While she had read about the achievement gap in textbooks in college, AmeriCorps member Ilaina Smith had never truly witnessed the disparities that exist and the challenges that students of color face in schools until she started her first year of service in the fall of 2017. Wanting to help establish structures to support these students during her AmeriCorps service through Partners for After School Success (PASS) at Cherokee Heights Middle School in Madison, she had several raw conversations with her supervisor, Reginald Lee, about what actions could be taken to help their students during her first service year. Reginald had lived all sides of this issue, as African-American who not only grew up and attended public schools in Madison, but was also a PASS alumnus as well, so his mentorship on this issue was invaluable. 

While considering what to do following her service year during an alternative spring break trip to the Shenandoah Valley, she realized that she felt momentum building for these efforts and decided to complete a second year of AmeriCorps service. During the latter part of her first service year and now during her second year, Ilaina has worked to support Reginald Lee and in conjunction with the Madison School and Community Recreation to create the Scholars of Excellence program at Cherokee Heights. 

Through its four core values of self-value, education, leadership, and career, the Scholars of Excellence program aims to help students navigate the barriers they face inside and outside of the classroom. After interviewing students during the previous school year, the program has been working this year to foster growth, high expectations, and accountability within a cohort of 25 African-American and Hispanic students. The program has been collaboratively structured to provide expanded encouragement and support within the community of participating students, working to help these students build self-value and celebrate the beauty of being a person of color in addition to refining their academic skills. Ilaina hopes that they are able to help students form a space where they can be a system of support for each other and receive help from caring adults in managing their growth. During the first half of the school year, the participating students have seen a steady gain in their academic and behavioral performance and have created a small collaborative village that will hopefully continue to help them strive and thrive in the future.

Ilaina feels that the students are definitely in her life and that she has become incredibly integrated into the school through expanding these connections, further building upon her work with the students she tutors during the school day and giving Ilaina an opportunity to continue working with many of the same students across both of her years of service. She is hopeful that Scholars of Excellence will have a lasting impact on her students and that the program continues to develop at the school and have a positive impact in decreasing the achievement gap.

For more information on Ilaina and the Scholars of Excellence program, please access the following links: