Dr. Gwin-Miller designed her proposed public charter school to help Memphis students like she was, escape the cycle of poverty

Dr. Alexis Gwin-Miller and a stock photo of Memphis (Photo by Gwin-Miller/Pexels)

Dr. Alexis Gwin-Miller grew up in Memphis facing the same challenges that are holding children back today.

Her mother was a single parent who struggled to support the family and Gwin-Miller says frequently it was a challenge simply to find money to take the bus to school. She credits her mother and teachers for putting her on the path to college, even after she became a mother herself.

“I definitely was experiencing you know the plight of trying to stay the course with education and at the same time get over to a better life,” said Gwin-Miller.

What she learned along the way though is that education alone isn’t always enough to overcome generational poverty.

Gwin-Miller graduated from college and became a math teacher at Memphis’ Kirby High School, but the income alone wasn’t enough to support her own family.

“So, I would find myself being a teacher by day, you know the hairdresser by night. I’m just trying to make sure the ends meet,” said Gwin-Miller. “Even though I grew up, I got the college degree, there still was that repeat generational piece of like once I was divorced, then it was the place of like, I too had to find this place to live for the children and me.”

Gwin-Miller’s personal story is at the heart of the public charter school she’s applied to create in the Southeast Memphis neighborhood where she once attended school. Blueprint College and Career Prep’s education model would incorporate internships, workplace learning, and job shadowing as early as the ninth-grade and ensure children have the skills they need to make a true plan for how education leads to a career.

It’s one of four new public charter schools up for consideration this year in Memphis.

“You’re gonna use those four years in order to set yourself up for success so in other words make a blueprint that when you actually leave high school you have a plan for your life,” said Gwin-Miller. “When a student comes to Blueprint then their gifts and their talents will be realized and they’ll be aligned to different career options.”

Gwin-Miller first became acquainted with the concept when she participated in a charter school incubator program and saw the impact a similar education model was making for students at Hightech High in California.

“I saw children connecting the real world to their education and I saw them having business owners that were saying wow come and do an internship here, and they were developing skill sets that was giving them an opportunity to have employability.  You know like durable skills, soft skills, but also technical skills.” said Gwin-Miller. “I was watching children at Hightech being given job offers while they were in the eleventh-grade to come and work in the summer and when you graduate, hey I want you to be a part of my company.”

Gwin-Miller took those lessons and applied to open a project-based learning public charter school in Memphis in 2017.

Crosstown High School (Photo by Memphis-Shelby Public Schools)

She says the timing wasn’t right for a new school then, but she did incorporate the concept of internships when she took over as principal of the existing Crosstown High School.

Dr. Gwin-Miller at the groundbreaking for Memphis Merit Academy (Photo by Memphis Merit Academy)

Rachel Ellis was one of the first participants in the public charter school’s internship program. Last week Ellis told her story to members of the Memphis-Shelby County School Board who will decide later this summer whether to grant Blueprint’s application.

“If it hadn’t been for her high expectations for my life and other students around me across town, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” said Ellis. “It’s allowed me to have a diverse resume and a diverse background in my career as a videographer and graphic designer. To have internships throughout my high school career and to have a resume built up now.”

Gwin-Miller says she decided to return to the idea of starting a new school this year to help more students improve their career path.

She’s currently serving as the director of schools for Memphis Merit Academy K-8 public charter school and says her work there has further illustrated the need for a high school in Southeast Memphis, that truly prepares students to break generational cycles of poverty.

“I need to finish the work that I started with creating Blueprint College and Career Prep,” said Gwin-Miller. “In Memphis, there’s a whole lot of really nice, educated people, but reality is they live at or below the poverty line. So, in Memphis the generational cycle of poverty has stayed for so long that even the people that go and get educated, they’re not maximizing their earning potential,”