About 8 months ago I applied for a job as an office manager at KIPP Academy in Nashville.  I had a phone interview with the Principal, and then only employee, of the new school that would be opening in the fall of 2005.  Randy Dowell was a really nice guy and the interview went incredibly well, at least I thought so. 
A couple weeks later I found out that I did not get the job, nor was I qualified to apply for the other jobs available there.  I must say I was really disappointed about it, but I gather myself together and moved on.  I hoped to live in the area near the school and maybe help out there, but things worked out differently.

Today I saw that the Nashville Scene had given the honor of Nashvillians of the Year to the teachers and students at KIPP Academy.  I wish I could have been a part of the effort and excitement that went in to making that possible.  Regardless, I’m extremely excited to see and hear about the students exceling at that school and hopefully really getting a good and solid education.

“I learned my lesson that fighting will not get me nowhere but all locked up or on the streets somewhere,” he continues. “When I started coming to KIPP, Mr. Dowell told me I didn’t need to fight, that it won’t get me nowhere…. I have changed, because I’m getting ready to go to college.” Look for him, sometime in, say, 2014 to be the starting quarterback at Vanderbilt University, where he says he hopes to study.