Wilmington, Del. — Teachers and principals, CEOs, funders, and education policymakers are among those who embarked Wednesday on an eight-week program called The Proximity Project (TPP), designed to close the gaps between community leaders and people of color they serve.
The program was created by TeenSHARP, a regional college prep nonprofit that helps low-income, Black and Latino students attend and thrive at elite colleges — and graduate debt-free. Now the group will teach adults, too.
“We’re positively overwhelmed by the response to this workshop,” said Atnre Alleyne, who co-founded TeenSHARP in 2009 with his wife, Tatiana Poladko. “This class represents a diverse cross-section of institutions coming together from different worlds, including foundations, private schools, districts, charter schools, policymakers, nonprofit leaders, and higher education. This configuration of leaders has never been in a room together having these conversations.”
Alleyne announced the members of the cohort earlier this week: 48 leaders in education and philanthropy from all three Delaware counties.
Click here to view a complete list of participants.
Since Wednesday, Sept. 23, participants will meet each week for two-and-a-half hours to discuss assigned readings, complete organizational and leadership assessments, learn from guest speakers, and connect with other institution leaders working toward equity and racial justice.
All programming will take place online, Alleyne said; the nonprofit has been 100 percent virtual since late-March while continuing to serve over 750 students in Delaware, Philadelphia, and New Jersey.
“Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been hard to get everyone together — especially teachers traveling the greatest distance from Wilmington,” Alleyne said. “Since the start of the pandemic, TeenSHARP has made a great effort to see the opportunity in every challenge, just like our students have to do.”
The cohort includes the deputy secretary and other representatives of the Delaware Department of Education; a superintendent; two deputy superintendents; two former Delaware State Teachers of the Year; and the heads of two Delaware foundations.
Founder Tatiana Poladko said TPP is inspired by TeenSHARP scholars: their lives and experiences, their needs, and their resolve in leading anti-racism efforts since spring 2020. TeenSHARP students have organized Town Hall meetings on racism in their districts, they’ve attended TeenSHARP’s weekly Zoom conversations on matters of race and education, and they’ve advocated for change at their schools by directly engaging superintendents and board members.
Five TeenSHARP students and alums — Alba Roselia Espinosa Peguero (Franklin and Marshall College), Elijah Jones (Gettysburg College), Hasana Parker (Smyrna High School), Tariah Hyland (St. Georges Technical High School), and Lucia Gotera (Charter School of Wilmington) — will serve as paid teaching assistants for each cohort of TPP.
“We build leaders at TeenSHARP who are prepared to do the difficult work of challenging inequitable and oppressive practices in our society,” Poladko said. “TPP is an effort to help our school and community partners better support students on their leadership and academic journeys.”
She added: “Our mission to prepare African American and Latino students for elite academic and professional spaces requires that we work to confront and dismantle racist systems. That means we need to deepen our work to support leaders and decision-makers.”
###
About The Proximity Project (TPP): TPP is an eight-week cohort experience for leaders in education institutions (teacher, school, nonprofit, and district leaders) and education philanthropy who want to examine and reform how they interact with and serve communities of color. The Proximity Project is not an isolated, intellectual exercise — leaders connect closely with students, families, and community leaders whose truth and insights inform participants’ reflections and actions.
About TeenSHARP: TeenSHARP is a regional organization headquartered in Wilmington, DE that is on a mission to prepare talented low-income, African American, and Latino students to attend and thrive at the nation’s top colleges. This mission is in service of a bold vision that one day the diversity of those occupying our nation’s highly-skilled jobs and highest leadership positions will be as rich as the diversity of our population. Founded in 2009, TeenSHARP has evolved into a leading provider of innovative, at-scale college access and success support in the Delaware Valley region (including Delaware, Philadelphia, and southern New Jersey). TeenSHARP has achieved incredible results over the last ten years: 100 percent of TeenSHARP scholars successfully pursue a 4-year college education, with 95 percent of the scholars being admitted to selective colleges and universities every year.
