Uncommon Schools inspires dozens of new teachers of color to work in Brooklyn
After spending the last few weeks teaching Summer Academy at Uncommon Schools’ Excellence Girls Charter School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Darriana Howard is hoping to come back to Brooklyn to teach after she finishes her senior year at Bucknell University next year.
The Boston native is one of 147 rising college seniors from around the country who spent the bulk of their summer break as Uncommon Schools’ Summer Teaching Fellows. They received training for several weeks in May and June before getting a taste of the teaching profession in Summer Academy in July in Brooklyn and other cities in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, where Uncommon operates public college-prep charter schools.
“Every day I go into the classroom wanting to be better than the day before,” said Howard, who was raised by a single mom in Boston’s South End, a neighborhood much like the one she’s been teaching in this summer in Brooklyn. “Students that look like me aren’t always taught to walk with their head held high. I love that we are helping them develop their confidence.”