#ChiStories Podcast: Ms. Adams and the Power of Early-Education
Nashone Greer-Adams is doing amazing things in Englewood.
On this week’s episode of Chicago Stories, Mayor Emanuel had the privilege to be joined by the founder and executive director of Little Angels Learning Center to talk about the importance of early-education, serving the whole family, her own personal journey, and her plans for the future.
Subscribe and hear it on Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/ChiStories
“I wanted youths to be able to express themselves freely.”
Both Nashone’s personal story and her story as an educator began in the same place: her mother’s home.
Raised in Chicago’s South Side, Nashone developed her passion for education at a young age while working with her mother, who herself was an early-educator.
“We would care for maybe 5-to-6 little ones,” Nashone said. “I would help them, help them with their homework assignments, and that was really great.”
The strongest pull for Nashone however came from her desire to help other young people express themselves freely, which was borne out of her own sense of being misunderstood as a young person.
“I wanted to understand children,” Nashone told Mayor Emanuel, “and that led me to want to research it more, study it in school, and so on.”
But it wasn’t until after graduating from Olive Harvey Community College and National Louis University that Nashone embarked on starting her own school in Chicago’s Englewood community.
“The particular church where we are housed now, they had a school there. That school was in the process of being closed down,” Nashone said. “The pastor told another pastor, we went over to visit, had a conversation with them, and it grew from there.”
And with that, Little Angels Learning Center was born.
“We were able to identify early on that we were servicing the children…but then we had to have the parents to understand the value in that.”
For all of Nashone’s success with her students, she counts her success with parents and servicing to the whole family as among her proudest achievements.
“That’s the critical part,” Nashone said, “and to me that’s the part that I love and is most dearest to my heart.”
As most of the parents of Little Angels Learning Center range from 15-to-25 years old, many of Nashone’s parents are young people themselves.
In addition to that, a large portion experience a crisis on a weekly basis, from homelessness, to a physical altercation with a loved one, to their utilities being shut off.
As a result, Little Angels Learning Center has worked with parents with everything from helping them finish school, obtain their GED, and otherwise assist them every step of the way to ensure they have the resources they need to navigate and overcome potentially debilitating short-term challenges in order to reach long-term goals for themselves and their children.
Unsurprisingly, the work has paid off many times over. For the families, it’s led to creating a large community built around Little Angels Learning Center. “We have a huge following of parents that are actively, civically engaged with us,” Nashone said.
For the children, it’s led to tremendous success on every measure. For example, every Little Angels Learning Center pre-schooler for the last eight years entering selective enrollment schools, an achievement due as much to working with parents as it has been working with the children.
“Our teachers are passionate, that’s what I love.”
Today, Nashone and the entire Little Angels Learning Center family is looking to the future.
After operating out of a shared space in Alpha Temple Church for the last 15 years, they are busy raising money to build their first dedicated facility on land purchased through the Chicago’s Large Lots Program.
In addition to being a great school for students, the new facility will also serve as housing for summer youth employment programs and a year-round “Strong Futures” program servicing youths between the ages of 18-and-24 who have had encounters with law enforcement.
“We just have an amazing, amazing team, times ten,” Nashone said. “Our zip-code does not define us.”
Be sure to tune in listen to the entire episode as Mayor Emanuel asks Nahone how to make working with the government easier, as well as her take on the best way to phase in universal Pre-K in Chicago.
Listen to the full episode as Mayor Emanuel talks to Nashone about:
0:30 — Passion for Early-Education
3:29 — Serving the Whole Family
8:23 — Phasing in Universal Pre-K
12:06 — Inside the Classroom
14:20 — Making Working with the Government Easier
Subscribe to Chicago Stories on Apple Podcasts to catch the latest episode, and tweet us your great Chicago Story ideas at @ChicagosMayor with #ChiStories. Please also rate and review. Thank you for listening and tell your friends!
