Kathleen Ponze, Guest Blogger
I grew up the daughter of a career army officer and attended fourteen schools before I graduated from high school. Public, parochial, Department of Defense schools, coed…yet an all-girls environment was where I always felt valued and nurtured.
Fast forward almost forty years and I land my dream job: principal of an all girls’ secondary school. But not just any school…The Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem or TYWLS as we like to say!
It just doesn’t get any better than this: Working with girls from age 11 to high school graduation and sending them off to college…the greatest girls you will ever meet… The Young Women’s Leadership Network work with inner city girls who for the most part will be the first in their families to go to college. We have seen tremendous success since the school opened in 1996! Our girls are graduating from college at triple the rate of their peers. They are now out in the world and blazing trails and bringing their wisdom back to their little sisters who are following in their footsteps.
The YWLN motto is Changing Public Education, Changing Lives! How lucky am I to experience the joy of watching a student grow up before my very eyes – from the shy and awkward 6th grader to the assertive and confident 12th grader. The model which creates a safe, nurturing, personalized, and rigorous educational environment for students who would otherwise be shortchanged is proof that no obstacle is too great where there is the will to succeed!
I was the principal of The Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem from ‘01 to ‘06. Founded in 1996 by Ann Rubenstein Tisch who passionately believed in bringing this choice to inner city families, YWLN now has four schools in New York City and affiliate schools in Chicago, Texas, Baltimore, and one that will open in Rochester in 2012. One school has become a movement! There are over 100 single gender public schools across the country today.
Ann’s other brainchild was the CollegeBound Initiative which places a full time college guidance counselor in New York City high schools, both coed and single gender. The success of both of the programs is very gratifying in a time of turmoil for public education (www.ywln.org).
Get out your handkerchiefs and check out some of our videos and I guarantee you will become a fan!
“Our Teachers, Our Heroes” http://youtu.be/rsThLJWnSdo
“By The Numbers” http://youtu.be/SWQTMGdx6AU
“Oh, The Places We’ll Go” http://youtu.be/Rff_7nvTegY
“Better Than Ever” http://youtu.be/uUTHPY_loTs
“We Have A Dream” http://youtu.be/uKOgoNaVlM4
At this stage in my career, I am very excited to be working in partnership with the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS) on a very special project: NCGE: The National Conference on Girls’ Education, February 10-12, 2012 at the Renaissance Marriott in downtown Washington D.C.. We are bringing together all of the girls’ schools, all of the girls’ programs, and all of the luminaries in all girls’ education and research for a weekend of networking, learning, and growing. Our keynote Friday February 10, 2012 is Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a friend and fierce advocate for developing the next generation of leadership.
I know many of our alums will be in attendance and you are welcome to attend as well.
At an open house for incoming students, I showed a video about our schools and saw a young Latina girl in tears. I asked her why she was crying and she said, “I feel like I am worth something now.” That’s what it is all about. Valuing each precious student and going the distance, whatever it takes, to help them reach their goals.
Kathleen Ponze holds a BA in French, a Master’s in French and Romance Philology, and an MA Philosophy all from Columbia University where she taught French and was the first managing editor of Semiotext(e). In 1985 she became a teacher of French and Spanish in NYC. She was selected as the Principal of The Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem in 2001 where she created an exemplary learning community. She was recognized in 2005 by NASSP as one of 10 national Breakthrough High School Principals. She is the recipient of the Harlem Children’s Storefront School Educator of the Year Award. She has presented on the YWL model at numerous conferences. She is working with NCGS on the Advisory Board for the National Conference on Girls’ Education(NCGE) to be held in Washington DC in February 2012.
