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Juvenile Justice

Maya Angelou Schools Honor Former Attorney General Eric Holder

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lisa S. Rajaram
December 22, 2015
(202) 320 -9155
lrajaram@seeforever.org

Maya Angelou Schools Honor

Former Attorney General Eric Holder

Community Leaders, Philanthropists Gather for the Annual Maya Way Event

WASHINGTON DC- A balmy fall night was met by hues of red and orange and a myriad of student artwork that decked out the Long View Gallery to Celebrate the May Way.

It was a celebration for the ongoing work of the Maya Angelou Schools and See Forever Foundation and their supporters, which include Former Attorney General, Eric Holder. With students as ambassadors, the event featured an awards ceremony, dinner, silent auction and live entertainment.

A former scholar of the Maya Angelou Academy at New Beginnings brought guests to tears with a captivating speech about his journey from juvenile delinquency to accomplished college junior with aspirations for a career in public policy.

Holder later recalled stories of his beginnings with the organization, tutoring youth in the detention center, after accepting the Maya Way Award for Leadership. Holder’s history with the organization dates back to the late 1990’s, when he and fellow attorney/friend, Reid Weingarten, helped lay the framework for a program to assist juvenile delinquents transitioning back into their community. It has now grown into Maya Angelou Schools, a network of alternative schools for underserved youth.

As the name suggests, the entire evening celebrated the Maya Way. Colin Johnson, grandson of Dr. Maya Angelou, introduced a tribute for his late grandmother, the namesake of the Maya Angelou Schools-whom school leaders draw inspiration from in their mission to serve an at-risk population of students.

Performer Alyson Williams, who Dr. Angelou dubbed “songbird”, closed the evening with a lively set, which included Holder joining her on stage to do the shuffle made famous by the Temptations. He even teased guests with an intro to “My Girl.”

Other notable guests included: Maya Angelou Schools co-founders James Forman, Jr. David Domenici, Jack Davies, Founder of AOL International and See Forever Foundation board member, David Grosso, DC Council Member, Cheryl Mills, Former Chief of Staff to Hillary Clinton and See Forever Board member, and Herb Tillery, former D.C. Deputy Mayor and Executive Director of the D.C. College Success Foundation, for which he also received an award.

Held annually, The Maya Way Event honors community leaders and raises funds to benefit the See Forever Foundation and Maya Angelou Schools. For more information about the event please contact Leah Lamb llamb@seeforever.org. For media inquiries contact Lisa Rajaram lrajaram@seeforever.org

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Our mission is to create learning communities in lower income urban areas where all students, particularly those that have not succeeded in traditional schools, can grow academically and socially. Maya Angelou Schools provides comprehensive education in a non-traditional setting to all students including those who have not been successful in their educational experiences. We achieve this through a demanding academic program, socio emotional learning support, and tiered interventions that focus on the whole child. Our students will leave us with a foundation to be successful in their pursuit of education and careers. To learn more, please visit www.seeforever.org

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Click through the gallery below to see photos!

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MAA Principal Rennie Taylor featured by Dept. of Education for National Principals Month

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DC Principal Empowers Students to Transform Their Lives

MAPCS-Academy

Tucked away in Laurel, Maryland, among trees and rundown buildings lies what, for some, serves as a safe haven – and even better, a new beginning. Maya Angelou Academy, within the walls of the New Beginnings Youth Development Center, serves students who have been adjudicated in order to help them reach their full academic and career potential, and aims to support them in transitioning back successfully to the community.

I recently had the privilege of visiting Maya Angelou, meeting some of the students and educators, and shadowing its leader, Principal Rennie Taylor. Principal Taylor is a passionate educator, originally from the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, who has formed an undeniable connection with his students and staff at the Maya Angelou Academy. As a former coach, motivational speaker and special education instructor, he has dedicated his entire career to serving students who face the greatest odds inside and outside the classroom. For Principal Taylor and the staff at Maya Angelou, there is no greater satisfaction than seeing their students overcome the toughest circumstances and exceed everyone’s expectations.

“[At the Academy] students get a taste of what it means to be celebrated”, Taylor told me during my visit with him this week. “That dose of positive energy can get them to say ‘this isn’t so bad.’” He said showing a student you believe in their ability to achieve is the center of his and his staff’s mission. Read More

—Emma Vadehra serves as Chief of Staff to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

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Founder, David Domenici, and Maya Angelou Academy Featured In Ozy

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It’s a cold March morning in the nation’s capital. My fingers are stiff, and in the end, useless as I fumble to open the door to David Domenici’s battered 1992 Honda Civic. But with a sturdy shove and then a yank, the wiry 50-year-old reassures me that it’s not me. We’re headed less than a mile away, so Domenici can show me where he used to work.

“It was vile,” he says, nodding to the remnants of a juvenile detention center. Inside, he takes me to a stale, moldering complex where he used to teach the lockup’s student body, kids as young as 13 and as old as 21. In 2009, after allegations of abuse and decrepit conditions, a judge closed the facility. But in a new detention hall just down the road, named New Beginnings, Domenici has managed to build a model school for young inmates. On the day I visit, the classrooms are decorated with colorful murals, encouraging slogans and pictures of grinning recent grads. Teachers and security officers greet the tattooed scholars with warm handshakes and hugs. The ambience is downright optimistic. “You never would have seen anything close to this before,” Domenici says.

The question that remains, will we see others like it? Read full article

—By Meghan Walsh, Ozy.com