Maya Angelou Public Charter School is a Washington, DC-based alternative high school and educational establishment with a curriculum designed for nontraditional learners. Maya Angelou PCS is designed to educate students who have not been successful in typical schools because of behavior, disciplinary or safety concerns. Maya educators know that every student has a different learning style. Many styles fit in well at traditional public or private schools, but lack the warmth, depth, and attention to detail needed to achieve high school graduation and accomplish post-secondary college and career goals with the at-promise population. An adolescent who has specific needs or a preference for progressive learning that can’t be met through traditional public or parochial school pathways, exemplifies the need for Maya Angelou PCS teaching methodology.
Stationed at Maya Angelou PCS is Sade Hawkins, a Special Education Chemistry co-teacher. Ms. Hawkins is not new to teaching, she previously worked for an autistic children’s organization before joining the faculty of her Alma Mater, Maya Angelou Public Charter School (Class of 2015). As a teacher instead of a student, Ms. Hawkins is re-mastering the discipline of her subject matter. When she was a student at Maya, the various sciences offered to her over the years weren’t her strong suit. However, her 10th grade science teacher, Mrs. Shantell Wright-Cunningham can attest that Ms. Hawkins tried her best as a pupil. Once as her high school teacher and now as principal, Wright-Cunningham has been a deeply committed mentor.
Ms. Hawkins has grown exponentially within Maya Angelou’s hallowed halls. She remarks, “I got through, now I’m just trying to learn and help them [the chemistry students] learn.” For Ms. Hawkins, the language arts and all levels of mathematics went hand in hand, she aced her high school courses – however, she credits her relationship with Mrs. Wright-Cunningham as the bridge over her barrier to scientific comprehension and retention. “Ms. Cunningham just made it work, she’s magical. I don’t understand how she just did it. She made it ‘click’ for me; she made it make sense. She made it work! I was able to understand what she was saying.” Ms. Hawkins softly repeats, “she made it work.” Mrs. Wright-Cunningham’s approach to a young Sade Hawkins embodies 25 years of the Maya Way, to describe her teaching style is to define what most students seem to be missing from the contemporary, traditional 9-12 system – personal involvement. “Honestly, her way of teaching helped a lot of us out in class… she gets personal.” Mrs. Wright-Cunningham made high school relevant to teenage Sade, in her words, “she made sure you understood what was going on. She wouldn’t move on until you understood what was happening and what she was talking about. I think that kind of helped a lot.”
Ms. Hawkins became an alternative high school teacher because of her experiences at Maya Angelou PCS, and her innate understanding of the student population has never wavered. Ms. Hawkins grew up in the same neighborhood as the Maya Angelou Learning Campus, a semi-residential Capitol Heights neighborhood of Ward 7. “I lived right around the corner, so I walked to school every day. My mom still lives there. When my friends found out I worked at Maya Angelou, they were like, ‘What…? What!’ I’m like “yeah!” (Ms. Hawkins laughs to herself)...They appreciate the fact that I wanted to come back, and give back what was given to me.”
As a full circle Maya community member, she started out as a middle school student and journeyed past high school graduation into an undergraduate career at Virginia State University. Hawkins credits Katia Jones, currently Director of Post-Secondary Transitions, a veteran faculty member of the Maya Angelou Schools, as the key to the helping her find scholarships and grants that complimented Ms. Hawkins application portfolio. In addition, Sade participated in the Business Academy track of the Maya Angelou PCS curriculum. She vividly remembers her business acumen as a high schooler, “I was part of the BUILD program which was the entrepreneurship program; we were able to develop our own businesses. It helped me a lot in school. We had to do an essay. We had to develop our own business names, what we were going to sell. We made hoodies, we made customized hoodies. We were the first group to break even during our time. We were really good! I really did enjoy that program…I was very hard on myself. I had to get good grades, I had to do this, I had to ‘do.’ It was so…hard. I had to get all of the grades, I had to!”
Although Ms. Hawkins is immensely proud of her work ethic during her time at Maya; she does wish she had given herself grace during that crucial period. Her advice to high school students, and all adolescents is, “Don’t be so in a hurry to grow up! I was in a hurry to get out of school, go to college, and do all the ‘adult things,’ not realizing that adult things are hard…It’s okay to be a kid. If I could be the person to let them know that’s not what it needs to be, then I’ll be that person. Enjoy this time when you can, while you can. It doesn’t last very long.” We at the Maya Schools totally agree. Our institutional philosophy is preserving and lovingly cultivating the whole child, and their family by providing a consistent support system and year-round wraparound services that can meet the demands of young adulthood amidst a demanding, and sometimes unjust world.
Maya Angelou PCS is the home of the Rebels. Our collective identity was chosen to embody the best of Dr. Angelou’s maverick nature – to be willful agitators of change and nonconformity. Sade Hawkins is one of the hundreds of success stories that has sprung from 25 years of our proud history. We are one of the most senior charter schools in the educational history of the Washington, DC area and the top alternative education source for grades 9-12. Ms. Hawkins has benefited from the Maya Way as she has had faculty and staff advocate on her behalf. Sade’s story is the Maya Angelou mission fulfilled in every way!
