Colin Powell School
Colin Powell School graduate and former Community Engagement Fellow Charity Reeves recently participated as a panelist for our alumni chat on Child and Youth Development careers. Charity has dedicated her time to reconstructing tools and methods for teacher-parent relationships while also focusing on youth education. While a Community Engagement Fellow, she created her own youth development program, "Harlem Reading Project", now "Mighty Readers", which facilitates harmonious relationships between teachers and parents while building up the reading skills of youth. In response to the pandemic, the project has migrated online, and Charity has been working with her local community network and parents to instill a more effective approach to managing and understanding Google Classrooms. Charity's experiences at the Colin Powell School as a Community Engagement Fellow enabled her to fulfill her passion to serve marginalized communities while focusing on childhood education.
Where are you from and what is your background?
I am originally from the Virgin Islands, St Thomas and it is awesome there! I moved to NYC when I was 12 or 13 and I honestly can say I still hate NYC. When you go from an island to NYC there’s just no getting used to it. The summers are too hot and the winters are too cold. But there really is nowhere else like it. It’s so convenient, you can eat anywhere you’d like, there are so many opportunities for advancement. It’s really about: how hard are you willing to work?
I initially thought I would be an artist, and I applied to LaGuardia. It was so heartbreaking, I did an on-site drawing test and bombed it. I went to Talent Unlimited high school, the cousin of LaGuardia, for singing. I then fell into teenage things and my life changed. During my senior year, I met this guy who became my boyfriend and at the time I didn’t take college very seriously. I got into Norfolk University, and I needed to send $500 to secure my spot, but at that point I had spent all my money on prom. I missed the opportunity to go, and then I found out I was pregnant, and it threw a total monkey wrench into my plans. My mentality changed completely, my main focus was I needed to grind and work hard for my daughter.
When I first applied for City College, I got rejected. It sparked something in me where I felt dedicated to go to CCNY and get in. I started with BMCC, and they tore into me and put me in remedial everything. I thought I was so set with everything and they really just offered as much constructive criticism as possible. BMCC whipped me into shape, managing my schedule, attending classes, re-doing high school. I got my grades up to 3.0, and then finally got into City College. My son was a City College student, too—at the Early Childhood Education Center.
I started volunteering at my local church. These elementary students and middle-school students were hanging out until around midnight. We as a collective began to play games with the kids. That’s where my passion for young people started. Eventually, the kids started asking for help with their homework, and that’s when we realized the kids couldn’t read. We started going to their Parent Teacher Conferences. The principal asked what I was doing there, and I said I had come since the student’s mother didn’t. The principal said the mom never attended the meetings, which I understand because their parents were overwhelmed. So I started going to the meetings, and talking to the parents of the kids to help navigate their learning and reading processes.
What brought you to City College and the Colin Powell School?
I started in education, thinking that was the right path for me, but then realized that I didn’t want to be a teacher. I ended up taking a course on the sociology of education. I wanted to understand the family dynamic, and the learning of a child. I love CCNY because I could pick and choose what I wanted to learn about to help me in helping children. So I would learn these things at CCNY and bring them back to the afterschool program. My research project was based on the “Jam Kids”, and we would make cute little videos. I was very intentional: I didn’t want it to be a church program, I wanted it to be inclusive to all no matter what race or gender. We got people to fund the program, and it was amazing that we could build a team together just from what I learned at CCNY. It has just been such an amazing journey.
What was your concentration at the Colin Powell School, what is your passion or purpose behind pursuing this concentration?
It was initially Psychology, then it was Sociology which showed me the way the environment shapes the person you are. Psychology is the individual and the world, and Sociology is just the world and how it affects the person. That’s what I wanted to understand about the person: what they are learning on the street that’s shaping them into who they’re becoming. I wanted to learn how I could integrate more helpful tools for their growth. In the Sociology department, Professor Gwen Dordick is absolutely amazing, I love her! She was that professor who drove it home for me. She’s just so rounded in so many areas, and she encourages you to think. I feel like she was the first professor as a Sociology professor to make the students leave those emotions at the door, and to leave those stereotypes and biases when looking at the world.
And with Sociology, a lot of people can get stuck in their own personal biases and find it hard not to bring how we were socialized. She really blew my mind and allowed us to see how our own biases can really cloud our judgment. That helped to push what I was doing, because initially I was blown away at how little reading skills these kids had, and I immediately began to wonder how I could help. Then I started talking to teachers, parents, and the DOE. I got numbers, and it showed how low socioeconomic communities struggle, because the correlation between the environments they’re in and schools they’re in contribute to education levels, and it’s all layered. But if I really want to tackle the problems, then I need to go with the facts, not the emotions side of it. We have to observe the way we view things.
How would you say the Colin Powell School has helped you to get where you want to be?
The teachers I engage with really care. I’ve gone to school before and you can be in a class and leave and get no experience. But with every class in the Colin Powell School, I left impacted, and my life was changed in some way. My thinking and mindset was changed. These professors are invested in what they teach and help us understand. Even with research, you need to gain the skills to know how to conduct research and embrace it passionately. Through the Community Engagement Fellowship, I began to really structure out my program and fire out the networking structure, so that the idea permeated from the teachers, to the programs, to the offices. There’s a prideful sense to the Colin Powell School, we’re not just making students, we’re making the future. It’s super down to earth, and even when our Fellowship cohort went to DC last year, that mentality was prevalent in our group. It’s not just small talk, it’s always deeper issues. My biggest regret is that I waited until the last year to join these programs!
What can you tell us about your employment with Harlem Reading Project?
When it was time for me to choose a community research project, I remembered a key factor, which is that parents are exhausted and tired. But there’s still work that parents have to do so that they can be a partner with their schools. I had this mission statement set, because I had my kids able to read by the time they were three. So when my kids went to public school they were already above a level. I was reading to my kids every night and would have their siblings read to them as well. So when I saw Community Engagement, I thought it’d be the perfect time to test the program.
I went to Theatre Chairman Rod Barren, and I spoke to him about my idea. He said they had an entire class that was for teachers to go to classes to speak with students. Harlem Reading Project could be my project, so I told them about my Fellowship project, and the book I wanted to use. They created this entire curriculum, and I took it to a school and pitched it to the principal, and he was like, “This is amazing” and he knew of the Colin Powell Fellowship, and asked me “You’re a part of this?”
The Theatre program came in to act out the program curriculum I had set, and then Dean Rich set me up with an intern, Arlind Kacarani, who is now a Koch Fellow alum. Mighty Readers, and the Harlem Reading Project is still a partnership with the school and Theatre program. Parent engagement and community engagement is still a massive focus for me, it’s all about community needs and us serving to build a stronger community.
What are some plans to navigate around COVID?
Virtual learning was awful. But being a parent and having done virtual learning, I can see why it’s tough for parents who already feel that the teachers are responsible for teaching kids to read. So now the parents are drowning and feeling confused by Google Classroom, which is the main structure that the DOE is using. I know how to use Google Classroom, so I’m working on a workshop to help parents with tools and methods to understand Google Classroom. I want to help them navigate the application, and it’s great because parents can check to see if their kids submitted their homework. Another thing I’m currently working on is social-emotional learning so that the parents and teachers can work together hand in hand. I am working on a format schedule for parents to learn how to balance these things.
What advice would you give students and alumni who are also looking to pursue these sorts of opportunities and this sort of employment?
Utilize your networks, especially through CCNY. With City College it was rare for me to find a professor who didn’t care. They are so passionate about what they do, and whatever major you’re in is a massive network with the professors and that community. Even when I went to the Theatre department, they were so excited and helpful. The highlight for me was getting a meeting with President Boudreau. I showed him the layout of my project, and at the time I was already working at PS 194. Immediately, President Boudreau started giving me guidance, and was telling me how he knows a Senator who’s excited about education reform. We spoke about metrics. He helped me structure my entire program. The networking at CCNY is crazy; you just have to talk to people.
Whenever I struggle, I go back to CCNY for help. Before I even had a full-fledged program, people were fully invested. Being a Community Engagement Fellow was life-changing. A major event was Service Day, PS 194 was so thankful for the Fellows coming for Service Day to play and hang out with the kids. The superintendent was so excited, and they had this idea that seeing these CCNY students could push these young kids into someday even attending CCNY. I felt like CCNY is a bridge between the communities and it truly was so special to be a part of that, and to continue to help these communities.