Teach For America: Ensuring Educational Equity for All

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For the past four years, Newsweek, Education Week, and the College Board have ranked Maryland as the number one state in the country for education. However, in Baltimore City we have more than a third of our students living in poverty, 40% failing to graduate from high school and less than one child in six graduating from college. Test scores only further underscore the stark differences within our state. Recent Maryland School Assessment data shows only 59% of City eighth graders are proficient in reading and 40% are proficient in math, where in Howard County the proficiencies are 91% and 86% respectively. In Baltimore, the neighborhood where a child is born too often dictates his or her academic destiny and access to life opportunities. While there have been improvements in enrollment, graduation rates, and standardized test scores, work remains to be done. This is where my personal narrative comes into this story.

            My mission is to serve as an advocate for the civil rights movement of my generation: to ensure that one day all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education. When you give kids the opportunities they deserve, I believe that they will succeed. I want to show the world, through my experiences, what children can do when given the opportunity to receive an outstanding education.

My platform has become my life’s work. Today, I’m proud to share the success stories of the twenty-four brilliant individuals in my kindergarten classroom. In my classroom we have a little cheer, and this special call and response I begin every morning goes like this: “I know I can be what I want to be. And if I work hard at it, I can be what I want to be!”  My students simply love this. Every morning we do it and every morning they act as if it is the very meaning and drive to their little lives. Well, now Miss Thomas finally has a concrete example for them of what she wants to be.

After five years of preparation within the Miss America Organization, I look forward to the opportunity to compete in my last year of eligibility for the title of Miss Maryland. I attribute an immense amount of my successes to my education. I have worked extremely hard throughout my educational career, especially during the four years I was in college. I also attribute my success to the incredible people in my life that supported me and helped me be the best I can be, many of whom I met in school or at college. Not that my students ever doubted me, but hopefully it will be as real as ever to them. I know that if “I work hard at it” I can become who I want to be: Miss Maryland 2013.

I hope that my influence with my students doesn't just stop in the classroom. I hope that by the possibility of becoming Miss Maryland, I can motivate and inspire others to work hard and set their minds on becoming anything “they want to be”.  I know the world is full of endless possibilities and I want to help empower others to want and earn success. Hopefully, the title of Miss Maryland will be the very beginning of that.

A special "thank you" to Brittany Toll, TFA Corps Member 2009, who has been an inspiration to me both personally and professionally. I hope you don't mind that I echoed some of your sentiments that you wrote during your time as Miss New Mexico :)