President - Rashard J. Wright
Rashard Wright, an Educational Administration and Policy Studies doctoral candidate, was elected Holmes Scholar’s Council President in January 2004. Rashard was recently named The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development’s third Holmes Scholar. Joining current GSEHD Holmes Scholars, Doran Gresham and Alyssia James, Rashard is the first to represent the educational administration program, as well as the Hampton Roads Center in Newport News, VA.
Rashard earned his master’s of teaching in secondary English-education and a BA in English, with a minor in African American studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. His current research interests include closing the achievement gap via the identification of factors that perpetuate minority student underachievement, the promotion of underrepresented students in advanced classes, and strategies for combating student anti-intellectualism in the classroom.
Prior to beginning doctoral studies, Rashard studied at the University of Oxford, Exeter College, as a summer scholarship recipient, the University of the West Indies-Cave Hill, as a graduate assistant, and the University of Virginia’s Virginia Citizenship Institute, after being identified as one of Virginia’s top 30 undergraduate students in 1999. While at Virginia Commonwealth University, he received consecutive Black History in the Making Awards (both undergraduate and graduate) for his academic, professional and community efforts.
Rashard is an adjunct professor in English at Virginia Commonwealth University and Bryant and Stratton College, where he teaches composition and rhetoric. He is also a language arts teacher and administrative aide at Manchester Middle School in the Chesterfield County Public School System where he as served in a number of instructional and administrative capacities. As an up-and-coming educational consultant, Rashard has served as forum facilitator, provided curriculum planning and given numerous presentations and lectures at undergraduate and graduate university classes, K-12 commencement ceremonies, Boys and Girls Clubs and churches.
Vice President – Alyssia James
After teaching students for 13 years in Princes George’s Public School System, Alyssia James left her classroom to impact even more students by training teachers. She is currently the Project Director of three alternative certification routes in special education: The Elementary Special Education Program --under a U.S. Department of Education grant--, Teach For America, and The New Teacher Project – DC Teaching Fellows. She is training future special educators.
Alyssia is a native of Washington D.C. She presently lives in Maryland. Alyssia received her Bachelor of Science degree in Early Childhood Education from Norfolk State University. She began her graduate work at The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development, where she earned her Master of Arts in Early Childhood Special Education. Presently, she is working toward her Ed.D in Special Education at The George University in Special Education.
At the Seventh Annual Holmes Partnership Conference in Washington, DC, Alyssia was elected to the office of Vice President. This was her first Holmes Conference as well as her first time being a scholar. She has participated in the Holmes Partnership Second Summer Institute, in June 2003. She believes that scholars must take a “grass roots” approach to learning about the Holmes Partnership and the contribution that each scholar can make to this organization. She believes that one-day the Holmes Scholar name will be recognized with other prominent scholars!
We’d like to welcome our new Holmes Historian and first-year Holmes Scholar, Willette Young. We also thought that you might like to know a little about her…
Willette was born and raised in Miami, Florida. She went to Florida
International University and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Special
Education. Shortly after finishing her bachelors, she began working on her
Master’s at University of Miami. While pursuing her masters, Willette continued
to teach full time at Nautilus Middle School in Miami Beach, Florida as well as
work with young children with special needs. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D.
in Exceptional Education. Her continuous work with exceptional children derives
from her love of the profession. Inspired by a biography on the legendary
teacher, Mary McLeod Bethune and motivated by her parents, who were educators
for more than twenty years, Willette made the decision to become a teacher. She
has made many contributions to her local community and abroad such as a leading
an AIDS awareness workshop in Africa, overseeing a community mentor program, and
assisting with the building of a school in Jamaica. Willette’s focus of
research is pre-kindergarten students with disabilities and their families. In
addition,
to working with early childhood, Willette has had the opportunity to work with
Discovery Middle School through the Holme partnership. Willette plans to devote
the same passion and tenacity to Holmes as she does her other pursuits.
Research Coordinator -- Antoinette M. Rogers
Antoinette M. Rogers is a founding Holmes Scholar Council member and the Research Coordinator. She is a third-year student in the Instructional Leadership track of the Ph.D. program in Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her cognate is Higher Education. Her research interests include teacher recruitment and retention for underrepresented groups, culturally responsive pedagogy, mentoring and increasing minority presence in higher education.
A third generation educator, Antoinette is a native of Richmond, Virginia and is a product of that city's public school system. She attended Hampton University, where she earned a B.S. in Early Childhood/Elementary Education in 1991. She holds the M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Virginia Commonwealth University and anticipates completing her doctorate in 2005.
Antoinette worked as an elementary teacher and library media specialist in the Richmond Public Schools for ten years prior to becoming a collateral faculty member and full-time doctoral student at VCU.
She is involved in many church and community activities and is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
One of her favorite quotes is, "Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education." ---- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr