Keisha

I remember the first time I saw Keisha - she was one of the students who was placed in a learning community, and I was teaching the psychology class they were all taking. It was a group of young African-American students who were at risk their first year in college. They had done poorly in high school, and didn't have really high entrance exams.  I was eager to meet with them the first day, although the room we had been assigned was very small. When I did enter the first day, I was bemused to find all 17 of them sitting in the dark, without much expression on their faces.
I gradually got most of them to wake up, after turning on the light and proceeding into the coursework. As always, I worked hard to engage them and didn't let them hide. There was one small young woman in the back though who just would not smile or participate. I assumed she had a bad attitude, but then chastised myself for giving in too easily. I learned her name was Keisha, and she became a special project of mine.
Keisha did her work, but did not talk in class at all. I began to worry about her actually, until the second week when I assigned them a unique homework assignment - they had to write me a letter introducing themselves to me, sharing whatever they liked. Most were short and friendly, but Keisha's was very long and detailed. She really opened up, and when I responded to their letters, she was very excited. I kept the letter writing activity going throughout the term, and Keisha proved herself to be a very reflective, poetic writer. Somewhere in the fifth week, when I complimented her on her superior work, Keisha smiled; a big beautiful smile, despite the very large gap between her teeth.  That self-conscious gap was what had kept her from smiling and interacting.
Keisha became quite active in the class and was a real leader. She also began to reach out to her other instructors and engaged them. By the end of the term, this painfully shy and introverted young woman went to two state conferences and presented with me on the techniques we had explored in the classroom, needless to say, she stole the show.  Keisha kept on flourishing and got a degree in computer science, making more money her first year than I was then making in my tenth year of my career. Keisha got a great job immediately out of school, and is doing what she loves. Along the way, she became a close friend of the family, and it was a real joy to watch her evolution.
I learned a lot from Keisha. I did not open her up, I was just in the right place in the right time giving her the trust she needed to do so.  No subject matter I taught her changed her life, maybe the strategies were useful, but she alone seized the opportunity to assert herself and chase down her dreams. As for me, I found out that small things sometimes yield big dividends.