On Friday and Saturday twice a month, while others may be winding down or catching up on sleep, a group of principals and education leaders huddle in a university classroom for eight hours each day. They’re listening, discussing, and writing. What they’re doing can have huge impacts on the schools and offices they lead, on students across DC, and on our city itself. These are the Executive Master’s in Leadership candidates, part of a program led by Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and District of Columbia Public Schools.
By signing up, students embark on a 10-month journey to become more reflective, more strategic, more communicative, more influential, more empathetic, more confident, more trustworthy, more passionate, and ultimately, better leaders. The leaders become the students.
Meet a few of them.
Sean Davis
Hendley Elementary School
Beers Elementary. Sousa Middle School. Banneker High. University of the District of Columbia. Trinity Washington University. Sean Davis’ background is textbook D.C., and he brings a deep knowledge of the city and its neighborhoods to his work as the principal of Hendley Elementary School.
It’s a far cry from being a zoologist or artist, his original plan.
Those plans changed when he started working with students. He had tutored athletes in college, and after undergrad, a teacher reached out and asked if he could support their school. Mr. Davis loved science so he ended up teaching it for a few years. The rest is history.
“My first five years made me feel like a rock star. I really connected with the kids," he said. "I used parts of 'The Blob' movie to teach movement. I would play basketball with the boys. By my second year, it didn’t feel like another job. It felt like for life.”
After working at other schools, including Simon Elementary School, Mr. Davis moved to Hendley, becoming principal in 2009.
A few years later, he started hearing about a program at Georgetown. “I saw people who are sharp and who had made some pretty great results. I found out they were in the program and thought I should look into it since I wanted to grow as a leader and principal,” he said.
It was a decision he would not regret. The program taught him how to have more productive conversations with staff and parents. It helped him come up with the idea to videotape model lessons for teacher interviews. And most of all, it helped inform his thoughts about shaping school culture.
Mr. Davis already had his own idea to create a great school culture—he hands thank you cards to staff, face-to-face so they can see his appreciation—and recognizes all student birthdays and good behavior in students. “My goal is for these students to see what we do, and then do something for someone else,” he said.
But he knew more could be done.
“We connected every paper in the EML program to a challenge or problem in the school,” he said. For example—after his class discussion on vision and mission, his team put together a retreat to craft a mission statement, and to formulate how to build a calmer and more nurturing school environment. This included everything from giving teachers a larger space to teach, to standardizing rules for behavior for each classroom, and building on the reward/incentive system for kindness (“Hendley bucks”) that already existed.
“The program has helped me to lead teachers and staff around the idea that our job is to make children’s lives better,” said Mr. Davis.
Tynika Young
Eliot-Hine Middle School
People from across the country move into D.C. hoping to change the city and the world. Tynika Young is not one of them.
Instead, she’s a native Washingtonian who has always felt a pull to stay in her hometown.
“Lots of individuals come into our city with great ideas and motives, but it’s important to have people from here to be a part of that change as well,” she said.
From an early age, Ms. Young knew she wanted to do this through education. She started out at Ballou High School as a teacher and then a coordinator, then moved to Columbia Heights Education Campus as an assistant principal, and finally Eliot-Hine Middle School as principal in 2011.
Despite having her share of education degrees (from college all the way through grad school), Ms. Young jumped at the chance to participate in the Executive Master’s in Leadership program at Georgetown.
“It wasn’t another education degree. I’ve done teaching and instruction training before, but this was just about being a leader,” she said.
Thinking outside the box. Coming up with a mission and vision. Decision making. Difficult conversations. Putting yourself out there with parents and community members. These were just a few topics that came up in her classes at Georgetown that pushed her to think more broadly about leading Eliot-Hine.
“I come to work with more passion and purpose,” she said. “Our leaders have learned to be smarter and more strategic, and how to be more thoughtful about every decision and how it will affect our students. We make extra efforts to communicate better with parents and students. It’s strengthened our community.”
Rikki Taylor
Takoma Education Campus
Rikki Taylor’s dream was to set up democratic systems in French-speaking countries in Africa.
She didn’t end up doing that. Instead, she sets students up for success in an English-speaking school, Takoma Education Campus, in Washington, D.C.
“I got a volunteer position in day care and just fell in love with children. I came to DCPS in 1999 and have been here ever since,” she said. She taught early childhood education at Simon Elementary, worked at central office, then moved to Takoma EC in 2008.
“Watching kids grow and develop into wonderful young adults is the best part of my job,” she said. “Last year I graduated the kids who started with me as 3rd graders. To see them grow into 14-year-olds going to high school--that’s what keeps me coming back every year. “
Today, she’s also an Executive Master’s in Leadership graduate and a doctoral student in education at University of Pennsylvania. All this education feeds directly into her job as principal at Takoma.
“In the EML program, I was able to sit around other leaders and learn from them,” said Ms. Taylor. “The program gave me time to reflect on who I am as a person and how I lead. It put me in a space where I can think of myself in context of my school and how my leadership can shape the lives of the children in my care. It gave us leaders an opportunity to rejuvenate ourselves.”
“My school is a better school because I’m a better leader,” she said. “I can provide more programs for the kids, hire better teachers, be a better partner to families, and embrace my community in a stronger way when I am a better leader. “
Mary Ann Stinson
Truesdell Education Campus
Mary Ann Stinson felt that familiar thrill. Not only the thrill, but the challenge, satisfaction, and joy that come from teaching right after college, several years ago. But because life is life, she did not return to education until almost two decades later, after a successful career in pharmaceutical sales. She got back into the classroom. The thrill was still there.
“My love for education never stopped. I had volunteered for my son’s school and as a teacher at the Science Museum of Virginia, but I realized I wanted to get back into the classroom,” she said.
After a stint in Richmond public schools, she came to DC Public Schools in 2010 as principal at Truesdell. Despite having a master’s in administration and supervision, she was instantly intrigued by the idea of a master’s in leadership.
“Leadership is not a bed of roses,” she said. The rigorous program “helped me understand that leadership is not about calm waters. It’s about turbulent and trying situations and learning how to navigate.”
And it would directly apply to her school. She brought back what she learned to her team to refine their vision and mission for Truesdell: to be a model school where students are scholars and leaders. For the staff, it’s to be servant-leaders to their students.
“On Day One we learned about Georgetown’s culture of service. That’s the part that spoke most to me,” said Ms. Stinson. “We are servant-leaders. That means that we are here to the children of DCPS and each other. I love to see the boys and girls come to our school every day, to see the families and staff cheering on kids at a soccer game, to see children grow to love poetry and reading. These are the children I serve.”