Rashid and Stephanie at the Teach For America dinner

Enjoy this great photo of Rashid and Stephanie at the annual TFA dinner, where they brought home the importance of dedicated, high-quality teachers who go the extra mile to transform lives.

Domus Academy shines at annual Teach For America CT dinner

This is a pretty terrible picture, but on the left on the big screen and on the right, brightly illuminated, you can see former Domus Academy student Rashid Whitley addressing the 500+ guests at the annual Teach For America CT dinner at the Greenwich Hyatt last night. TFAer and 2nd-year DA teacher Stephanie Sun also wowed the crowd with an inspiring and funny speech about what it was like to start a school from scratch. (Hint: Very interesting!)

But it was Rashid, more than another other speaker (sorry, Governor!), who brought home what transformational education is all about. Rashid started Domus Academy as "Ra-Ra," as he was known: lacking confidence and not interested in being known for academic success. Ra-Ra was not exactly on the path to big success. But with the persistence of DA staff, Ra-Ra realized he had it in him to be successful. He became highly focused on his grades, "stuffing [his] pockets with review sheets." He became Rashid: a student recognized for high academic achievement who believed in himself and knew he had a future.

Rashid reminded us why schools like Domus Academy and efforts like Teach For America are not just important but vital.

We must reach every student.

Every student can be reached.

We must never give up.

If we don't, we will miss turning Ra-Ras into Rashids, and Rashids can change the world. 

Good stuff coming up!

This Friday is Good-Standing Trip Day, with five of our students attending a fun movie outing in recognition of their hard work to keep their grades up. Many of our students, despite being intellectually capable, have not experienced school success, so treats like this serve to recognize their hard work, motivate them to push through tough times, and show other kids there are benefits to focusing on school. If you want to donate movie tickets or a few games of bowling to congratulate our students, they'd love that!


RED ALERT: On October 27th, our student will roll out, for the very first time, two songs they've written during our extended-day program. They're presenting their songs at Family Night--we'll post them after their premier. Help us grow our music production program by donating any instruments you have at home; a Stamford music store has offered to repair them for free!

"Give me one word which describes Domus Academy."

These were the instructions I put to our students at lunch. Some of their responses were really surprising, and funny, and interesting...some took their time, mulling over their thoughts, while others instantly had a word for me.