This past spring break I could picture myself doing a million other things besides my homework and staying up late to finish my midterm papers. As part of Breakaway, an alternative spring break mission trip focused on education, several other students and I set out to volunteer at a charter school named KIPP: Gaston College Prep located in the rolling Rockies of North Carolina. With a demographic of nearly 83 percent African-American students and almost 90 percent free reduced lunch, I didn’t know exactly what to expect going into this particular community. From primary school to middle school I was faced with various triumphs and challenges. I became a tutor, a mentor and a public speaker to name a few. Within every classroom I entered throughout the week, my education did not go to waste. I must express extreme gratitude to the teachers, mentors, coaches, and family who have guided me in becoming who I am today. One of the most shocking things about working at KIPP has been the disparity within charter vs. public schools.
As I tutored students in third grade to seventh grade with reading, essay writing, and math, I noticed a trend: failed reading comprehension. In my experience as an America Reads tutor, Ohio has a promise or agreement that all children must learn to read by third grade otherwise they will be retained. This notion of reading to learn was very evident in KIPP schools primary through middle school. Since many of the students at KIPP transferred from other of tri-county public schools, they have yet to master basic reading skills and lag behind in math as well. This journey has been eye opening to how privileged I have been to attend Catholic school most of life and to have teachers who went the extra mile to make sure we learned proper grammar and multiplication tables. And most of all, I am indebted to my parents who worked tirelessly to ensure the best possible education.
Despite the challenges, KIPP GCP is very much like my school, Denison University, with Keith Starr, 06’ an alum who is now the head principal, focusing on students as moral agents of change and college as the mechanism that will enable this change to begin. Although I have never really wanted to be a teacher, I recognize that the need for our children to succeed in college is enormous. As a result, this experience definitely won’t be my last encounter in Gaston North Carolina. The students at KIPP are bright, autonomous thinkers just like I am slowly becoming. As I went through presentations about my school, I recognized the world’s future lawyers, doctors, engineers, athletes, artists, computer scientist and so forth. With the consciousness of our children’s future I will use my privilege as a college student not to be a voice for students like those at KIPP but to guide these children toward crafting their own voice through their reading and writing their own personal narratives. Using this notion of the voice, I will leave you all with Ben Franklin’s voice, “ An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
