Jamaican teacher awarded cool million $$
Jamaican-American high school teacher, Keishia Thorpe.
Reuters
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Caribbean Life, NOVEMBER 19-25, 2021 11
Jamaican Keisha Thorpe
has bragging rights.
An immigrant, teacher and
community activist, last week
Thorpe stopped into Paris,
France to collect the rewards
deserving of the 2021 Global
Educator — a dazzling trophy
and a cool million in cash.
How cool is that?
Thorpe beat out 8,000 nominees
and applicants from 121
countries across the globe to
win the coveted prize. Regarded
as the Nobel Prize by educators,
it is an annual honor
established by the Varkey
Foundation, a philanthropic
fund organized in partnership
with the Paris-based United
Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO).
The Caribbean award winner
traveled to the French capital
to accept the award she earned
for revamping her school’s curriculum
to suit the needs of
culturally deprived immigrants
and refugee students.
In accepting the prize, she
set aside braggadocio to humbly
express gratitude and pride:
“I just thank God for this
moment,” she said.
Thorpe teaches English at
the International High School
at Langley Park in Maryland
where her 12th grade students
benefitted from an English curriculum
she tailored to make
culturally relevant to their
needs as students from differing
backgrounds and immigration
status.
The citation for the prize
states that more than 85 percent
of pupils at the school are
Hispanic and 95 percent identify
as low-income.
Reuters reported on the ceremony
that Thorpe said:
“This is to encourage every
little Black boy and girl that
looks like me, and every child
in the world that feels marginalized
and has a story like
mine, and felt they never mattered.”
“We must ensure all students
have the opportunity to
succeed and no laws or policies
should strip them of that,” she
added.
Before migrating to the
United States Thorpe ran faster
than most Jamaicans. Her mettle
and endurance did not go
unnoticed, at an early age she
earned a track and field scholarship
enabling her to advance
studies in the US.
She pursued higher education
at Howard University. Her
ambition was to become an
attorney.
While studying in Washington
DC, she volunteered
to tutor inner-city youths,
and was inspired to become a
teacher after seeing the lack of
opportunity facing disadvantaged
students.
The athletic achiever, prelaw
and English major decided
then to abandon her pursuit of
a legal profession and instead
dedicate to becoming a teacher.
After graduation in 2003,
Thorpe delved into the profession
she was enamored with
prospects of helping students
with college and scholarship
applications. She launched a
foundation to secure aid to
needy students. According to
reports, she helped her students
win a collective $6.7 million
in scholarships during the
2018-2019 school year.
Thorpe subscribes to the
philosophy that dictates ‘to
whom much is given, much is
expected.’
According to her sister Dr.
Treisha Thorpe, during the
health crisis around the pandemic
last year, her identical
twin was instrumental in
teaching the neediest students
and their families.
Catch You On The Inside!
Inside Life
By Vinette K. Pryce
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