2017 Annual Magazine

VOL. IV 2017 Life SchoolMAGAZINE A Legacy of Hope Our founder Dr. Tom Wilson 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Brent Wilson Superintendent Scott Fuller Table of Contents Chief of Staff Planting Seeds of Hope 4 Health Science Program 8 Academic and Athletic Updates 10 Student: Jakeem Patrick 16 Troy Mooney Students, Parents: Nguyen Family 20 Chief Academic Officer Student: Emme Walker 22 Student: Dejanee Terrell 24 Educators: Scott and Rebecca Thrush 26 “Knowledge and understanding Student, Parents: Esbrand Family 28 Educator: Pat Jones 30 can be instilled in these young people, Charles Pulliam Chief Development Officer Reading and Writing Project 32 and it will carry them to the top Graduation 34 of the mountain, but they will fall How You Can Help 36 Financials 38 off a cliff if they do not have character Finding Our Strengths 39 that is able to keep them there.” Barry West Chief Operations Officer |Dr. Tom Wilson Jennifer Wilson* Chief Financial Officer *No relation to Superintendent 2 3 Brent Wilson: What led you to start Life School? Tom Wilson: In the early 1990s, Dallas had one of the country’s leading “Twenty years ago my homicide rates. I hated reading those headlines in the newspapers back then. father, Dr. Tom Wilson, The headlines unfortunately moved even closer to home when two of our founded Life School own youth were struck down by gang violence in 1993. We were ministering to as a way to provide a people in the Oak Cliff neighborhood. Many school-age students were part of tuition-free, quality our community outreach gym nights. Two of education for the them were killed… murdered because they children of southern Dallas. To mark this would not do what local gangs wanted. momentous occasion, These tragedies demanded a response. I recently sat down with The murders of two youth in our church my dad and we talked called for an effective solution to halt the senseless violence. I spent days in about the early days and my office praying, asking God to guide us in our response to a seemingly his decision to start Life insolvable problem. School. What follows is Days later, I decided we needed to start a tuition-free school that provided our conversation.” a quality education for the children of southern Dallas. |Brent Wilson Brent Wilson: Did you think this was going to be difficult? Tom Wilson: I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. On numerous occasions I asked myself, “How in the world can we do this?” Your mother needed some encouragement too. She wasn’t quite so sure it would work. She said, “Tom, you’re just going to mess this up.” After some praying though, she came around to the idea that it was the right thing to do. PLANTING Brent Wilson: What was needed to start a school? SEEDS Tom Wilson: Job number one was raising money. We met with church elders, fellow pastors and church donors, and managed to raise $85,000 over the course of several years. But that wasn’t enough. We needed $200,000-$250,000 to OF HOPE open a school. We were still committed to the cause though, and so we did what was needed. We arranged for a loan of $175,000. We leveraged everything we had – our house, our cars and our savings – and put it on the line as collateral to open Life School. 4 5 Nobody even knew what a charter school was back then. But even when people told us no, we pushed through and with the help of friends, educators “And look at how far it’s and other professionals, the charter was drafted and approved by the TEA in come – look what you the spring of 1998. started. Today Life School is Finally, in the fall of 1998, five years a school district with after the murder of the two young men who nine schools on seven were part of our church, we opened the first campuses, including two Life School. high schools, two middle We had some tough times in the early schools, and five years of opening Life School, but it was so worth it. We did it for the two young elementary schools. It’s men who were killed… I did it for them. pretty amazing to imagine the impact Life School has Brent Wilson: Tell me about what the first year was like. had on the communities Tom Wilson: “ That first year we had 266 students and 15 staff members at the we have served for almost Oak Cliff campus. Our beginning was very modest and that first 20 years! Dad, thank you semester we didn’t know what we were going to do. The education process was for your passion and vision not yet effective and it was difficult to teach all that we needed to. We were still as founder of Life School. ...you planted the seeds of hope in the lives of working things out operationally. Your blueprints to a better so many. Today and for generations to come our students will harvest the rewards of your vision. But slowly things started to gel and my mantra, “What is done on a daily life through education and basis will profoundly shape your future,” really picked up steam. By the start of community are imprinted the next year, word had spread and enrollment grew to over 550 students. on all we do at Life School today. Your work and “ Brent Wilson: Life School is not a church or religious school, but I did draw upon my One thing that blows my mind to this day – mortgaging your house church background to formulate the values and character traits I envisioned for the people who came in order to open Life School. I had just graduated college and was living in Houston our students. Plus, I had a great template – my four sons! alongside you planted the at the time – so you would give me updates over the phone… I don’t think I fully seeds of hope in the lives I took those concepts and transferred them to Life School. It worked so well understood the magnitude of what you were doing in the beginning. of so many. Today and for Tom Wilson: with you and your brothers I knew I should try it with our students. Thankfully, my dream to open a tuition-free school in generations to come our southern Dallas drew one step closer when the Texas students will harvest the Brent Wilson: How did you know when you had “made it”? Legislature authorized the establishment of charter rewards of your vision. It Tom Wilson: Well, we had a few years under our belt at Oak Cliff, and our schools in 1995. is our priority to continue formula for success was clearly working, so we started to think about expanding. With seed money secured from the banks and the Texas doing the life-changing And so in 2003 we opened Life School Red Oak Elementary. We knew we had Education Agency (TEA) opening the door to state funding, now all work that was started in made it when people started spending the night in the Red Oak parking lot the we had to do was convince the TEA we qualified to establish a public 1998. Even greater things night before enrollment began. They were lining up to get in! charter school. Not an easy task as you can imagine! are ahead!” |Brent Wilson 6 7 “Many kids want to be doctors or nurses and “It’s not like your usual classroom setting,” their visions are limited to just those two very says senior Rachael Lacour, who will major in competitive professions,” says Kathryn Barnes, nursing with a specialty in anesthesiology at the D.C., head of the Health Science Program at University of Texas at Arlington. “It gives you a Life High School Waxahachie. “For those whole new perspective about what they do.” students who do want to pursue the nursing and As part of the program, students are also medical professions, the practicum helps them see given the opportunity to earn a pharmacy tech if the work is worth it, if it truly is what they can certification that allows them to work for two see themselves spending a lifetime doing.” years at a pharmacy (like CVS, Walgreens, Dr. Barnes wants her students to know they Walmart, etc.) with the stipulation they pass the aren’t limited to nursing or medical school, but certification exam at the end of two years. they can do anything from getting Respiratory Corey Hooten, also a senior, will be majoring Therapy and Diagnostic Ultrasound training in nursing at Abilene Christian University this and certification which takes only a year or two, fall. She says she will be putting her pharmacy all the way up to 12-plus years for surgery and tech certification to use. specializations. “Our goal is to show students “I will probably work as a hospital pharmacy those options,” she says. tech in nursing school as a way to make extra One way she does this is through research money,” she says. in class (Principles of Health Science) where Dr. Barnes says the school will offer students learn skills like vital signs, basic lab skills, additional options for certifications available introduction to disease care, nursing and medical right out of high school as the program continues assistant skills (Health Science). to grow. The second way is through the practicum, “If students have a heart to serve or a love for where students go on rotations through different health care it is our goal to show them they can hospital departments including Pharmacy, do this,” she says.

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