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Lewis Hicks knows as well as anyone how critical a college degree can be to creating opportunity. The first member of his family ever to go to college, and a gifted baseball player, Hicks walked onto the team at Temple University. Four months after graduating with a degree in Criminal Justice, he was playing semi-professional baseball when a severe motorcycle accident ended his baseball career. His recovery required installing a titanium rod, and that spoiled his shot at his second career aspiration: serving on a special tactical team within law enforcement. Hicks lay awake at night in Manhattan’s Hospital for Special Surgery, listening to motorcycles roar by.
As he considered new career options, Hicks remembered working as a youth advocate while at Temple University. He toured high school students he worked with through Temple’s campus, and learned they had never considered college. The students told him that if they had someone like him at their school, they would have.
After recovering from his surgeries, Hicks began his 28-year teaching career. He served as a Math teacher and a dean of culture in both public and charter schools, including with Melissa Melkonian many years before she founded The American Dream School. Seven years ago, Melissa asked Hicks to join American Dream as its Middle School Physical Education and Health teacher. Hicks was initially hesitant, but Melkonian knew he would elevate the role.
“I do coaching, carpooling, I lend a hand, I volunteer. Being with kids all of the time, you tend to understand how they think,” says Hicks, who says being a father of children of similar ages also helps. “I leave my door open and I’m very transparent with my students. My relationship-building with kids comes naturally.”
Hicks can also relate to most American Dream students in having faced adversity as a first-generation-to-college student of color. Hicks’ parents grew up separately in rural Alabama and moved to New York in search of economic opportunity. He began college on a full baseball scholarship at another university but left after experiencing racism in college social life. When he transferred to Temple University, his mother took on a second job to help pay for his first two semesters until he went on athletic scholarship.
Hicks plans to finish his teaching career with The American Dream School. “This school is unique for the way it’s geared towards helping both the English Language Learner and any learner who has fallen behind. There’s a willingness of all teachers to put their hands in, to bridge this gap and level the playing field so all kids can have access to the same education and become model citizens in this community. At the end of the day, no one here is going to retire rich but we will retire rich in human experience and the betterment of humanity.”
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