By Nasif Rogers, Director of DEI
I firmly believe that my granny saved my life. After being homeless and jumping from shelter to shelter for a period of time in my preteen years, my granny took in my siblings and me while my mother worked on getting healthy and healed from a multitude of traumatic experiences.
She saved me from being another statistic that we refer to when describing Black life on the southside of Chicago. She saved me from being trapped in an education system that, because of a speech impediment and having an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), would have determined my life trajectory with low expectations, missed opportunities, and a marginalizing educational experience. She saved me from thinking that my Black life didn’t matter.
The way my granny loves and believes in me is the way that each kid deserves an educator to love and believe in them. Through our DEI commitment, Rocketship Public Schools grows educators who love children and who close the ‘belief gap’ that holds too many students back..
