Meet Mikal Driver of Prodigious Academy: Advanced Learning and Character Development

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mikal Driver.

Mikal, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am a results-oriented, adaptable career educator and child/adolescent social development strategist with over five years of professional experience and a hybrid skill set providing expertise to school systems and community programs. Experience includes classroom management consulting, strategic youth development planning, teacher-coaching, and family engagement. Successful track record of delivering presentations, leveraging partnerships, resources and increasing student academic and social growth within the classroom utilizing family-centered basis.

My life consisted of moments where I didn’t take the information and tools around me to practice and put in work that meant something to me. My eyes awakened when I looked at how hard I looked down on myself and I never truly celebrated the small things. Each day I was always trying to be better than the day before. However, the danger in that is I didn’t recognize if I was doing all the work for a purpose or validation due to me being always so hard on the way life was unfolding for me. Looking at the successes of others, I kept feeling like I was behind in the race of life while looking at everyone else run in their lane. Over time I realized that God broke me in order for me to learn how to help others fix their own lane. I also believe that the true understanding of growth is when you realize you never stop, so it’s important to be a lifelong learner. I found this quote back in 2014 and saved it in my notes as a reminder of why my journey was chosen by God to be this way. Don’t know the author but whoever it is I’m grateful and It reads “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space. You’ve done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.” I did exactly what the quote said and now exist Prodigious Academy.

Prodigious Academy is a non-profit experiential learning program supporting kids in southwest of Atlanta and eventually Atlanta altogether until age 26. We are currently at my Alma mater high school Benjamin Elijah Mays. The goal is to be in ten school communities by 2025 where scholars will Lead, Learn, and Compete with whoever they were the day before and keep moving forward. They get sorted into houses kind of like Hogwarts but are African diaspora based and we make micro-communities that have a particular value and unite as whole with what we have learned to support the larger school community to create an infection of positive and progressive energy to increase student holistic success in all endeavors. It’s a program that words can’t explain but the service we provide will.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Pressure makes diamonds and when being an undiscovered jewel, the world does not currently see the true worth of an organization like this. It’s me and the team I have of dedicated individuals who saw my passion for this mission and vision. Each member decided to bring forth something that goes beyond the normal amount of support the average human being receives for a consistent amount of years. No organization has chosen to support a scholar from the elementary age range to the unorthodox age of twenty-six; therefore, a blueprint does not exist until we finish it. The work is hard when you feel like its being underestimated but that’s how we want to feel. It’s the same energy that drives our creativity and innovation that carries the light that will shine for a child that needs us.

Please tell us about Prodigious Academy: Advanced Learning and Character Development.
Prodigious Academy is an advanced learning and character development program set out to enrich urban youth through unconventional and rigorous academic curricula, and expository hands-on opportunities to cultivate 21st-century scholars ready to lead, learn and compete on a domestic and global scale.

Today, we continuously hear stories about urban youth in America that retort, “What if the times were better…” Prodigious Academy: Advanced Learning and Character Development Inc. is that “if,” willing and ready to make a change right now to mold the future. We are a results driven program dedicated to reshaping the minds of urban youth of color to become builders of the future, right now! We are an organization with a set curriculum using 21st Century scholar skills geared towards helping urban youth of color develop an unstoppable love for learning and a pure passion for practice in any endeavor. Prodigious Academy is on a mission to take the members of all generations coming forward 0and turn them into the heroes the world isn’t expecting them to become. We are on a mission to provide a safe, open, and enriching experience that unconventionally allows urban youth to find their way into becoming the exceptional leaders and scholars they choose to be.

​Prodigious Academy will push urban youth to build on failure and use it as a stepping stone.

Prodigious Academy will teach urban youth to close the door on the past that holds them back.

Prodigious Academy will encourage urban youth to remember their mistakes and learn from them, without dwelling on them.

Prodigious Academy will push urban youth to see the positive possibilities in their lives.

By the end of the program, members of Prodigious Academy will be intentionally trained to redirect the substantial energy of their frustrations and fears and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over the only thing I would do differently is pick my head up the first day I let it fall down in doubt the moment I officially purchased the name of the Organization thinking it wasn’t going to work.

Contact Info:

• Address: 3104 King Walk Circle SW
• Phone: 4045181737
• Email: weareprodigiousacademy@gmail.com
• Facebook: Prodigious Academy: Advanced Learning and Character Development INC
• Other: weareprodigiousacademy.org

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