and the fact that that is so hard to come by is unnerving. I am scared to put the future of these children into the hands of the unknown. 

Similarly terrifying is the thought that a year from now, I may never see these children again. How could I leave my family behind? How could I leave their future uncertain? When they have become a part of my hopes, my heart and my thoughts. I’ve grown up far more than I’ve expected to in the past 12 months. The transition was unexpected and it forced me into adulthood and enormous responsibility without warning or preparation. 

Despite the challenges, this year has been incredible. In all honesty, most of it was spent thinking I couldn’t make it to today, May 25th, or whether or not I could handle a second year. I didn’t believe I was capable. All of the second years told me “it will get better with time,” and I didn’t believe them until slowly and gradually it got better. There were battles of disrespect, tears shed in front of students, bruises from children punching, biting and pushing me. There were power-struggles, late nights, early mornings, and every weekend dedicated to the achievement of these kids. I am so invested in them, that it was all worth it. Even if it is thankless work, it is work I want to keep doing, at least for one more year. 

At the conclusion of my first year, it feels bittersweet. It surprises me that most of it is sadness for how much I will miss my students over the summer. But there is a lot of excitement for time away and for all I know I can prepare to accomplish with my new class. I know I can be so much more successful and transformational for my students next year, and I can’t wait to see what is to come here for me in Hell-Town :) 

Hanging out during recess…

Cutieee

Lesson Planninggggg aghhhh

Delta Sunrise over the cotton fields!

Beautiful Helena

Bus ride!

One of my favorites! Hahha too bad he’s not smiling!