Graduation Address

Stacie Kossoy ’97 is the Founding Principal of her own early childhood charter school in inner-city Washington DC. Grow Academy is part of the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) national network of charter schools whose mission is to prepare students in underserved communities for success in college and in life. They start early. Grow Academy has 100 prekindergartners this first year. They’ll add a grade level each year until there are nearly 300 students in Preschool, Pre-k and Kindergarten. It was Stacie who named the school “because I wanted it to be a place where kids and teachers grow every day,” she says.

KIPP’s mission is to see students to and through college, and to make sure they become productive citizens of the world. Sound familiar? The similarities to the TCS mission are striking. Stacie is working hard to make sure her students receive what she characterizes as the “worldclass education they deserve.” One of the KIPP tenants is “whatever time it takes,” she says. That means 12-hour days are the norm. But she loves it. “To dream this school and build it,” she says, “I have the best job!”

Stacie majored in sociology at Grinnell College, then spent two years with Teach for America before joining KIPP DC: Leap Academy as a founding teacher. After two years, she was offered the opportunity to be Founding Principal of her own school, KIPP DC: Grow Academy. says.

Graduation Address 2011

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