Exploring Life & Business with Dr. Mayreather Willis of Challenge Preparatory Academy

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Mayreather Willis.

Hi Dr. Willis, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
My story starts as a 5-year-old girl who was born in Camilla, Georgia, but who grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey. I was born exactly one month before Dr. King was famous. I have a dream speech in Washington DC. My next connection with Dr. King was hearing my mom screaming. They’re going to kill us all in 1968. I was five years old when my parents left the state of Georgia, and fear headed towards Plainfield, New Jersey, where I grew up.

As I reflect on these two moments in time, now I clearly see a destiny. I recall arriving in the city from the south I remember a childhood surrounded by people that I loved, and who loved my parents. I don’t recall experiencing any laws that prohibited my family from thriving while living in Georgia. Still, I have too many memories of what can happen to a family when they are not connected to their community or family. My parents arrived in New Jersey.

I think late 1969 or early 1970, when I am sure is May 1975, my mom, at the age of 31, with a husband and five children, died giving birth to her sixth child. As a result, life changed drastically for my siblings and me. My dad did the best he could, but it wasn’t enough to fulfill her dream for her own life and for her children. I dropped out of school my first semester in the ninth grade between that year and the year 1981.

I drifted until I met a US Army recruiter at the age of 16 for whatever reason this recruiter saw me hanging out in the streets and gave me his card, not wanting others to know I acted as if I was throwing the card away and I gave him a lashing with my vial mouth. I eventually went to his office and there I was surrounded by people that gave me a sense of belonging.

These recruiters invested in me and helped me to study and enroll in a GED program. By 1980, I had my GED, and after four times attempting to take the ASVAB, I finally passed and entered the US Army as a reservist at the age of 18. Enlisting in the army reminded me of something familiar from my childhood before moving to Plainfield, New Jersey: a sense of community and family. While I was in the military through training, I realized how much I loved to learn, so much so that I knew I wanted to pursue more education opportunities outside of the military, and so I did.

During this time in my life, my dad gave me something that was the end of my siblings. He gave me my report card from when I was in the fifth grade. This report card took my breath away. I had missed over 40 days of school, F’s and D’s, and was unsatisfactory for the first three grading periods. The teacher talked about my temper and how bad it was. Yet I was promoted to the sixth grade, and reflection that put me on the path to drop out of school the first nine weeks of high school, though I was able to enlist in the military.

I always felt a sense of dumbness I laughed at that word, but that’s what I felt, Yes, I could read and do basic math, but I couldn’t comprehend to analyze what was beyond a basic manual and understand what the words were asking of me. By this time in my life, I had two children of my own and I just could not imagine for one second that my children would drop out of school and that my children would not enjoy school as I had not enjoyed school at all.

My passion for education was seeded in me long before pursuing my dream of starting Challenge Preparatory Academy. My backstory is how I got here. It defines the passion that I have to create a space for children to learn in an environment that has a sense of community and family to create an academic program that is rigorous and exploratory, an adventurous program that allows them to discover their own passions for the arts, sciences, and abilities to lead others.

At the end of my military journey, I was married to children with special needs and I assumed realize if I did not advocate for my child, no one was going to do it for me, which was what happened to me. As a leader of the school, I recognize that parents make decisions for many reasons, and most often, parents do not consider the impact of their life journey on their children’s education outcomes.

My parents made decisions that let them down a path that had an impact on my education journey. It’s bittersweet; I feel sadness for the tragedies that fell upon my parents, and at the same time, I am grateful because they gave me resilience that has taken me on a journey that has allowed me to live my dream.

I continued my education as a military wife and earned my bachelor’s degree in human resource management. After 20 years of marriage through a divorce, I earned my master’s degree and K-12 curriculum and instruction. I began my education specialist and doctorate degree, curriculum, and leadership so that I could have a voice in a profession that I love and become a change agent in the lives of the educators and children I encountered.

Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
The struggles I experienced… I can best describe it as a break up I was so disenchanted it was like breaking up with the love of my life! Like breaking up with a boyfriend that you love, that could do no wrong in your eyes then suddenly you realize that he is not as perfect as you thought that is what I experienced when I stepped out in 2010 to bring a charter school to Augusta Georgia.

During this time, Georgia had not changed its state constitution to allow state-funded charter schools, but schools like Kipp were popping up in Georgia, and so I thought, if they can do it, I can do it… my resilience is at play. When I first mentioned a charter school to a group of educators, I thought I had a red letter placed on my back. It was crazy how people responded to me: you’re going to take money away from the system, you are not giving back, you are not going to be supported, you are turning your back on education; it was overwhelming.

So I left the education system here in Georgia and moved to Virginia, where I began working for Dept. of Defense education activity school system, eventually watched what was going on with bringing Charter Schools to Georgia, and I knew that it was not going to be as easy as I thought it would be so I took a position as, an assistant principal in Germany while in Germany, watching the election during 2012, that is when the citizens of Georgia voted to change the constitution of Georgia to allow state-funded charter schools.

I was so excited I was jumping up and down in the hotel room, looking out at an open field where snow was falling, and then it dawned on me girl you are in Germany. You are not in Georgia you are not even in Virginia, and I slumped down and cried, I came to realize that God my faith and God told me I had a purpose for being in Germany.

There was much more for me to burn if I was going to start at school and it was my truth. I learned a lot that I could not have gotten from being a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and instructional system specialist working at the district level. I need it to be a school administrator. I returned back to the state, and in 2014, I met Dr. Ivey, a pastor located in Harrisburg, a community of Augusta, who was the first person to tell me he would support me bringing a Charter School to the area so long as it was seated in an area that was going to help advantaged students who were attending failing schools.

With the help of Dr. Ivey and many others, I submitted an application to George’s State Charter School Commission four times, and each time I was denied. The fascinating thing about that journey and the struggle was I came to realize that no matter what I did, they. The charter school commission was never going to approve a Charter School in the community that I sought to serve. A community that resembled the community I lived in when my parents moved to New Jersey.

During the fourth attempt to get approval for Challenge Preparatory Academy to be a Charter School, I was diagnosed with cancer. I did not share my diagnosis with anyone during 2018. The denial allowed me to step away in quiet peace to take care of myself and to get healthy. No one could be bewildered with my decision to not apply for a Charter School a fifth time, and I would not have to share my diagnosis. Sharing my diagnosis with me would have ended my dream when people hear cancer they also hear death.

We’ve been impressed with Challenge Preparatory Academy, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart?
The mission of Challenge Preparatory Academy (CPA) is to daily decrease academic learning gaps among our scholars and move them from Beginning and Developing Learners to Proficient and Distinguished Learners while preparing them to be community leaders, and innovators, and to pursue College and careers in Cyber-security.

Challenge Preparatory Academy is a nonprofit private school located at 1948 Ellis Street in Augusta, Georgia. We are a school of choice established to meet the demand to support parents’ differing beliefs about how their children should be educated. We are accredited by the Georgia Accrediting Commission (GAC).

We are an Academy for learning because our school environment is designed to prepare our students for higher learning institutions. We believe that instilling leadership now will inspire our students to pursue leadership roles in the future. We are a Preparatory school created to provide our students with academic rigor so that they are prepared to excel in college and careers within the cybersecurity and STEM communities.

Our educational philosophy and approach to learning are to engage students in a constructivist approach. This approach will be rooted in hands-on, interactive, performance-based, and engaging learning in every classroom. Our Vision for our students & commitment to it is to daily function as a high-quality Experiencing in Learning School rooted in our belief and evident in our actions that academic growth begins while experiencing learning.

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson that I’ve learned along the way is that I am a practitioner of education because what I do matters in the lives of children. What I do reflects to others how I must see myself, as other professions see themselves, as life changers. A doctor, practice medicine, a lawyer, practice law, pilots practice aviation, but too often I have encountered educators, parents, and students who do not see this profession as life-changing.

Too many see educators as babysitters and wardens and what we do as just a job to pay bills. The lesson that I have learned is that what I am doing, starting this school, is an example of what it means to practice education, that I can be an innovator of best curriculum and instructional practices, and an influencer of what we can do to shift education to authentically meet the education needs of the 21st-century student.

Pricing:

• Tuition $7,500.00 annual
• Curriculum Fee $ 165.00
• Technology Fee $ 170.00
• Registration Fee $75.00
• Uniform fee $150.00

Contact Info:

• Website: www.challengeprepacademy.org
• Instagram: @challenge_strongaugusta
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/challengeprepacademy
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/classroomsinmotion
• Other: @challengestrong21

Image Credits
Challenge Preparatory Academy