5 years in, a Pitt summer academy is helping students see themselves as teachers

For five years, a University of Pittsburgh summer academy has been building something the teaching profession badly needs: young people who want to lead classrooms, and who reflect the students they will one day teach.

The School of Education’s Genius, Joy, and Love academy annually brings participants to campus for an immersive four weeks each summer. This year marked the program’s fifth anniversary.

The academy was founded in 2022 by then-dean Valerie Kinloch, now president of Johnson C. Smith University, as a gift to the School of Education. Its aim has held steady: to inspire students of color, notably future Black educators, to enter a profession where they remain sharply underrepresented.

In Pennsylvania, about 7% of public school teachers are people of color, even as students of color make up roughly 40% of the state’s classrooms, according to the commonwealth Department of Education’s most recent educator workforce report. State education officials have called Pennsylvania’s teaching workforce the least diverse in the country.

Program director Shallegra Moye frames that gap as more than a numbers problem.

“There’s this really serious cultural, social, economic mismatch between the teacher and the students and families and communities they’re serving,” Moye said.

Over four weeks, scholars receive mentorship, a college-preparation curriculum and a stipend, along with lessons in the deeper craft of teaching. The academy has grown each summer to about 20 scholars, each attending or having graduated from charter or Pittsburgh Public Schools campuses whose students are eligible for the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship.

This year’s group is made up of mostly rising high school seniors, college first-years and sophomores spread across several universities, each aiming toward a career in education.

Moye ties the work back to the three words in the program’s name.

“Genius, the value of what you are already gifted in. Joy, teaching and learning is joy. Love, it can be detrimental or helpful,” she said. “Genius, joy, and love are inevitable unless they are blocked by barriers. Schools and teachers can be barriers. Please don’t be a barrier.”

Elijah Warren, a rising junior at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, is a three-time alumnus of the academy, taking part most recently as an education leadership intern helping mentor this summer’s scholars. A former Advancing Educators of Color scholar, he came in as a peer mentor and grew into a leadership role, learning to lean less on others and more on himself.

“The Genius, Joy, and Love Scholarship Academy has strengthened my confidence and purpose,” Warren said. “It taught me that I matter as an educator.”

A first-generation college student, Warren plans to pursue secondary education in health and physical education and return to teach. He urges other students to leap boldly, stay authentic and become the change their future classrooms need.

“I know my presence matters. Representation is powerful, especially for students who may not often see educators who look like them,” he said. “I want to be a teacher who inspires students to believe in themselves by showing up authentically every day.”