A product of Park View Elementary, Shaw Junior High, and Dunbar Senior High, Keisha Henderson Owens went on to earn her BA in English and a Masters of Education at Howard University before returning to DCPS as a teacher at Ludlow-Taylor. Sixteen years later, Mrs. Owens shows her students every day that she believes in them and will not accept any excuses for not putting their best foot forward. “When they tell me they can’t, I show them they can,” she says. She tries to emulate her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Williams, by making every student feel like they are smart, special, lovable, and able to conquer the world. Mrs. Owens is committed to doing whatever it takes to encourage her class, explaining, “I will sing, dance, and try my hand at rapping if that’s what it takes to get the message across.”

Mrs. Owens says that Ludlow-Taylor feels like one big family, where “everyone knows everyone, and we all work together” to ensure students’ success. She has made herself an active part of this community, serving as teacher lead, WTU Building Representative, Afterschool for All Coordinator, and as a member of the School Chapter Advisory Committee and the Local School Advisory Team. Mrs. Owens insists that her favorite part of her job is “seeing my students’ faces when they realize they can no longer say, ‘I can’t do it,’ because they are doing the very same task they said they couldn’t complete.”