Stories
My World Has Changed Its Face
OCTOBER 21, 2020 My World Has Changed Its Face By Dr. Jodi Sister Carmen probably loved many things, but two stick out in my memory: The Wiz and affirming her…
Read More‘Let’s Rise Together!’ Why I Stand with Rise 189’s Call for Education Justice
OCTOBER 20, 2020 ‘Let’s Rise Together!’ Why I Stand with Rise 189’s Call for Education Justice By Shontay Ford Shontay Ford is a power-builder in WEPOWER’s East St. Louis Education…
Read More‘I choose growth’: My story of transforming an abandoned lot into a thriving urban farm, offering fresh food and jobs for my community.
JUNE 17, 2020 ‘I choose growth’: My story of transforming an abandoned lot into a thriving urban farm, offering fresh food and jobs for my community. By Tyrean ‘Heru’ Lewis…
Read MoreLearning to Sing
One afternoon in grade school my teacher made up a new rule: each student must finish reading a section aloud from their book before leaving the classroom that day. I couldn’t make it through a page. I was stuttering so badly. Then to add to my embarrassment, I caused my classmates to miss their bus.
Read MoreKrysta Grangeno: “Expanding quality access is imperative.”
Reporters with the Higher Education Channel interviewed a number of the Tomorrow Builders earlier this month to learn more about their efforts to reimagine and redesign our region’s early childhood education system to be more equitable.
Read MoreI’m calling on my neighbors to improve our schools, our homes | The St. Louis American
You’re looking at a miracle. I had open heart surgery and two strokes. I wanted to volunteer in retirement, but I never got a chance to because I kept staying sick. So once my youngest grandchild started school, I decided it was time to go do something. I told myself, “I’m not an old lady. I’m 61.”
Read MoreChildren are not problems to be solved, but humans to be loved | The Belleville News-Democrat
There’s the person you are, and then there’s the person people see. And for me growing up, there was always a big gap between one and the other. In school, people knew me for my behavior problems.
Read MoreA Conversation Between Longtime Eastside Residents, Marie and Sam
Our children are our future champions. Strip away the bad roads, the politics, the economics, and they are what East St. Louis is made of. We’ve got to make sure they’re acknowledged and recognized and taught that they are geniuses—that they can be proud of the place they’re from.
Read MoreWhy I care about East St. Louis public schools | The St. Louis American
Students show up to school with the trauma of systematic racism on their shoulders and are just expected to grow in an environment that doesn’t value them as human beings.
Read MoreTake it from this SLPS Parent: We need to talk about school funding | The Riverfront Times
Before starting at Gateway Middle seventh grade I was forced into motherhood. I had to figure out how to balance school and still have a child. One day I was Smart Alexis, and then all of a sudden I was Alexis with the Baby.
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