Since 2013, InspireNOLA has been on a mission to educate New Orleans youth both inside and out of its charter school classrooms. After a decade in operation, InspireNOLA graduates hit a record-breaking milestone when the 639 students that make up the class of 2024 were awarded $85 million in college scholarships. Chief Executive Officer Jamar McKneely shares the progress of the organization over the last 10 years, the impact made throughout the community and a look into what he hopes for the next 10 years.
Q: How did your background lead you to InspireNOLA?
I actually started off in finance, right after college, and then in 2002 I moved to New Orleans to become an educator. So I’m one who actually has walked through the ranks. I was a teacher at Edna Carr High School, then I became assistant principal at Edna Carr High School, and then from there, I became principal at Alice Hart. Then me and the other co-founder, who was also the leader at Edna Carr High School, John Hiser, had the opportunity to be the forming leaders of InspireNola in 2013. The mission was not only to transform but [also] inspire educational movement; where many students in New Orleans had the opportunity to have exposure and opportunities like no other, and a quality education that can lead them to college and become great citizens in our city.
Q: Why was it important to you to found InspireNOLA?
[Our] nspiration [was] working with the youth. We understand that our youth have a lot of challenges, although they endure some astronomical things; we felt like we wanted to be an organization like no other, [that] not only provided inspiration, but also provided the support to kids, what they were experiencing, not only in their daily life at home, but also in the city of New Orleans. So it was a unique time. We still live in our mission where we’re providing unique opportunities to inspire kids, to motivate students to stay away from some of the illnesses that we find in our city and nationally.
Q: Can you talk more about some of those opportunities and experiences?
It’s really centered around service, as well as exposure. We do a lot of unique things, whether it’s our NOLA Love Rally that motivates students to stay away from gun violence. [That’s when] we bring down national speakers to talk to our students, to motivate them around awareness, to stay positive in school, stay positive in the community and always advocate for justice, whether it’s us doing our large scale give backs to the community. We just did one of the largest back-to-school giveaways, where we had student volunteers supporting us. We do a large turkey drive where we give away turkey and ham during Thanksgiving [and] our students volunteer. I find as an organization, unlike others, we’re constantly putting our students in the forefront, where our students are supporting the community, engaging the community, and giving back to the community. So, we tie the connection of being a civil a servant to the community, being a holistic individual who understands that we can give back at the same time pushing a very strong academic program.
Q: Why is it important to make sure the students give back to the community?
We believe our students can bring about transformational change, in their neighborhoods [and] our city, and we hope one day, they can be the next leaders that carry this initiative forward. So, whether it’s empowering the next youth, bringing guidance to fellow students, guidance to neighborhood leaders, it’s important that we expose them early, because they will be the next leaders, whether [from] civil standpoint [or] a community service standpoint. The goal is to hopefully get them to those leadership positions. And even if they’re not “leading,” it’s just being a good citizen. It’s just being a responsible citizen, and being great parents to their kids, being great neighbors, is what we really try to push.
Q: The class of 2024 just set a scholarship record, that has to feel good seeing the kids succeed?
This past year has been a year like no other. We [made] our 10-year anniversary, [and] it was the highest performing year for our organization. [We] had record numbers and scholarships from our schools. Out of the seven, six made the top 10 list for mastery growth. So, we’re seeing the transformation actually take place. We’re seeing our student leaders and our students understand what it means to be an inspiration. And they’re making [and] impact as citizens, [and] an impact as scholars.
Q: What’s the focus for the 2024/2025 school year?
Number one is accelerated studies. We want our students to be able to graduate high school with associate degrees or as many college credits as possible. We also want them to take advantage of AP classes, dual enrollment honors classes in our schools. And that goes all the way down to our middle schools, as well, where they’re taking Algebra I classes, English I classes, science class, as well as elective classes that can actually count as high school credits. Number two is STEAM. We’re trying to get them as many opportunities to be involved in science, technology, engineering, arts and math where we’re taking them on various field trips. We’re doing a lot of STEM activities with them, where they see the holistic aspect of what STEM can do for them. And number three is leadership. We’re definitely putting them in unique opportunities. We just had our leadership institute where we had 60 student leaders through our system come together to talk about the goals this year; how they’re going to get their student councils involved, how they’re going to get more active in their schools and community. Because we want our students to drive what our organization is doing, that our adults are always leading for the forefront.
Q: If you had a crystal ball, where would you see InspireNOLA being in the next 10 years?
For us as organization, the key topic this year is making sure that year 11, before we even get to year 15, is bigger than year 10. So our theme is bigger, bolder and badder, to make sure that whatever we’re doing we exceeding what we did last year for our students, our families and our communities. That we’re making sure our footprint continues to increase. That we make sure academically, our students continue to improve, that there’s no deficit, that there’s no drop off based on where we are. My hope for the next 10 is New Orleans becomes a stronger community, [and] we have less kids [in] poverty. That the overall experience of our schools-to-home creates an environment where our students truly become the leaders. They truly become student learners to better our future.
