Graduation Address
2011 Graduation AddressStacie 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.
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