In Freedom Schools, culture and tradition are very important. If you don’t know your culture, you lose a part of yourself.

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What’s special about this camp is honestly the uplifting and emphasis on Black culture: how they want to embed into these children that you are Black, you are beautiful. You are Black and intelligent.

This Academy makes me realize that I am going to have a huge impact on these students’ lives.

The experience provides these students with tools and skills that they are going to end up using in the real world. It’s also going to help improve the skills that the students already know.

You learn here what you can do to change the outside world.

Freedom Schools Literacy Academy is really fun and interactive!

I learned the importance of leading by example and teaching with justice.

A lot of times the system causes our sisters and brothers to be forlorn and out of pocket, but that’s not their fault.  If you give them the tools, they will rise to the challenge. They want to succeed.

I would recommend this experience 100 percent to my friends because it was not only fun, but it exposed me to new ideas.

I would encourage them to join the education profession for the sake of their own education.

I want them to know that it is crucial for them to stand up and speak out about the unfairness of the system but most importantly, be the change.

My experience with Freedom Schools Literacy Academy afforded me so much confirmation that I was on the right path.

The start of my teaching career began during the pandemic. Yet in a time of great uncertainty, the work I got to do with the Freedom Schools Literacy Academy as a Servant Leader Apprentice confirmed that I was right where I needed to be.

Freedom School Literacy Academy really taps into what being Black is and embracing your blackness.

Making sure we get more Black teachers into the education system is what stuck with me the most and what made me want to come to this program.

I liked the cultural focus. It’s important to know the history of the school-to-prison pipeline system, how literacy rates inform the likelihood of prison involvement and things like redlining. There are rules and policies that create these systems. 

Freedom Schools allowed me to see all the parts. It’s not just about school. It opened me up to all the different aspects.

Freedom Schools Literacy Academy helped solidify my passion for teaching and has expanded my capacity for intellectual work.

My goal is to make the world a better place, secure the future for younger generations and to help mold the minds of future brilliant thinkers who can continue to improve the world.

I see Freedom Schools Literacy Academy as an opportunity that is a door that leads to a corridor of more doors.

What interested me in taking the role as a Junior Servant Leader was having the ability to motivate children to learn and also to get a better understanding of the history of education attracted me.

It is my ambition to become a teacher when I grow up.

Working with the Center for Black Educator Development pushed me to expand my views on literacy and inspired me to take a course on literacy when I returned to school. 

Overall, being an SLA has increased my passion about the education of Black children and pushes me to do well in my own life in order to contribute to the well-being of my community.

Freedom Schools is a direct way to be an activist for your community.

Teaching these kids what is right, how to love each other and advocate for themselves.

I want to see more Black teachers!

My ultimate vision is to have more Black educators in cities that may not be predominantly Black.

I think it is important for Black youth to pursue a career in the education industry because I see it as an investment for the future of our people.

I understand that it is crucial that Black boys and girls know that someone sees them, loves them, and believes in their innate genius.

I would like to see Black teachers reclaim their wholeness, continue to create sustainable institutions that unearth the work of the ancestors, demand critical thought, and listen to the communities in which they serve.

Freedom Schools Literacy Academy was liberating. I could be authentic all the time. I never needed to dim my personality or code switch and was able to be who I am and to connect to my students in the way I felt was needed and necessary.

I want to be what I had growing up as an educator, so I want to instill that sense of pride and expansive knowledge.