New Leaders: Giving Tuesday

As many of you know, I am VERY dedicated to my work at New Leaders. At New Leaders, we train educators who are passionate about the communities and students they serve and transform them into principals who have the belief, the drive, and the skills to turn around schools.

What if every child attended a great public school?

What if there were a team of leaders in each school with the skills to support academic excellence for ALL students?

What if these leaders already exist–and they need your support?

This holiday season, I hope you will join me in supporting New Leaders, a national non-profit where I am a proud staff member, as part of Giving Tuesday, a national movement beginning December 3rd encourage people to give back during the holidays.

We at New Leaders recruit outstanding educators from across the country and develop them into transformational principals and leaders for students in high-poverty schools.

In the Bay Area, one such outstanding leader is Shawn Benjamin of Leadership Public Schools–Richmond. When Shawn arrived as assistant principal in 2005, the high school’s culture was broken: students had seen a churn of principals, violence was common, and parents felt angry and betrayed. Shawn became principal in 2007 and first focused on school culture, creating an environment that was safe and nurturing. She then drilled down into learning and teaching, raising the academic bar and making sure that every child was pushed to his or her fullest potential. LPS–Richmond is unrecognizable today: it was awarded a silver medal in U.S. News and World Report’s “Best High Schools in the US,” a designation given to only 9% of high schools nationwide. LPS–Richmond is now a place where over 200 AP exams are taken each year and 98% of seniors are accepted into college.

“LPS–Richmond has helped me by preparing me for college and life,” says student A’myia Proctor- Johnson. “Ms. Benjamin and the staff at LPS Richmond are dedicated to providing the students with the tools they need succeed .”

Every student deserves a Shawn in his or her school. We are proud of the more than 1,600 New Leaders we have trained serving over 350,000 children in high-need neighborhoods across the country. But there are many more children in need of a great leader. By 2020, New Leaders will develop 3,000 leaders to prepare 1 million students for success in college, careers, and citizenship.

Our New Leaders need your support. This holiday season, our goal is to raise $15,000 locally to continue our work. I hope you will support New Leaders by investing in training more leaders like Shawn.