Education

Meet the Ramsay HS student, en route to Yale, who earned more than $2M in scholarships

THE BIRMINGHAM TIMES — Ramsay High School senior Jillian Jolly, 18, has dreamed of attending Yale University since she was in kindergarten.“ I always heard that Yale was the school where smart people went. It was the top school, and I wanted to be there,’’ she said. Thirteen years later, her dream has become a reality: She has accepted a full-ride, four-year scholarship worth nearly $300,000.

Published

5 years ago

May 4, 2019

Oakland Post

By Erica Wright

Ramsay High School senior Jillian Jolly, 18, has dreamed of attending Yale University since she was in kindergarten.

“I always heard that Yale was the school where smart people went. It was the top school, and I wanted to be there,’’ she said.

Thirteen years later, her dream has become a reality: She has accepted a full-ride, four-year scholarship worth nearly $300,000.

“It’s not just a big accomplishment for me, it’s a win for the whole community,’’ said Jillian, who’s ranked No. 4 at Ramsay High School with a 4.4 GPA. “I don’t look at it as, ‘Jillian got into Yale.’ I look at it as everyone benefits from it.’’

On Wednesday, Birmingham City Schools (BCS) Superintendent Dr. Lisa Herring, along with staff and board members recognized Ramsay High School students like Jillian and staff members for being named among the Top 25 High Schools in Alabama by US News and World Report on Wednesday, May 1.

Among The Best

Ramsay was ranked No. 11 among some of the best schools in the state.

“One of the most exciting things I can do as superintendent is celebrate the accomplishments of our scholars and I say this everywhere I go, whether I see you in public or whether I see you at the park or in the school hallways or run into you at the mall, our core business is about teaching and learning . . . so whenever there is an opportunity where we can celebrate our scholars and the staff who are invested in educating them, that’s a powerful day,” said Herring.

Out of the 17,245 high schools in the U.S., Ramsay ranks in the top 6 percent, Herring said.

“I want to be very clear that this celebration is about what you give to Ramsay, what you provide in your intellectual property, what you do in your ability to make the right decisions,” said Herring, during the celebration.

Ramsay’s principal, Cassandra F. Fells said she is proud of her students and her staff and the recognition of their hard work.

“I always knew that Ramsay was top notch and I’m so thankful to be a part of your history and know that I love you and I expect great things from you,” she said.

At the ceremony, Jillian, with her mother, Jacqueline Harrell, announced that she would be attending Yale. Mother and daughter both wore shirts with the name of the Ivy League institution while Jillian’s classmates, teachers, school administrators and some family members applauded.

Wasn’t Easy

But getting where is wasn’t easy for Jillian.

Some people doubted her ability, telling her that only 5 percent of applicants are accepted into Yale, that her ACT score was too low or that her school did not have the resources as other students accepted into Yale. It was hard for Jillian to hear people say she had a “slim chance’’ of being accepted, or Yale was a “reach school’’ for her. Doubt crept in, and she almost didn’t apply. But she eventually reminded herself she was made for Yale. She had to at least try.

Following the recommendation of her 11th grade language arts teacher at Ramsay, she applied to College Choice Foundation. The Alabama-based nonprofit, which is funded by donations, was created to help high-achieving and academically talented students from low-income families apply for college and find their best and most affordable college fit.

Among other things, it helped Jillian identify colleges, covered costs for multiple college visits, offered ACT prep classes, helped her complete financial aid applications, prepped her for college scholarship interviews, helped her with her resume, reviewed her college application essays, paid for college application fees, and offered weekly one-on-one mentoring. Additionally, College Choice Foundation will continue to provide guidance to Jillian during her time at Yale and even graduate school.

$2.3 million in scholarships

Not only did Yale accept her and offer her a full scholarship, but so did most of her 11 other colleges. Collectively, she has amassed more than $2.3 million in scholarship offers from the 12 colleges, including Wake Forest University, Howard University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Tuskegee University and George Washington University.

Jillian’s mother said she is thankful and is happy with the choice her daughter has made.

“This is a leap of faith for her because Connecticut is over 15 hours away and she’s never visited that part of the country before so it’s going to be a lot of new beginnings for her and for our family but I’m just happy for her because she’s worked so hard her entire school career and just to see her hard work pay off, I’m just excited for her,” said Harrell.

Jillian is the second Ramsay High student in the last two years to get accepted into Yale. In 2018, Ramsay student Brooklin Ballard received a full-ride scholarship.

Volunteer

In her free time, Jillian has volunteered to address youth crime in Birmingham, tutored students, served as a youth leader at church and collected canned goods for the needy. “I guess I’m a voice for the voiceless,’’ she said.

This fall, Jillian plans to major in psychology and later become a surgeon. “I just have this desire to help people and fix things,’’ she said. “I’d also like to start my own nonprofit that helps inner city kids navigate the college application process and make students more aware of the options that they have.’’

She has also impressed local city leaders.

“I’m proud of her,” said Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. “Any time you have a Birmingham graduate who is a hard worker and is motivated and supported by family, community and her school, the Mayor’s Office and the City of Birmingham are happy to support her, too. She already has a local network of Yale graduates cheering for her, and she hasn’t even walked across the graduation stage yet. What she is doing has inspired me, and I hope she will inspire others.’’

To see Jillian’s Kiwanis Club video interview, which starts at the 4:32 mark, please visit: https://bit.ly/2IRMTji.

College Choice Foundation is now accepting applications for the 2019/2020 school year. The deadline to apply is May 24, 2019. Applicants must be a rising junior or senior currently enrolled in a Birmingham or a Homewood public city school. Applicants must meet several qualifications, including having at least a 3.5 GPA. For more information, please visit www.collegechoicefoundation.org.

Chanda Temple of the City of Birmingham Public Information Office contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.

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WOMEN IMPACTING THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY

Published

19 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Juanita Matthews

Sister Juanita Matthews

55 Years with Oakland Public School District

The Teacher, Mother, Community Outreach Champion, And Child of God

Juanita Matthews, better known as “Sister Teacher,” is a walking Bible scholar. She moved to California from the great state of Arkansas in 1971. Sister Teacher has a passion for teaching. She has been a member of Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church since 1971. She followed her passion for teaching, and in 1977 became the lead teacher for Adult Class #6. Her motto still today is “Once My Student, Always My Student”.

Beyond her remarkable love for the Lord, Sister Teacher has showcased her love for teaching by working for the Oakland Unified School District for 55 years, all but four of those years spent at Emerson Elementary and Child Development School. She truly cares about her students, making sure they have the tools/supplies needed to learn either at OUSD or Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church.

She’s also had a “Clothes Closet Ministry” for 51 years, making sure her students have sufficient clothing for school. The Clothes Closet Ministry extends past her students, she has been clothing the community for over 50 years as well. She loves the Lord and is a servant on a mission. She is a loving mother to two beautiful children, Sandra and Andre. This is the impact this woman of God has on her church and the community.

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Bay Area

Rich Lyons, Longtime Campus Business, Innovation Leader, Will Be UC Berkeley’s Next Chancellor

Rich Lyons, an established economist, former dean of the Haas School of Business and the campus’s current leader for innovation and entrepreneurship, will become the next chancellor at the University of California, Berkeley, the UC Board of Regents announced on April 10.

Published

22 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Rich Lyons is the first UC Berkeley undergraduate alumnus since 1930 to become the campus's top leader. Photo by Keegan Houser/UC Berkeley.

By Jason Pohl

The board’s unanimous confirmation makes Lyons, 63, the first UC Berkeley undergraduate alumnus since 1930 to become the campus’s top leader. In an interview this week, Lyons said he credits his Berkeley roots and his campus mentors with encouraging him to ask big questions, advance institutional culture and enhance public education — all priorities of his for the years to come.

Lyons, who will be Berkeley’s 12th chancellor, will succeed Chancellor Carol Christ, who announced last year that she’d step down as chancellor on July 1.

“I am both thrilled and reassured by this excellent choice. In so many ways, Rich embodies Berkeley’s very best attributes, and his dedication to the university’s public mission and values could not be stronger,” Christ said. “I am confident he will bring to the office visionary aspirations for Berkeley’s future that are informed by, and deeply respectful of, our past.”

Rising through the Berkeley ranks

Born in 1961, Lyons grew up in Los Altos in the early days of the Silicon Valley start-up boom.

He attended Berkeley, where he graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business and finance. Lyons went on to earn his Ph.D. in 1987 in economics from MIT. After six years teaching at Columbia Business School, Lyons returned west, where in 1993 he joined the Berkeley faculty as a professor of economics and finance, specializing in the study of international finance and global exchange rates.

He’s remained on campus since, with one notable exception.

Starting in 2006, Lyons spent two years working at Goldman Sachs as the chief learning officer. It was a period that instilled in him an appreciation for leadership and the importance of organizational culture.

He carried those lessons with him when he returned to campus in 2008 and became the dean of the Haas School of Business.

While dean, Lyons oversaw the construction of Connie & Kevin Chou Hall, a state-of-the-art academic building that opened in 2017 and is celebrated for its sustainability. He also helped establish two new degree programs, linking the business school with both the College of Engineering and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.

But it was his creation of four distinct defining leadership principles that spurred a sweeping culture initiative at the school that stands out in the minds of many. Those values — question the status quo, confidence without attitude, students always, and beyond yourself — became a creed of sorts for new students and alumni alike.

Those values are important, Lyons said, because they shape and support the cohesive structure of a strong, connected community — spanning science and technology to the arts and humanities. They also convey the story about what it means to be at Berkeley and to believe in the university’s public mission.

“When we are great as educators, it’s identity-making,” Lyons said. “We’re helping students and others see identities in themselves that they couldn’t see.”

Lyons in January 2020 became Berkeley’s first-ever chief officer of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Building on his research exploring how leaders drive innovation and set behavioral norms and culture, Lyons worked to expand and champion Berkeley’s rich portfolio of innovation and entrepreneurship activities for the benefit of students, faculty, staff, startups and external partners.

It was a major commitment to thinking outside the box, he said. One need only look to the Berkeley Changemaker program that he helped launch in 2020 to see innovation and entrepreneurship in action.

The campuswide program with some 30 courses tells the story of what Berkeley is — the story that members of the Berkeley community can tell long into the future. Berkeley Changemaker started as an idea and its courses quickly became among the most popular academic offerings on campus.

“Over 500 students showed up,” he said. “Why? Because it’s a narrative. It’s not just a name. It’s not just a curriculum. It’s not just a course. It’s a way of living, and it’s a way of living that Berkeley has occupied forever. This idea that there’s got to be a better way to do this, question the status quo.”

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Community

AG Bonta Says Oakland School Leaders Should Comply with State Laws to Avoid ‘Disparate Harm’ When Closing or Merging Schools

California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a letter this week to the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Board of Education saying the district has a duty to comply with state education and civil rights laws to protect students and families from “disparate harm,” such as segregation and discrimination, if the district goes ahead with school closures, mergers or consolidations in 2025-2026.

Published

2 days ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

Teachers and students protest the closing of schools in Oakland. Photo courtesy of PBS.

AG Bonta said DOJ investigation of 2022 closure decisions would have negatively impacted Black and low-income families.

By Post Staff

The letter and an accompanying media release announced the findings of the California Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into the OUSD Board’s Feb. 8, 2022, decision to close Parker Elementary, Brookfield Elementary, Carl B. Munck Elementary, Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy, Grass Valley Elementary, Horace Mann Elementary, and Community Day School and eliminate grades 6-8 of Hillcrest Elementary and La Escuelita Elementary.

“All school districts and their leadership have a legal obligation to protect vulnerable children and their communities from disparate harm when making school closure decisions,” said Attorney General Bonta.

“The bottom line is that discrimination in any form will not be tolerated,” he said. “I am committed to working with OUSD’s leadership to achieve successful outcomes for students.

“My office will continue to monitor OUSD’s processes and decision-making as it moves forward with the required community engagement, equity impact analysis, and planning to implement any future closures, mergers, or consolidations” to ensure compliance with California’s Constitution, AB 1912, and anti-discrimination laws.

By press time, the school district did not respond to a request for comment from OUSD.

The DOJ’s findings showed that the February 2022 decision, later partially rescinded, would have disproportionately impacted Black and low-income elementary students, as well as high-need students with disabilities, according to the media release.

The Attorney General outlined concerns about criteria OUSD has announced that it may rely on to determine future closures, mergers, and consolidations and provided recommendations to ensure OUSD does not violate state law, including prohibitions against closure decisions that reinforce school segregation or disproportionately impact any student group as required by the State Constitution, AB 1912, and anti-discrimination laws.

According to AB 1912, passed in September 2022, financially distressed school districts contemplating school closures, mergers, or consolidations must engage the community before closing schools; conduct an equity impact assessment; and provide the public with the set of criteria the district plans to utilize to make decisions.

In the letter, DOJ identified a “problematic” approach to planning for closing schools in 2025-2026 and “strongly recommends” steps OUSD should take going forward.

“Take affirmative steps to ensure that its enrollment and attendance boundary and school closure decisions alleviate school segregation and do not create disproportionate transportation burdens for protected subgroups.”
Don’t solely utilize criteria such as school facilities’ conditions, school operating costs, and school capacity without also including an assessment of past and present inequities in resources “due to educational segregation or other causes.”
Some of OUSD’s proposed guidelines “may improperly penalize schools serving students with disabilities and students who have high needs.”
The district’s decisions should also include “environmental factors, student demographics and feeder attendance patterns, transportation needs, and special programs.”
Avoid overreliance on test scores and other quantitative data without also looking at “how each school is serving the needs of its specific student body, especially as it relates to historically marginalized communities.”
“Engage an independent expert to facilitate community input and equity impact.”

The letter also emphasized that DOJ is willing to provide “feedback and consultation at any time during the process to ensure that OUSD’s process and outcomes are legally compliant and serve the best interests of the school community and all of its students.”