Booker T. Washington High School WINS The 2011 Race to the Top Commencement Challenge

We’re TOPS! We Lead and Others Follow!

 The announcement was made today that  Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis, TN was the winner of the 2011  Race to the Top Commencement Challenge. In a phone conversation, Vice President Joe Biden informed the BTW Race to the Top Commencement Challenge committee of students and staff they had been selected by President Barack Obama as the winner.

This is an amazing accomplishment for the school, the neighborhood and the City of Memphis.

As I stated in an earlier blog post, Booker T. Washington is my alma mater and  I am ecstatic that the children of my own community have won this challenge.

 Success is not a given for many people such as myself, growing up in low-income neighborhood. Not only is it not a given, but it sadly, for the most part it isn’t even an expectation.  It is something you have to desire, seek and execute. For many students who grow up in poverty the statistics seem stacked against them.