Life has been busy for Muna Olaniyi ever since the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission unanimously approved her dream of opening a career based public charter school to serve families in Orange Mound and South Memphis.
Empower Memphis Career and College Prep remains on track to open in the fall 2024, but Olaniyi says there are still a lot of important decisions to make before then.
“I’m very excited. The whole process is just being able to number one, kind of see the vision come to life. Yes, it’s a rollercoaster ride of emotions, of course, but it’s exciting to be able to say we have a plan and see that towards action, actually hit some of our milestones or our wins that we’ve actually put in place,” said Olaniyi.
The two big goals Olaniyi is focused on now are finding the right facility to use and recruiting parents who might be interested in the unique education model.
Empower Memphis will serve grades K-8 and offer a career and technical education model (CTE) along with a “two-generation” approach intended to serve the needs of students and their families struggling with poverty.
Olaniyi is currently hosting different engagement events with daycares and community centers to introduce this educational vision to families.
“It’s been really, really great. The thing about it, what is exciting about families is that it’s a new model that is not currently in place in Memphis. We do have charters in Memphis, and there’s a cluster of traditional public schools, (but) the simple version is ‘from crayons to careers: cultivating career mindsets.’ That’s kind of our tagline.”
Empower Memphis will allow students the opportunity to learn about different professions within an industry, learn about necessary credentials, obtain internship opportunities, and attend field trips centered around the profession they want to pursue.
Family members will get a chance to engage in this model and the space it cultivates as well.
The school will offer families opportunities to learn resume writing, public speaking, and building career expectations for themselves so that both the students and their families can excel together.
Olaniyi said it’s an education model that’s needed in Memphis.
“Just hearing families being excited about the model because it’s unique, but then also the families who have not had the best experiences in education or are still trying to find out what they’re going to be doing now as adults, having the opportunity to be a resource for them to help them see that.”
Olaniyi’s goal is to open the enrollment window from January 9 to Feb 9, 2024. If more students apply than Empower Memphis has space for, the school will utilize a lottery process on February 19.
Determining what school building those students will attend classes in remains an ongoing process for Empower Memphis. Olaniyi doesn’t plan to build a new space from the ground up and is instead evaluating facilities to renovate. She’s identified multiple candidates and hasn’t ruled out utilizing a temporary facility next year if the ideal long-term school building isn’t available.
“The building that we want, that I really want right away, is basically the long-term site. Meaning that we will grow in that area. If we don’t get that site, then we have incubator spaces,” said Olaniyi. “The incubator spaces are like spaces that we’ll use for maybe two or three years until we find the permanent site.”
Empower Memphis will open with grades K-2 and will continue to add grades each year until it reaches eighth-grade.
