In Conversation with 2025 S.P.A.R.K. Award Winner Charisma Wright (Part 1)
In Part 1 of this two-part Q&A*, our own Melissa Katz interviews Charisma Wright, one of our 2025 Jeannine King S.P.A.R.K. Award winners. She shares her journey in education and, as we close out National Poetry Month, Charisma shares her favorite poem to connect with families of her students with disabilities, as well.
*Note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity and student names have been changed.
Melissa: I am so happy to introduce to our readers one of this year’s S.P.A.R.K. award winners Charisma Wright! Welcome, Charisma! I’d love to start off with you sharing your journey to your current role.
Charisma: So teaching was never on the top of my to do list. At all. I watched Law and Order, and I was just like, “I am going to be Dr. Wong, and I’m going to be a psychiatrist, and I’m going to work”.
Melissa: Yes! SVU is a classic. My favorite Law & Order.
Charisma: I know, right? But then I realized that career wasn’t for me. And then I looked at teaching and I found the love in special education. I was at another school before coming to Bedford Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School and this is my seventh year here. I’ve learned within these seven years–I’ve learned so much about myself, especially what my passion was in special education. Seeing students flourish and just understanding the shift between my children with 1st grade needs versus 3rd versus 6th versus 7th. I’ve been all over the grades, so just seeing the way the brain works in all different aspects, is a beautiful thing.
Melissa: The team was so impressed when we were reviewing your S.P.A.R.K. award nomination. I know a huge part of your role is working with families. Can you tell us more about that?
Charisma: I love working with families. I had been a 1st Grade and then 3rd Grade teacher here at Bedford Stuyvesant New Beginnings for several years when my bosses came to me and said, “We want you to be our special education compliance manager.” And I’m thinking what does that entail? And when they said it’s really being an advocate for families, I was like, “Oh, okay, let me transition to this role. Let me do that.” And I loved it. I built so many relationships with my families just off of the strength of teaching them the jargon of IEPs as they navigated the process. And now, being the Assistant Principal for Kindergarten and Second Grade, and then K-9 for Special Education, I still get to do what I love with classrooms and be with the population that I am very passionate about, but I get to do work with parents, too. I still have some parents whose students I no longer directly support, that I advocated for, calling me!
Melissa: I think that really speaks to the work you put into building that relationship with them — that even when their student is in a different community, they’re relying on you and trusting you.
Charisma: Thank you. I don’t know if you heard of it. There is poem that I received in my first year in grad school and it’s called Welcome to Holland by Emily Perl Kingsley. Amazing poem! This is actually my favorite poem in the world. In the poem, she talks about planning a trip to Italy and you’re so excited to see the Coliseum and Venice and you’ve learned Italian phrases and you’re just preparing yourself for this amazing Italy trip and experience. And then you find out you’re in Holland and you’re like, “But I signed up for Italy. I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy.” But now you’re in Holland. You can’t turn that plane around. And it’s basically teaching a parent how to be okay with an IEP diagnosis or classification. It’s so powerful.
I give that poem to all of my families, and I think especially for the parents whose child was just diagnosed with autism or an emotional disability, I watch parents break down. They’re asking, “What did I do wrong as a parent?” You know for some parents, after that diagnosis, your world feels like it’s gone. It feels like you cannot manage. So I walk them through the poem because by the end of the poem, she’s talking about loving Holland and that it’s okay it’s not Italy. She found all of the beauty in Holland. And then you understand that you go down this journey of parenthood, and you are expecting one thing, but there can be all the twists and turns, and it’s still beautiful.
I read the poem with my new teachers, too, when they get frustrated, and I’m like welcome to Holland! Because when you’re in teaching school, and you’re doing your student teaching hours, you’re dreaming that everything is all beautiful and everything is all rosy and peachy. And I’m preparing you for Holland. Because really it’s a myth, this idea of a typical student.
Melissa: Yes! The myth of average is something we talk about on the team a lot with Universal Design for Learning. It makes me think of something you mentioned to me off mic earlier — the asset-based thinking you were talking about. Finding the strengths, the beauty if you will, of students and leaning on that. Asking, “What can they do?” Let’s start there and meet them where they’re at, because to focus on what’s not happening is like focusing on Italy instead of Holland. You have to just embrace it.
Charisma: Absolutely. You know with that poem, sometimes when I give it to parents, some of them tear up, and some of them are like, “I didn’t think about it this way.” I’m like, that’s what I’m here for! You know, we’re gonna think about it differently together. And now that I’m in this AP role, I get to be on that journey with families as their child grows up. You know with some families I’m having conversations like, okay, it’s hormone season. Let’s talk about what you’re gonna endure. Because I don’t want you to think that hormones stop because of a diagnosis, so let’s talk about what you’re going to experience in puberty. Let’s talk about what you’re going to experience when your child starts thinking from only concrete to abstract too. What is that going to look like?
So every pivotal step that my parents take with their children, I like to have meetings on what there is to expect. I also read the book Yardsticks with them. So Yardstick tells you, typically your child should be doing such and such at this age. And I make them read it so we can see where their child might be different, and I’m giving them tips for who their child is, not for a general statement of what the book is saying. I’m saying to them that it’s this way for some kids, but definitely not all kids.This book did not take into consideration your neighborhood. The book did not take into consideration the multiple disabilities the child may have. The book took into consideration what is deemed typically “normal,” and we don’t live in a typical normal world. We live in a very different type of world, and we need to own that. Because once you give up what is “normal,” you start to accept things for what they are, and you start to see the beauty in things or children or people. Whatever the case may be, you start to see the beauty in unexpected things, or unexpected life lessons.
Melissa: Well I think that’s a lovely note to end on and our time is up. Thank you for talking with me today Charisma and congratulations again on winning the S.P.A.R.K. award. Talk about beauty! The work you’re doing to support your community is beautiful. Looking forward to speaking further in Part 2.
Charisma: Thank you.
Call to Action
Feeling motivated to try new approaches with the families in your own school community? When working with families of students with disabilities, Charisma’s top three recommendations are:
- Explicitly teaching language that appears on IEPs to support advocacy
- Building common language through shared readings on disability and child development (she uses this poem and this book)
- Scheduling individual check-ins on what to expect as their child develops and how the school and family can partner to support
What else is essential for supporting families of students with disabilities? Let us know in the comments!
About the Authors
Charisma Wright is a dedicated educator with nine years of experience who recently transitioned into the role of Assistant Principal at Bedford Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School. Throughout her career, she has been a tireless advocate for students with disabilities, working both inside and outside the classroom to enhance educational outcomes for all learners. In her current role, she focuses on deepening teachers’ understanding of special education best practices and actively supports the implementation of accessible, evidence-based instructional strategies.
Melissa Katz is the Director of the Collaborative for Inclusive Education and is a dedicated advocate for inclusion and equity focused on historically underserved students in NYC charter schools. As the leader of The Collaborative, she ensures schools receive essential supports, trainings, resources, and technical assistance needed for all students to succeed. Her professional background includes experience as both a French dual language teacher and ESL teacher within the NYC Department of Education, where she implemented culturally relevant pedagogy and research-based language supports to create equitable learning environments. Melissa’s academic credentials include dual Bachelor’s degrees in French, Spanish, and English from Trinity College (Hartford), a Master of Science in TESOL earned as a Teach For America corps member from Fordham University, and a Master of Science in Educational Leadership from Hunter College.
