Blackstone Valley Prep graduates return to give back to the school as teachers, mentors

CUMBERLAND – College seemed like a pipe dream for Mikey Correa, who had pretty much given up on school.

Then, Blackstone Valley Prep offered him a lifeline that reeled him back in.

Now, Correa, a recent University of Rhode Island graduate, is teaching seventh-grade science to a bunch of students who not only look like him but share some of the same childhood experiences.

Correa is among seven BVP grads who have returned to the school, whose mission is two-fold: to prepare all students for college and to promote diversity among its faculty and students. Founded in 2009, Blackstone Valley Prep is actually a network of public charter schools in northern Rhode Island serving 2,200 students in six schools.

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Correa said he always knew he wanted to be a teacher – at least he did after enrolling in BVP as a fifth-grader.

“It’s a very weird and good feeling being back,” he said last week. “I have this student perspective. Now I have a teacher’s perspective that allows me to connect with the kids. I know what they want because I went through a similar experience.”

The biggest challenge was learning how to corral the restless energy of a group of students hitting puberty. At times, it feels like every child is zipping off in a different direction.

“The hardest part is having to control 28 minds at once,” he said. “If they are not occupied, the entire class is derailed. I’m trying to make sure they are doing something all of the time.”

The best part of teaching, he said, is “getting to teach kids like me, showing them that I’m a product of this environment and that I made it to the other side.”

Correa tells each student, “Believe that you are going to make it through. I’m going to be here every step of the way.”

Blackstone Valley Prep helped Correa find his place

Correa bounced around until his parents enrolled him at BVP. Suddenly, a child who felt lost said he felt found. When he began, he was reading at a third-grade level. But the school accepted him, both “the good and the bad.”

“All of the teachers here changed my life,” he said. “I could rattle off all of the things they did and it would be as long as a CVS receipt."

One moment stands out. Math was Correa’s nemesis. Before he began one test, his fifth-grade teacher told him to take as long as he needed to complete it. He sat there for eight hours.

“My teacher refused to leave until I was done,” Correa said. “When that happened, I knew this was unlike any other school.”

Like his teachers did, Correa goes above and beyond. He coaches soccer, runs a homework club and devotes his evenings to homework – both for his students and for graduate school, where he is pursuing a master’s in teaching at Rhode Island College.

“At the end of the day, I need to be doing right by these kids,” he said. “I will make any sacrifice for them.”

Blackstone Valley Prep benefits when students return to teach

BVP did not intentionally set out to “grow” its faculty by grooming young graduates to take on teaching roles. The recruitment process was informal, mostly word-of-mouth.

“We are hopeful they will help us create a pipeline of diverse teachers,” said BVP’s new CEO and superintendent, Sarah Anderson. “We offer them tuition assistance and a chance to work in a school building. We are committed to them as people, to becoming their best selves. We’re their first step.”

BVP gets something tangible in return.

“Nobody relates to our students more than someone who has been a student,” Anderson said. “They know the neighborhoods our students come from. It’s their community, too.”

And BVP is learning so much from its former students' college experiences, such as juggling coursework with a full-time job, managing the onslaught of homework and scrambling to find the money to pay for textbooks.

From BVP student to mentor and coach     

Kiana Cardena just graduated from URI in May with a major in psychology and a minor in business. Like so many of her peers at BVP, she is the first in her family to have gone to college. Her role at BVP is called behavioral and academic support assistant – part coach, part mentor.

She works almost exclusively with two first-graders, smart students who just need help staying focused.

“it’s interesting seeing the teachers, how they handle situations and how hard they work,” she said. “I never realized how hard teaching was.”

Motivation was never an issue for Cardena, who always earned As and Bs. But when she started at BVP in ninth grade, she was finally challenged to excel.

“Because Jencks Junior High was so big, I didn’t have one-on-one time with anyone,” she said. “At BVP, I had deans and advisers I could talk to.”

Cardena flourished in the high school's tight-knit community, where she knew all of her classmates’ strengths and weaknesses, something she said would have been impossible in a large high school.

Her former guidance counselor gave her a recommendation for her current job. As Cardena said, “He still looks out for me.”

Cardena is now thinking about getting a master’s in psychology so she can further her career.

“I definitely think it was the small community, the sense of it being a family, that drew me back,” she said.

Wanting to give back to the BVP community

Dalayisha Moore, a junior at URI and a behavior and academic support specialist, bonded with her fifth-grade student over Fortnight and Pokémon.

“My student has been killing it since the first day of school,” she said. “He goes above and beyond with his work. We both like video games and we have that moment where we engage.”

Moore said she returned to BVP because she wanted to give something back to her teachers, who helped her grow from a shy ninth-grader to the confident woman she is today.

“I had this one teacher. AP government. He was amazing,” she said. “History was just a textbook in middle school. He broke it down for me.”

Under his tutelage, Moore took AP English, AP history and AP government. She said she never believed she could do college-level work before this experience.

“My getting As and Bs really showed what I could do with the support of caring adults,” she said.

Next year, Moore wants to become a teaching fellow, a BVP program that helps young adults become certified teachers by offering coaching and tuition assistance.

“I want to make sure I am there for my students emotionally,” she said. “I want to deepen our relationship. With the right support and the right adults, it feels like a family.”

Linda Borg covers education for The Journal.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Blackstone Valley Prep hiring former students as teachers and coaches