Acceleration Academies_Spring2023_Pathways Magazine

SARASOTA ACCELERATION ACADEMIES
CLARK COUNTY ACCELERATION ACADEMIES
Rhyannon Jovan:
Helping Young Learners
Find Their Authentic Voices
She tried an online school, but found that solitude quickly
led to distraction. Then she found out about SAA.
Sarasota Grad Mariana Rojas:
‘I’ve never been the type of person to focus
when there are a lot of people there.’
With proud family members and dedicated educators
cheering them on, the latest class of graduates from Sarasota
Acceleration Academies celebrated their high school
diplomas and the futures they have just made that much
brighter.
Mariana Rojas, 18, is one of the newly minted grads. Without
the personalized support and steady encouragement she
received at SAA, she says, she never would have never made
it to this day. “Without Sarasota Acceleration Academies, I
probably would have just gotten my GED,” says Mariana.
Mariana’s parents came to the U.S. from Mexico in search
of more opportunities for themselves and their children.
Mariana tried traditional high school but found herself falling
behind in crowded classrooms led by overworked teachers.
The fact that English is her second language compounded the
challenge. “It’s not their fault,” she said of her old teachers.
“I’ve never been the type of person to focus when there are a
lot of people there.”
She tried an online school, but found that solitude quickly
led to distraction. Then she found out about SAA, where
graduation candidates can take advantage of flexible
scheduling and as much one-on-one coaching as they need.
“Somebody was always there to help you,” she says, singling
out math coach Khaliah Augustin among others. “They
would never get frustrated. They’re just here to help.”
To Rhyannon Jovan, there’s nothing
more rewarding than helping a young
learner find their voice through writing
— especially if it’s a voice that’s been
squelched through racism.
“I’ve worked with so many students
who were told they couldn’t do it,”
says Rhyannon, lead English language
arts content coach for Acceleration
Academies and a member of the Clark
County team. She has dedicated her
career to reversing that narrative.
If Rhyannon is a warrior, she comes
by it naturally. As a bright young Black
student growing up in the Washington,
D.C. area, she earned a scholarship to
an elite private high school — and then
she took the Metro home to a more
diverse neighborhood than those of
her classmates and teachers. “I had
to bridge myself from one world into
another.”
“I’ve worked
with so many
students who
were told they
couldn’t do it.”
One bridge she tries to build is between
students’ cultural backgrounds and
the way they are encouraged — or
not — to express themselves in writing
and speaking. She notes that colonized
cultures are often separated from their
richly historic ways of speaking, told
they need to learn to speak “proper,” i.e.
White.
“We all have our own linguistic history
and that shouldn’t be erased when they
walk into the classroom,” says Jovan. “To
change the lives you touch in every way
— that’s our superpower.”
Pathways | Spring 2023 15