WEBVTT

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Charter

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Schools started with Educators that had a

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vision of how can we do this different and better

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for kids but to take a

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dream of vision and operationalize it

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and make it a reality takes a lot of great

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planning a lot of great leadership talent and teams

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coming together and so some of

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the ones who are successful have have built that

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that Talent those teams and the right skill sets

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around them to take what again is a dream of

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vision of doing something building something

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and doing all the all the hard

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work that it takes to to make it happen when

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the farmers open our first Compass we

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were entrusted with something secret the

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hopes of children and their families

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I think about the first day I

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was super afraid um as 1

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building we were 6 through 12 um all

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together the funniest thing is that the building was

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originally like in a warehouse it was a warehouse I was like oh

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my gosh Mom this is even a real school I just think

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how small it was but how it had such like

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a big impact on you know my life

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moving forward I've seen MSE grow

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so much and take in the advice

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of parents and do what's best for their

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Community growth is very very difficult

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how do we take a great idea operationalize

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that idea but also grow it

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after that their ability very early on and

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and throughout their early years to retain talent

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to keep great teachers to to continue to

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attract families gave me

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organization that's building long-term success as

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the years

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have gone on I've seen the growth

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I've seen our Improvement through

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our students the family

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involvement now we have

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campuses all over Memphis um with you

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know a thousand plus students in our building

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so we've changed and grown but we've really kept

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that kind of community that family feel um throughout

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that growth MSE is definitely

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1 big happy family even though the

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Elementary they have their own thing going on they

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were just all 1 happy family

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when you arrive over there they make you feel welcome

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it is a family MSC

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is really a family they're amazing family

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is everything and a

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doesn't always have to mean blood it

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just means who shows up for you I feel

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we're part of the family because um

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the support the teachers give

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my daughters and myself

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as a parent students are

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able to speak whenever they

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feel like about anything whatever

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happens to them whatever they're feeling

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in any area of the school building

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and with anybody the teacher really

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care about our future they really care about

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Thursday help us improve with the

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growth she have made academically

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she feels more confident with herself and

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I just heard with but all my kids it's

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always been engraved in me you're going to be smart

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you're going to be this you're going to be that so

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it's looking in my applied and I said now I

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just have to use these resources to become something

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better the teachers the counselors they

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helped me more than just passing the test

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or academically they helped me personally they

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make sure that I'm okay outside of

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school they make sure that I can go further in life and

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helped me overall and then a better person and

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if my grades started to drop somebody would come pick

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me up and be like hey we noticing that you're slipping are

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you okay do you need help and they were always there

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to make sure I was okay make sure I didn't need any extra res

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sourcing I am on the

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college path going to college I'm valid Victorian

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this year my top 2 schools are Vanderbilt

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and Tennessee State University I also have

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offers at Columbia

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Yale Harvard and emmer

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I think the school definitely did

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a good job of living up to its name of

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being a School For Excellence um

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I think if it for sure if

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it had not been for MSE I probably would

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have never been as excited

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and ready for college as I was I went

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off to USC went to college came back

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wanted to be a teacher and I was very very

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happy to be able to teach at

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MC so it was a full circle moment

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knowing that the school that

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I graduated from that I was able to then

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go back to that same exact building see

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that it not had only like flourish

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but it had grown to like other campuses

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sitting here at the former student really means a lot um

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that they're kind of coming back

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staying with us after so long is

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pretty amazing this was who

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taught me this is somebody that inspired

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me this is somebody who really

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supported me I know we have some other alumni

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on staff too that I never thought would come back to

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MSE in our um some of our best teachers here

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this is our life's work um you

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know it's personal it's special and so it

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does mean something when you see like over a long period of

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time that an organization has had to impact that it

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has so so to me that's very professionally satisfying

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Memphis School of Excellence has become more than

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just a school

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it is a place where families

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feel like they can rely on it it's

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also a a stable presence that

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supports students Beyond

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no matter where you started

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it's all about where you finish and knowing that excellent

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needs you can finish your dreams

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and reach them you just got to be willing to do

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it if I had to talk to my younger

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version I would say you did it

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you really did it you actually succeeded you

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made every goal you wanted to do I

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fought the biggest accomplishments

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I didn't worry about what other people had

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to say you made it past we're

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at the Finish Line we have to walk the stage

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we're waiting