I hope you’re taking and giving good care. On April 19th, for the first time in over a year, we opened our school doors to welcome back students. After a year of severe disruption, I am so heartened by the reciprocal joy seen and felt between staff, students and families.

Recognizing the many challenges of teaching remotely, I have witnessed unqualified resilience and brilliance at each campus as staff, students, and families now navigate the logistics of safely transitioning students back to in-person learning. I have so much gratitude for our teachers who work hard each day to simultaneously engage students in-person and at home and am equally thankful for the operations teams who worked for months to prepare our buildings and ensure our team and family could meet this moment with ease, dignity, and confidence.

In this edition of the Whole Child Review, I encourage you to carefully read about the meaningful progress we have made with all 7 priorities. Three things I am excited about and want to emphasize are: the intentional support being provided to students through our SEL priority, the robust work being done under the priority of Cultivating Identity Development Practices, and the powerful Wellness Wednesday event entitled, Black Fathers, Mental Health, and Critical Thinking. I am also happy to share several staff features throughout this Review.

In gratitude, community, and health,

April

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Enrichment Programs
As part of our 4th quarter school plan, 40 minute enrichment periods were added to all K-8 students’ days. Enrichment classes are being taught by school-based staff and topics range from robotics to watercolor exploration to dance. Enrichment time was designed to offer students a creative and social-emotional reprieve during the school day. Check out the engineering work with Ms. Parker (KIPP One Academy) and the rock painting to spread positivity with Ms. Gates (KIPP Academy Chicago).

 
Mentor program:
KIPP Chicago On-Site Mentors are supporting the academic and social-emotional growth of primary and middle school students. The Mentors, comprised of KIPP alumni, parents, and community members, are in schools supporting teachers’ efforts to provide a positive hybrid learning experience. They ensure that students are fully engaged in learning by providing additional support in classrooms. Mentors are also providing academic tutoring for students in one-on-one and small group settings.

“She’s incredible. We wouldn’t be able to provide this quality of an experience for kids without her.”

– Danni Quider, Assistant Principal, KIPP Ascend Primary

Monthly workshop series for KIPP families:
We dedicated this year to holistic health and wellbeing for KIPP families. Each month centered on a wellness theme to be discussed in weekly workshops. The intention was that each workshop series would elevate, educate, and enhance our families’ wellbeing. By the end of the school year, we hope that our families will have resources and new information to support their mental health, physical health, and economic health.

The months of January and February highlighted food nutrition which included cooking demos. Our community partner was Erie Neighborhood House. In February, families cooked sweet potato quesadillas, banana splits, and apple nachos. The workshops included a 45-min presentation for healthy options, food groups, reading nutrition labels, the dangers of sugars and food coloring, and portion control. Following the presentation, families learned how to cook tasty heart healthy meals.

 
The month of March elevated mental health. KIPP partnered with RUSH University Medical Center to offer a month of mental health workshops. The series included managing grief and loss of loved ones and social engagement (including COVID); How to support LGBTQ+ youth mental health; Supporting your child’s mental health. Our goal for the Mental Health series was to provide resources and tools for our KIPP Chicago community to navigate the direct and tangential aspects of COVID in a healthy and supported manner.

 
April’s focus was Financial health, so we participated in Money Smart Week. Money Smart Week is a national public education program coordinated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and delivered by a network of supporters that empowers people with the knowledge and skills to make better-informed personal financial decisions around the key financial pillars of saving, borrowing and planning. In partnership with Fifth Third Bank Chicago, we expanded Money Smart week to Money Smart Month, which featured weekly topics: Financial Check-up 101, Savings and Budgeting, Protecting Your Identity, and Boost Your Credit Score.

 
The month of May centered legal “Know your legal rights” in partnership with Winston & Strawn we are partnered with Winston & Strawn Law Firm for a 3-part weekly series of legal discussions centering knowing your legal rights, careers for reentering society after incarceration, career development if you have a record, and careers in the legal field. Our goal for this workshop series was to offer families the tools and education they need to legally protect themselves, pursue careers in the legal field, and feel empowered to pursue new opportunities of choice.

 
KOP logo update
School Operations Leader at KIPP One Primary, Mr. Anthony Whaley, worked with our Communications Director, Brittany Jones, to create a new logo to represent the school and its values. Mr. Whaley was passionate about including school staff and families in the process so that the final resulting logo was truly a community collaboration. The new logo was presented to founding Principal Rashid Bell, as a tribute surprise!

We’re looking forward to seeing more new branding for KIPP Chicago! Our new Director of Brand Strategy & Communications, Brittany Jones, is working hard to ensure that our schools and special programs are represented with intentional logos and branding.

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1619 Project Pulitzer Center Grant
We are thrilled to announce that KIPP One Academy has recently become a Project Pulitzer Center Grant recipient! This grant supports exploring critical questions around racial justice and other pressing issues and was developed by award-winning journalists and the Pulitzer Center education team. The grant supports curriculum development and professional development for teachers. We look forward to utilizing the resources of the 1619 Project to reframe how history is taught to students.

The post Embracing an Inclusive and Challenging Curriculum appeared first on KIPP Chicago Public Schools.

Gratitude
With the wonderful generosity of Deborah Quazzo, Managing Partner at GSV Ventures and friend of KIPP Chicago, 500 individuals will receive a copy of the coloring book at this year’s ASU GSV conference in San Diego. KIPP Chicago looks forward to presenting at the conference in August! Thank you, Deborah, for supporting our endeavors to ensure quality arts programming for KIPP Chicago students.

Creative Schools Fund grants
Each year, a dedicated arts liaison from every school works with the Excellence team and School Leader to craft a $10k grant Creative Schools Fund grant proposal to bring meaningful art programming to students. This school year, KIPP One, KIPP Academy Chicago, and KIPP Ascend Middle School were awarded the grant to carry out various forms of arts programming. The grant helped these schools hire guest artists to teach in virtual classrooms, purchase custom-made creative workbooks and art supplies for students, and hire artists to add murals to school walls.

Installing CMASJ Artwork in Schools
As we continue to prioritize creating warm, welcoming, and affirming school environments, we believe student-created work should always be on display as much as possible. This spring, we installed our Activist Soup portraits, along with the bios of each person, to create a beautiful, meaningful, permanent fixture at all of our schools! Please consider a donation to our Go Fund Me to aid in our efforts to continue installing identity-affirming imagery in schools!

Duke Engage Interns:
We are thrilled to be working with three students from the DukeEngage program from Duke University this summer. The vision of DukeEngage is for students and faculty to collaborate with communities, locally and globally, to address critical social issues through an immersive summer of community engagement. This summer, our three interns, Axelle Miel, Victoria Wang, and Victor Clifton, will be collaborating with our efforts to elevate the work of CMASJ. We’re so excited to see what their unique backgrounds and perspectives will bring to our programming!

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A team of teachers, social workers, administrators, and regional leaders collaborated to create a 35-page student workbook full of creative writing, poetry, coloring, drawing, and SEL activities, designed to help students reflect on and express their stories of living through a pandemic.

The workbook was designed to be a tool to open up conversations among students and teachers and provide a safe space for processing the past year. All students are utilizing this workbook in the final quarter of the school year during homeroom.

 
RULER Progress

SEL chairs and social workers continue to train school staff on the principles of RULER, from Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, in preparation for utilizing the structures with students next school year. KIPP Bloom College Prep SEL chair, Darlene Santos, created an area in the teachers’ lounge with visual reminders of staff’s commitment to social and emotional learning and growth.

 
Intentional SEL practices
Our schools are working to create more intentionality around students’ social and emotional needs throughout the school day. In Primary schools, teachers are scheduling lots of movement breaks and guided stretches and breathing exercises. Schools are also reviewing development by grade level, noting the opportunities to adjust classroom routines accordingly. For example, learning that 4th-grade students become more interested in socializing with peers allows teachers to build more turn-and-talks into the day. Schools are also emphasizing the importance of free play and recess for our students’ development.

Space for helping students to re-center themselves at KBP and a student taking some deep belly breaths.

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Our school-based planning committees collaborated to exchange ideas and encourage one another ahead of this month’s virtual celebrations. Here are just a few examples:

The KIPP Ascend Primary K-4 Excellence team including Liz Lesinski (musical theater), Elise Thomm (visual art), Cortney Horton (PE), Jasmine Nicholson (music), and Ciara Phillips (explorations) worked with their classes to showcase examinations of Black History. The culminating video production was viewed live on Zoom for students, staff, and families to enjoy together!

 
The power of storytelling and exploring our roots was central to KIPP One Academy’s virtual event. 5th-8th grade students were invited to interview a family member to learn more about their ancestral history and how they ended up in Chicago. Students’ recorded stories were compiled into a video that students, staff, and families watched together virtually. Special thanks to the planning committee: Briana Jocelyn, Andrew Albert, and Sylvia Ibarra.

 
Congratulations to our Regional Black History Month art contest winners! This year’s theme was “The Black Family: representation, identity, and diversity.” These are two of our winners from KIPP Academy Chicago Primary! This beautiful art from Javell and Bria is now being showcased in all eight schools.

 
Our social media campaign featured Black History and Black Futures by highlighting people like Carter G. Woodson and Cicely Tyson and young people, Marley Dias and Tyler Gordon.

 
We also highlighted some of our teachers as they shared reflections on Black pride and what this month means to them. Here are just a few:

“I have traced my maternal lineage to 1849. I’m sincerely proud to know their names. As simple as this is, it is an accomplishment for African Americans to know the names of great great great grandparents and be able to trace our migration across the U.S. It’s a sad reality of our story. Still, I have pride in simply knowing their names.”

 
“My parents moved to the states after the war in Liberia. My grandma is doing research 24/7 to trace our other lineage and return to the early 1800s. It is an honor to have this information and be able to truly understand my lineage. What gives me pride is that I am able to provide students more information about Black history than I was taught in Naperville schools growing up. We are able to celebrate Black heritage through the present and the past.”

 
“When I was younger, I remember February always being my favorite month because we would finally talk about something interesting to me in history class. I remember a feeling that I was always Black, but that wouldn’t be appreciated until February. So I turned up my pride as a young child. As an adult, I find the most pride in learning about my history and culture and identifying how this impacts my daily life. Although I have learned to love and appreciate being the woman I am, I celebrate a tad bit harder in February and on Juneteenth.”
 

 
McNair Features:

Sylvia Ibarra

What are your aspirations in leadership and how do you see this fellowship helping you get there?
I want KIPP Chicago schools to be a community resource for students and families. I aspire to create a space in which parents and guardians are an inclusive part of the school’s culture. My goal is to lead an initiative in which adults and kids can simultaneously enroll in extracurricular activities that engage their respective interests. I believe the McNair Fellowship will connect me with the needed stakeholders in order to fulfill this vision.

This program is inspired by the success and life of Ronald McNair. In terms of your career, who is someone that you consider a hero/role model/inspiration?
There are many historical figures whom I have much to learn from and admire fondly. The non-conformity of Frida Kahlo. The power in Audre Lorde. The resilience in Coatlicue. However, none are more personally influential than my mother. I know the highs and lows of her journey. She is my push to keep going and my first and most important inspirational figure.

Tita Herrera

What are your aspirations in leadership and how do you see this fellowship helping you get there?
My aspirations in leadership are to make a meaningful impact and inspire others to reach their true potential. Knowing that I can’t change the world, my leadership aspiration is to impact someone’s world one person at a time. This fellowship will provide me the coaching and professional development opportunities to grow as a leader and manager. This fellowship will also grant me the opportunity to do a project of my choice to explore some of my passions. This fellowship will also allow me the opportunity to connect with other LatinX leaders from our region and the chance to build community with them. I am grateful to be a McNair Fellow and look forward to this incredible opportunity.

This program is inspired by the success and life of Ronald McNair. In terms of your career, who is someone that you consider a hero/role model/inspiration?
Growing up, my mother always told me to gain an education to think and advocate for myself. She said, “you can go bankrupt, you can have nothing to your name, but the only thing no one can ever take away from you is the knowledge you gained because with an education you can recreate yourself and do anything!” My mother is my inspiration, and role model because she immigrated into this country not knowing the language and with a peso in her pocket. Years later, she fought the Chicago Board of Education advocating for the needs of our middle school at the time – she demanded a Spanish interpreter to voice her concerns and be understood in the same language of those in charge. While my mother was in Mexico, she couldn’t finish high school because she had to help my grandfather on the farm. When she was studying for her GED, I was struggling my freshman year transitioning into college. She worked really hard for several years to learn English and earn her GED, but she accomplished her ambitious goals and I couldn’t be prouder. I am grateful to my mother for fighting for us to have a college degree and a better future. I am proud of her for believing in herself and my six sisters. I am eternally grateful for her sacrifices, firm commitment, and dedication to our family and herself

Miguel Rodriguez

What are your aspirations in leadership and how do you see this fellowship helping you get there?
I want all students to have a robust education that includes arts programming. Growing up, I was profoundly impacted by theater. It made me more engaged in school and put me on a pathway towards higher education and onto a career in education. Even today, I see the ways in which theater can move people to act, connect, and grow.

Since being at KIPP, I’ve been able to bring arts programming to students. I’d love to expand what we started at KIPP Bloom to all KIPP schools and the communities that we serve. I see the McNair program as the catalyst for seeing that dream come true. The fellowship is giving me the space to build skill and conceive the idea.

This program is inspired by the success and life of Ronald McNair. In terms of your career, who is someone that you consider a hero/role model/inspiration?
I’m inspired by my partner, Robbie. He not only shows me unconditional love and support, but he inspires me to be a better version of myself. Those of us in education know how difficult being an educator– especially these days. There have been many moments that I’ve wanted to abandon ship and move in a different direction, but Robbie reminds me of what brought me to this work. He also reminds me of my highest self. We were both raised by single, working class mothers. So having someone who reminds me of home and my values has been a saving grace while doing this work.

McNair Website Update
Check out the new page on our website, detailing the McNair program and introducing all of the fellows! This page will showcase highlights and progess as the group engages in professional development, retreats, and other growth opportunities. We’ll also continue to feature the fellows with each new edition of the Whole Child Review.

Schools Visual Updates
Before welcoming students back into school buildings, the Operations teams worked hard to ensure all areas were carefully and thoughtfully updated, from fresh new paint and safety signage to installing new vinyl stickers with inspirational messages. Then, teachers and administrators got to work adding photos, artwork, and decorating bulletin boards to ensure schools are filled with identity-affirming, positive imagery.

Teacher Spotlight

Asia Booth
On any given day, you can hear Asia Booth singing good morning warmly as she walks through the halls with her coffee, welcoming students and staff alike. Her classroom is a haven for students she teaches and ones she doesn’t. I’m not sure if she’s ever taught an entire class period without being interrupted by a student waving at her through her doorway. She insists on students taking pride in who they are and the efforts they make. She is a confidence builder, a creative genius, and a teacher who sees each student’s full humanity and potential. Her dynamic leadership is leaving a legacy of self-love, love of community, and love of learning for KIPP Bloom College Prep students.
-Brittany Jones, former Assistant Principal, KBCP

Why do you think it’s important to create identity-affirming, inclusive environments in your classroom? How have you created these spaces?
In my life I have found myself in spaces that encourage me to be myself and live to the fullest and I’ve been in spaces that demanded I fill a role to meet a norm. As I’ve grown, I’ve moved away from the spaces that put me into a box and I cling to those that allow me to be what I see as my best self. I recognize that I can be that safe space for my students and more. I know what it feels like to not be the norm of what you see around you, to desire something different, to feel a resistance to what is, a system that it set up to make us feel like we do not qualify. It is like going to the gift shop and trying to find a keychain with your name on it. Asia is not that special of a name, yet I can never find it in a space that is supposed to be designed to appeal to me. So how can I, in this space where children NEED to be to learn and grow, how can this space not reflect them? How can I expect them to be comfortable, when if they look around they see images that are not a representation of themselves. How can you feel comfortable enough to lay down your burdens and trust who is there in front of you to lead you if you cannot see yourself in the space around you. You have to change your thinking of what is appropriate, what is proper, how things should be done. You have to ask WHY…what is the reason it is done this way and most times you will see it is based in something that really does not matter or even worse, racism, and it is at that point that you have to realize that it should be a part of your everything to work against it. Then you take the first small step of ensuring that when your students come into your space they don’t see a “this is what you have to be, how you should look, what is acceptable.” There is just themselves staring back at them and they know, they don’t have to fit some mold or meet this unnatural standard, they just have to take in knowledge and continue to grow. They already are what they need to be great.

How do you support and encourage your students in creating artwork around identity?
When you are standing at the starting line looking at the task in front of you it can seem overwhelming. How do you teach a child to express themselves? How do you show them how to just be, to let it pour out of them? Being honest, I am a person who wants to control and ensure it is “correct”. As a teacher I want my students to get the answers right, but when it comes to creating, being creative about who they are, connecting with themselves, there is no right answer, it is just what it is. And so you step back and tell them to just be. Whatever comes out, put it down, if you want to scribble, scribble, if you want to say the same things over and over do it! Talk about happiness do it! pain, do it! Mix all the colors together DO IT!! When I think about art and what art is and helping students to see how they can put it out, I think about handwriting. Everyone writes differently. It is so unique you can identify a person based on their handwriting. So I don’t tell my students they have “sloppy” handwriting. I say it is art. In this constant daily way they are creating art. It’s as simple as writing your name. When it is put forth in this way, the children can realize that it’s just that. Put it out there, put yourself out there, however it comes out of you is fine! We are here to experience it with you or support and encourage you as you traverse it independently. Just know that you have it in you and in whatever form you want it can and will present itself. And then there is the acceptance. Students have to have a space where they can express and be accepted. You have to show them at times to be vulnerable. I truly enjoy presenting students with a task and then working to see what I will create and be vulnerable and share that with them. Some are willing to share right away, others open up slowly.

What growth have you experienced in yourself over the last 5 years when it comes to supporting students in identity development? What growth have you noticed in KIPP Bloom College Prep or in KIPP Chicago around cultivating identity development practices?
When you realize that students are missing out on something, you decide that if it is to happen, it will be you. I remember all the identity affirming experiences I had while going through school and I realized that my students were missing out on many things I thoroughly enjoyed. I remember engaging in art projects such as creative writing, drawing, coloring and creating with my hands. Performing for my peers and family, reciting poetry experiencing poetry and through it all an emphasis on blackness. The question was how could my students have the experiences I had… the answer was Booth. I have always said I close my door and I do my thing. I will admit that a lot of the identify affirming activities that I’ve done with my class were without asking permission first. I took on the policy that we would do until they told me NO, rather than asking and possibly being shut down at the start. From doing this I have been able to engage in various identity affirming activities with my students. My students within my self contained classroom have been challenged to do things they would not be considered or volunteer for. Year over year they have been expected to engage in weekly community circles, memorize and perform a poem for black history month program. Create poetry to perform for peers and families. Kippsters have engaged in the creation of self portraits that presented themselves as they want to be viewed, not just how the world chooses to see them. They have viewed themselves as black history and written their own biographies of greatness. In addition I’ve taken to putting forth images that emphasize blackness in what I saw as a rebellious way, because this was my protest. Bloom had many white walls, but when you walk by my door you see images of greatness, you see our kiddos represented, you see Blackness emphasized, you see a protest in action. And then this year for our return I was asked to create an image/message that was similar to something I created for Black history a couple years back. I have to laugh just a little because we’ve moved from my allowed, not asking for permission space, my classroom door, to this is what we want to be displayed, this is the message we want to put forth. It is encouraged and embraced. This is the space for you, this is the space for them. Let’s make this space a reflection of them so they can trust us to help them learn and grow. It is exciting to see the changes taking place and it is an honor to be a part of it. Even though I come from a place of not asking permission, because you should not have to ask permission to present yourself as you are, I realize that I was in the right space for this to happen. KIPP Bloom has come quite a way from what I remember 5 years ago and we will continue to grow. But the seed was always there..scattered hither and thither. It just took some rain and sun to help it to grow. I’ve never been told I was wrong, I’ve never been told to get back to the schedule, follow the routines. I’ve been allowed to be myself and through that I am allowing my kiddos to be themselves. If we step back to when I came into the picture, we can limit the view and see how we were “oppressed” what you would miss is always there, a space where once you step out, they will provide a foot hold. If it is to the benefit of the kiddos we will not stop you but encourage it and in this way I and Bloom have grown together. And we will continue to Bloom.

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January 29th regional community circle with Ayinde Cartman

Our first community circle of the year, Poetry for Progress was curated around elevating the Whole Child Initiative and served as our regional kick-off to Black History Month. This virtual circle, featuring Chicago poet and organizer, Ayinde Cartman, focused on our priority of food justice, and invited collective reflection on our vision for organizational impact through poetry, conversation, and joy. Inspired by what we all love most about being together and fueled by the input and perspectives of our many staff members, this time together was a place for meaningful conversation, inclusion, authenticity, and truth.

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At the start of 2021, we recognized the reality of ‘Zoom fatigue’ and worked to prepare once-a-month wellness workshops for staff, instead of several events monthly. We made sure to pack each Wellness Wednesday event full of thoughtful, meaningful content!

For February, we hosted a Black Renaissance with an artist panel discussion, led by Lawrence ‘Binky’ Tolefree, alongside a Zumba class. Participants could enter the virtual event and choose between the panel or Zumba and both spaces allowed for gathering together in community, whether through high energy or low.

In March, we centered the needs of women during our Womxn’s Mental Health Workshop, offering participants a choice between an Afrobeat Zumba class or a workshop with Simi Botic, a holistic health coach.

On April 28th, nearly 50 team & family members joined our virtual workshop centering Black Fathers, Mental Health, and Critical Thinking. Dr. Obari Cartman hosted the robust conversation with our KIPP panelists, Lee Fisher, Jarell Lee, Pete Gooden, and Ivyl Watts. Dr. Obari emphasized the need for Black men, in particular, to take care of their wellbeing by expressing their feelings, journaling, and creating space for mindfulness and meditation. Then the panelists weighed in on various topics from raising Black boys, the media, gun violence, police brutality, and breaking familiar patterns.

“It was great to have that space created in the first place. As a black father, there is a ton of duality that you have to operate in. You’re always conscious of everything. Being able to talk about it is great. I enjoyed having my white counterparts there listening in and growing their knowledge and empathy. The only way we ALL change is if we ALL learn.”
-Branden Bufford

“I appreciated this space for the diverse perspectives and experiences of the fathers on the panel. While we may all identify as Black men, we are not a monolith and can continue to learn from each other’s similarities and differences.”
-Pete Gooden

“It was powerful to reflect on the questions presented by Dr. Cartman, many of which I had never thought of before. It was also simply bucket-filling to engage in the conversations with the panelists and other community members. Looking forward to the next!”
-Jarell Lee

“One of the first things we need to do is just talk..we need to find the language and permission to say how we’re feeling…modeling a new way of being human….we have to dismantle these notions…it’s a human thing to express your emotions, the range, from shame to guilt to regret to anger to sadness and grief…if there’s no space to say it out loud, it all turns to anger. The anger is masking a million different things.”

“You can have all of these feelings inside, but once you write, once you get it out, there’s a relief that comes from documenting it, from releasing it. It can be a ritual, giving your feelings a space to rest, something else to hold it rather than your heart, mind, and spirit. If you don’t put it somewhere, it just ruminates…most of the men I know have a list of strategies to distract, to move away, like drinking, smoking…these things can be an
illusion of reprieve that’s different than the actual relief you get when you write.”

“Particularly for the young people, they are embedded in a social media world that is an experiment that we’ve never seen before. The amount of distractions from self that keep us away from the ability to sit still, to be quiet, to center ourselves, to listen to our intuition. Those kinds of things are critical to mental health, to wellbeing.

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KIPP Academy Chicago (KAC) hosted a virtual panel discussion featuring alumni in high school. Current KAC students joined to listen to the high school experiences of the panel members and ask questions to better prepare for the transition from middle school to high school. Thanks, Ms. Weldu and Ms. Dolan for hosting such an important event!

Alumni Features:

Chris Young, KIPP Bloom College Prep ℅ 2021, is a senior at Eastside College Prep in California and has taken dual enrollment courses at Stanford University. He’s been accepted to over 12 of his choice universities, including Clark Atlanta University, Columbia College, Seton Hall, CSU-Northridge, CSU-Long Beach, Mount Saint Mary’s University and most recently, Morehouse College. He wants to be a screenwriter as he loves all creative writing! His favorite artists include Ta-Nehisi Coates, Angie Thomas, and Nas. Chris has also written a novel that’s available on iTunes, entitled Unorthodox Fairytales. Someday, Chris wants to turn this novel into a film.

KIPP Forward recently concluded a 6-month long PD series entitled “Racing Together for Justice,” led by team member Jamie Hawley. In the last session, students from KAMS, classes of ’16-’20, were eager to lend their voices and joined the call chanting “Black Dreams Matter! Black Minds Matter! Black Feelings Matter! Black Hearts Matter! BlACK LIVES MATTER!”

Camryn Kyle (KIPP Create College Prep ℅ 2020) is a freshman at National Louis University. During her first semester of college, she earned an outstanding 3.67 GPA! Not only is Camryn earning incredible grades, she also most recently received the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship! With this scholarship, she is attending National Louis University for FREE! Camryn is studying to be a middle school teacher and has goals of also attending graduate school after her four years are complete at NLU. Who knows, maybe you’ll see her in a KIPP classroom in the future!

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