Reconnecting with My CPS Elementary School

Like many members of the District’s Central Office, I spent the first few days of the school year supporting a CPS school. I was lucky enough to be assigned to the elementary school I graduated from: Richard Edwards Elementary School. 

When you enter Edwards, one of the first features you might notice is a colorful mural outside of the main office. It highlights the “ABCs of Chicago” by featuring landmarks from across the city. If you look at the bottom left corner, you’ll see the names of the students who worked on this mural back in 1999. One of those names is mine. 

Helping out at Edwards so many years later caused me to reflect on my experience there and how it led me to where I am today. My time in CPS was the foundation I needed to become a first-generation college student, which I was especially proud of coming from a neighborhood in the South Side of the city where I didn’t know any adults with college degrees other than my teachers.

Because I was charting my own path, I relied on my counselors, advisors, and other support staff to help me understand the opportunities that were out there for me. This prompted me to pursue a career in higher education to help support students who were transitioning to universities. 

I left Chicago for more than a decade, and, when I returned, I saw that it had made a lot of progress but still had college enrollment achievement gaps that connected to larger inequities. 

Being able to support CPS and the Chicago Roadmap felt like a golden opportunity for me. It was fairly seamless to transition from working on the college side of educational transitions to the K-12 side. In my role, I’m able to support events and programming that help CPS students achieve postsecondary success. 

You may think of this work as only benefiting high school students, but CPS is ensuring that students at elementary schools like Edwards also see what is possible for them in the future. For example, we host middle school students at our Spotlight Days, which are field trips that allow students to tour a City Colleges of Chicago campus and learn more about the opportunities there. 

When I was at Edwards, I was a straight-A student, and I attribute that to my teachers. They were so dedicated and inspired me to come to school every day and grow academically from their guidance. As a student with a speech impediment, I was also grateful for the wraparound supports from other staff members. 

Helping out at the start of the school year felt like I was following in the footsteps of those who had supported me, even for just a few days. I still remembered the building layout well enough to escort students to their new classrooms. 

I hope that students at Edwards, and across CPS, take the time to build relationships with the adults at their schools this school year. The advice they receive can be instrumental in helping them be successful. 

Maybe someday, years from now, they will be able to return to Edwards as an adult and reflect on how far they’ve come—just as I was able to this year.