When we reached Ms. Cook last week, she was tired and happy. Her exhaustion was filled with motivation and she was on the cusp of a much needed second wind. Since we first featured her, the school has put out two more detailed newsletters, selected its Board of Directors, secured a location, and updated its website that began as a single page. We visited Channa earlier in the year and she was handing out T-Shirts, pencils, and cups featuring Truth Academy’s logo, tagline, and contact information. Amidst countless meetings, evaluation reports, conferences, seeking more funding, securing a charter, interviewing administrators and staff all while hiring just the right teachers, she’s been tenaciously recruiting the nearly 100 students who will serve as the school’s founding class. Through it all, the school's five pillars of Pride, Respect, Unity, Accountability, and Perseverance have guided her. In fact Channa has consistently exhibited all of these attributes and many more. Building a school from the ground up is tough, painstaking work requiring an incredible amount of detail, finesse, patience, and a kind of persistence only someone who has undertaken the task herself can understand. Not one to pat her back or rest on her laurels, Channa sees each bridge she crosses to her ultimate goal of an open and fully enrolled school as an item on her to-do list rather than a cause to celebrate. One of her few faults is that she doesn’t congratulate herself enough on an undertaking that most would shrink from.
Of course the last year hasn’t all been about work. Channa experienced her first Mardi Gras that included a parade right by her front doorstep. She’s worked hard to maintain her friendships and will soon be purchasing property in the city that will be her home until Truth Academy is self-sustaining. Channa won’t rest until the school is a certified success in the eyes of the two women who are dedicating their present lives to founding it. She also hasn’t ruled out adding another degree to her impressive pile, but that will have to wait. For the time being, Truth Academy is her first, fifth, and tenth priority. Founding a school is all about long term building. It will be at least four years before her first students graduate from high school and another four to six after that before they receive their first college degrees. Channa has a lot of work ahead of her, but beyond that work and all the anxieties that go with it, she has a lot of rewards headed her way as well. She is directly shaping the next generation of African American students from a city and an area that many wrote off the map years ago. She understands this and has still chosen to reexamine the map and provide some new pathways and fresh direction to students who are just meeting her this year. But eventually, we know that her smile will be among the first they look to when they receive their diploma, their degrees, and a self-defined empowerment stemming from the guidance she provided.
Onyx Cranium salutes Channa M. Cook one more time because once simply isn’t enough. Actually, when it comes to both Channa and Kristin, we think the namesake of their school said it best:
Want to aide history in the making and be a part of Truth Academy’s progress?
You should.
