Brooke Beavers & Shy-Quon Ely II
Co-founders & heads of school, Ignite Achievement Academy Indianapolis
What we know about just the human dynamic, the human being and especially the human brain that is stressed or impoverished ... How can we be better at serving families and providing wrap-around support so that we can address the very bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs? If they're not safe, if they're satisfying just basic food and water and safety and love and care and support, if those in that triangle or that pyramid aren't being satisfied, then we can never get to self-actualization, which is what education is truly supposed to be. We want to draw out one's genius so that they can self-actualize and continue to push potential. Because I don't ever think that you reach potential, but you can always push it, push it, push it, push it, and that's what we want to do. It's exciting and humbling to be a part. But there's plenty to work on. This is constant, never-ending improvement. There will always be more to do.
When I walk out of the building, at night usually, and I see the dilapidated buildings and homes or a child that, just through my own visual observation, I know needs more care, maybe didn't even eat. Or I'll ride down the street and I see a liquor here, a liquor store there, and then on the other side, there's no grocery store. We're in the middle of a food desert.
These conditions in America, it just blows my mind that anybody, irrespective of how they look or racial demographics or social demographics. It just doesn't make sense to me, and so that wracks my nerves and my brain and that's what keeps me up at night. I know one person can change the world, but how do we do this? How do we really change these conditions and these environments? Because if we did, if we committed to that and we can get the most out of everybody and we can get the most out of all cultures and all people, how much greater would our collective existence and world be? It just blows my mind because everything is possible, and I just wonder what would be possible if we were all living in harmony and not division.
