01:24
Stacey Cruise Highlight
A piece of your life's work has to be to help other people. In every profession, you can find that-a way that you're doing something to make someone else's life better-because, in the long run, that's what it's all about anyway.
About Stacey
- When she was in high school, she realized she needed to be a teacher, because she'd never felt a connection to any of her own teachers.
- In her high school class of 1,000 students, she was one of about 20 black students.
- When it was time to choose a college, she gravitated towards historically black schools, eventually choosing Spelman College.
- She loved college, and she felt more connected than she did in high school, but she still didn't find a teacher she liked.
- Realized that what was missing from each school was teachers who actually took the time to get to know their students.
- Identified two things that had to change at the schools she works with: the buildings had to be safer, but they had to refrain from feeling like prisons.
- When students came to their new schools and saw how bright and hopeful the buildings were, it lifted their spirits.
- Says although she's not there to be the students' friend, no matter how strict she gets, she lets the students know that she deeply cares about them.