By Mary Willson, Communication Intern
A phone call can represent many
life changes. The death of a loved one, the arrival of the youngest member of a
family, the return of an old friend. Or, the start of something no one can
imagine.
Academy of Hope was started when
Marja answered a phone call from Gayle, a friend from church asking if she
wanted to help teach GED students. The two had no idea that,
this very conversation would be the roots for an adult charter school serving
over 500 students a year, thriving 30 years later.
Looking back on the phone call,
Marja recalls she was waiting for it subconsciously. She was ready for her calling. She just wasn't expecting it to come so literally.
Having taught school before in Minnesota, Marja was passionate about education but her teaching license didn't transfer to
Washington, DC where her family had relocated to join the Church of the Saviour.
The church is rooted in
the mission of members going out in the world and making change. “Money, prestige,
power isn't important. You need to follow your deepest desire to where it meets
the pain of the world.” She explains the
church is based on calling and mission, which seems fitting looking back on her
journey.
She prayed about it, and joined Gayle, who was
teaching through the Church’s job program, Jubilee Jobs. “She didn't want to do
it alone anymore. So, now there were two of us.” The two rented a room in the Church’s
apartment building for low-income community members. It was meant to be a guard room, but the
building couldn't afford a guard. It was $50 rent.
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Top: Marja, Gayle and first student, Linda.
Bottom: Marja and Gayle at the new building, built in 2007,
22 years after they started teaching together
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Both teachers knew two students who
wanted their GED’s. Their first class was those four, meeting three hours a
day, four days a week. She reflects that they were like a family.
Word of mouth spread, and by their
second year they had taught 19 students. But one of those original students
became a co-founder, right along with her teachers. Linda Brown was the first
Academy of Hope Graduate.
“I remember her saying ‘I just can’t
wait to get off dole [government funding].’ Even though she had four young
children, she made it to every class and did all her homework.” She would make
up her own assignments. “She said one day, ‘why don’t I write a book report?’ A
book report had never occurred to me!” Marja remembers with a laugh. There was no training
program at that time to teach GED. “Linda was instrumental to learning how to
teach GED.”
On her second try, she passed the
test after 18 months working with Marja and Gayle. “She was a really good
learner. She was a straight arrow, with nothing holding her back.”
After the excitement of getting
Linda through the program, Gayle moved on to another mission. Marja expanded
the school on her own, recruiting new students and teachers.
“I just worked day by day, caring
for the people who were there.”
A memorable moment in the growth of
the school came with a friend of the Church, a nuclear physicists helped Marja
write a fundraising letter with the first computer she had ever seen. That was
in 1986. The program was in the basement of that building for eight years.
The school has been called Academy
of Hope since day 1, when Gayle came up with the name. Marja said “felt too
hokey” to her. “But it has served us very well. It really has,” for one,
starting with an “A” is good for search results, especially in the time of
phone books. “One of my very memorable students, came here because of the “hope” in Academy of
Hope. [The student] saw ‘hope’ and said
that’s what I need, ‘hope’”. Marja thinks Oprah found the school in 2003
for the Angel Network Award through the name.
After 70 students were enrolled and
30 volunteers were teaching, Marja hired the first Executive Director. “It was
always kind of step by step. This is what needs to be done now. Either back
track and shrink, or meet the demand. So we wanted to grow.”
A major part of the school’s growth
was friend Tom Brown. He left his career at the Labor Department to join The
Hope as a full time teacher, working for free. “Without him I don’t think we
would have made it. He was more than a cornerstone,” Marja explained reflecting
on how having Tom to talk to and share in the daily challenges of the school
was priceless.
While it may sound that Marja spent
all her time at the school, she has a husband and three children as well. When
asked about parenting while starting the school, she ponders and says “There’s
no perfection in this life.” The family had always lived in a community based
around church projects or her husband’s organization, Josephs House, a house
serving homeless men and women suffering from AID’s.
“One day I came home and
my son had a bandage on his head. He had fallen and hit is head on the corner of a dumpster
when he was running in an alley. The nurse [at Josephs house] had just sewed it up. That’s when I realized I should be around more,” she says with a
reminiscent smile on her face.
Marja and her husband are expecting
their 4th grandchild this year.
She has been a teacher for most of
her adult life, and with Academy of Hope going on 29 years. It is apparent her
passion for teaching goes beyond the classroom.
“I always thought that one of the things
we need to offer is encouragement. That there is hope that something good can
come out of all this effort. Education is a long and strenuous process, you
just have to keep at it.
We want to be a school where all of us are both students and teachers care for each other because all of us
need to be cared for.
If your students don’t feel that
you care for them, they will not care for learning in your class. They will not
care for their learning. They can’t. People need to feel the support. So you
have to create that emotional connection for people to feel comfortable and
valued.”
The funny thing is, Marja has touched
dozens, if not hundreds of lives through her years of teaching. But she has
never had a teacher touch her life.
“ I just came from such a different
world. Teachers were stern, discouraging. My parents kept telling me I was
smart but often teachers made us feel like only one of the students in the
class was smart.” And that student Marja explains, wasn't her.
But her passion doesn't come from
the past, it comes from a deep rooted appreciation of helping others.
“There’s no greater joy than being
part of someone else’s success, it’s almost better than your own success! In
your own success there’s pressure to succeed again, to keep growing. But It’s just pure joy being a coach or a
teacher. Of course there are many challenges but I think life is meant to be
challenging, and I have to keep reminding myself of that.”
Marja has seen the Academy of Hope
grow from four to four-hundred.
“I’m concerned that the student
will continue to receive the support that they need. As organizations grow, special
needs must be taken. It’s a challenge to make a setting available for every
student for the emotional needs to be met as well. Safe and encouraged,” she
explains. But she sees the plus side in the career opportunities, social
services and the opportunities that Academy of Hope will be able to give the
students this coming year, as the school re-opens as a charter school.
Marja will keep helping others, no
matter how big the school gets. She mentors young people from her church,
babysits former student’s children and still tutors at the Hope.
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| Majra leading a walk for the homeless |
“I really want to continue to be
active in those kinds of ways, to be connected with striving people. It’s
always been satisfying me with people who are pushing forward. I don’t think I’ll
ever retire to a rocking chair.”
Marja
will give the commencement speech at graduation in a few weeks. She is taking
the task seriously, hoping that her words can reach a few graduates, which is
nerve-racking for her despite how many lives she has already changed through
her 30 year journey with Academy of Hope.
While
asking about her future, Marja reflected on the Hope’s future beyond the
physical growth. Her statement speaks for itself and will help guide the staff,
students and volunteers as many transitions take place over the next few
months.
“I hope
that Academy of Hope will be a learning community that will not leave people
behind but where both teachers and students will be encouraged to discover their
gifts and put them to use.”
