Aspire

by Alyssa Furth ’13

aspire

Muchas Gracias to the Class of 2012 for their $14,000 donation to Aspire! The class voted to keep the proceeds from their fiesta-themed carnival fundraiser within the Hathaway Brown community and help ensure more girls have a chance at success.

Photo credit: Kevin Reeves

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“I get to be with 100 students who want to be here, learning, all summer long. That’s just awesome.”

Sharon Baker, seventh grade English teacher, English Department Chair and Director of the WEST Fellowship Program at Hathaway Brown, lights up as she talks about her time at Aspire. “Here, they have an opportunity to be smart,” she says. Passion radiates as Baker talks about the three-year summer program that gives middle school girls from underresourced public schools the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and realize their academic potential.

According to Baker, many of the shy, quiet, “good” girls are ignored in the schools they come from; Aspire gives these girls a safe and loving environment in which they can learn and thrive. Shannon Jeffries, Aspire alumna and now apprentice teacher, describes her experience: “We all wanted each other to do well and succeed … It’s important for middle school girls to be here.”

What really sets Aspire apart, though, is its two-part mission: Where girls learn to lead, and people are inspired to teach. There is no other program in Ohio that gives the college students the same opportunity as the Aspire teachers have to learn and grow. Rather than assisting as they would in other programs, college students lead in the classrooms and create a five-week core curriculum to teach to the Aspire girls. With the guidance of directing teachers who have professional experience, these apprentice teachers come up with their own lesson plans and conduct classes each day. It’s an experience that many of their peers will not get until much later in their careers.

It is clear by the number of teachers who have gone through the program that Aspire has done something right. Since its inception, the program has served 175 faculty from schools all over the country, including Vanderbilt, Bates, DePauw, The Ohio State University and Smith College – 87 percent of whom say that Aspire has solidified their decisions to choose careers in education.

Serving as Directing Teachers and Deans, a number of faculty from the HB community are involved as well. Chris Franc, who has taught in the third grade for 12 years, is a Directing Teacher of social studies, while Baker, in her fifth year at Aspire, is Dean of Directing and Apprentice Teachers. Beginning her teaching career at East Technical High School in Cleveland, Baker knew she wanted to stay connected to the urban school district.

She chose to work at HB expressly because the Aspire program would give her the perfect opportunity to do so.

“Same-sex education—I think it’s incredibly powerful, and I just thought, ‘I have to know these girls,” Baker says. A longstanding member of the program’s admissions committee, she has served as Dean of Junior Teachers as well as a Directing Teacher in language arts. It is clear she is excited to be working in her current role, closely advising the teachers, helping them to develop their ideas and hone their teaching skills. “Teachers love to talk about teaching” she says. It’s evident right away that she feels the same way.

Everyone involved with Aspire is infected with passion, inspiration and love. As you walk through the halls, you can feel the girls’ excitement for learning and leading bubbling from every direction, and spreading quickly to any stranger who visits.

Aspire works because of the support and energy the community members give to each other and the commitment the students and staff have to learn, to lead, and to work together.

To learn more about Aspire and to view a slideshow of the 10th Anniversary celebration, visit www.hb.edu/magazine.

HB

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Aspire was created in 2002

by Cammy Dubie ’88 and Koyen Parikh Shah. Following in the footsteps of the five founding sisters of HB, these two women paved the way for girls in Cleveland to have an equal opportunity at education and leadership as their male peers.

The program has served 394 girls coming from 28 Cleveland area elementary schools since its launch.

Aspire is a feedback-rich environment that provides layers of educational mentorship for its teachers and encourages them to flourish. “It’s a life-changing experience,” explains Jefferies, a psychology major at The Ohio State University. The Directing Teachers can sit down and critique the Apprentice Teachers immediately, and that kind of learning experience is hard to match. “Constructive criticism every second of every day … It’s just so valuable and rare,” Baker says.

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