Today we’d like to introduce you to Jazmine Allen.
Jazmine, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
As a black woman who grew up in Detroit, MI, it is my mission to highlight excellence in urban communities, which have largely been marginalized in educational settings. I believe that we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. As a result of my beliefs, I have taught only in urban and underserved areas with students who look like me, who have similar backgrounds as me and who have the unlimited potential that I have – that we all have.
I accepted my first teaching job at the American School of Santo Domingo as an English Teacher. Over the next five years of my teaching career, I would work at Mingus Mountain Academy (Prescott Valley, AZ), American Heritage Academy (Cottonwood, AZ), and Mumford High School (Detroit, MI) where my success was marked by passing AP scores, above-average ACT scores in English, Reading and Writing and marked college acceptance rates for my cohort of students.
After completing the Achievement Leadership Institute with my district in conjunction with TNTP, I became a Dean of Students and focused on creating community partnerships, decreasing the suspension rate and restructuring in-school suspension to be more restorative. I moved to Lynn to work with KIPP as an Assistant Principal and have been here since.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The journey within education is a journey that takes physical, emotional, and mental tolls on anyone who comes along for the ride. And, it isn’t just the long nights grading and planning, it isn’t just the pressure in the urgency to execute those lessons in order to impact achievement. There are external factors that impact underrepresented and underserved students. There are mindsets about students and families in these communities that are shared by educators and outsiders which promote the internalization of those beliefs and circumvent the plan to liberate through education.
Here’s my advice: anchor yourself in the reason why you do what you do. The purpose of an anchor is to prevent a body from drifting due to wind or current. There will be metaphorical winds and currents that will try to move you, but stand strong and be unapologetic in your pursuits. Sometimes, you will feel alone. Embrace the loneliness and the uncomfortability because that is when you will truly grow!
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about your business – what should we know?
I’ve spent my entire career in education and I don’t know that I’m “known” outside of my students, their families and the school communities in which I’ve worked. I could speak to ACT scores or AP scores. I could speak to college acceptances, scholarships and matriculation through post-secondary institutions. But, what I hope people remember me by is my unparalleled commitment to liberate black and brown people through education by ANY means necessary.
Which women have inspired you in your life?
I take inspiration from two women: Mignon Hayes and K.C. Wilbourn. Both women are strong black women and powerful figures in different aspects of education. When I was first given the opportunity to teach AP English Language and Composition while leading the English Department at Mumford High School, Hayes was warm and demanding in her push for me to achieve excellence in my practice and excellence in student achievement. At the beginning of my career in educational leadership, Wilbourn epitomized what it meant for a woman to be unapologetic in her pursuit of equity. She was fierce. Her mere presence commanded respect. When she spoke, people listened and I wanted to be just like her. For children, she didn’t take no for an answer.
Both women have contributed to the constellation of metaphorical stars that represent my “Drinking Gourd” in education, the reference point to prevent me from getting lost in my pursuit to completely liberate black and brown people in this country through transformational education.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.foliotek.me/77znv72
- Phone: (313) 600-2711
- Email: jazmallen@gmail.com
Image Credit:
Jazmine Allen
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